A Mind to Murder by P.D. James

For some reason, I rarely allow myself the luxury of reading books in a series one after the other, back to back. I don’t know why that is. I certainly don’t have anyone dictating my reading besides myself. I don’t even participate in a lot of buddy reads or book groups because I know that as soon as I have to read a book I immediately lose all interest in it. That is to say, my reading time is my own, and for once I acted like it. As I mentioned in my review of Cover Her Face, I started reading the second book in P.D. James’s Adam Dalgliesh series, A Mind to Murder, immediately after reading the first. It felt like the biggest indulgence, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh is at an autumn sherry party given by his publishers in celebration of the third reprint of his first volume of poetry. I failed to mention in my review of Cover Her Face that as well as being an officer of the Criminal Investigation Department of Scotland Yard, he is also a poet. The fact gets a mention in that book when someone involved in the murder investigation upon being introduced to Dalgliesh asked him if he is Adam Dalgliesh the poet. Dalgliesh’s poetry writing does not play a part in that book, nor does it in this one except to place him across a square in London from Steen Psychiatric Clinic, the site of our murder. 

The body of a woman has been discovered in the basement of the private clinic with a chisel through her heart and a carving made by one of the patients in art therapy resting across her chest. The victim, Miss Bolam, administrative officer of the clinic is not a well-liked person, which means just about everyone is a suspect. Still, this murder should be a cinch for someone of Dalgliesh’s calibre to solve. He has not yet had an unsolved case, a fact that I found very surprising when I came across it. Then I reminded myself that this is a work of fiction. It seems equally unbelievable that someone with Dalgliesh’s track record would—apparently, for the first time—doubt his ability to solve a case. I expect we are supposed to believe that a smartypants doctor from the clinic is most likely the murderer. But I found Dalgliesh’s doubts and his concern that the killer would strike again a bit contrived. Unless I missed something—always a possibility—there was no indication at that point that anyone else’s life was in danger. Of course, there is the possibility that we are just supposed to assume that Dalgliesh knows something, or at least suspects something, that we do not.

The next three paragraphs reveal something that happens at the end of Cover Her Face. I don’t reveal anything to do with the murder in that one, just something minor relating to Dalgliesh’s personal life. If you have not yet read Cover Her Face and would prefer to preserve your reading experience I would recommend skipping the next three paragraphs.

SPOILERS AHEAD! Consider yourself warned...

I may have been a bit hasty in saying that Dalgliesh’s career as a poet has nothing to do with the story except to put him conveniently close to the site of a murder. It also puts him in the way of Deborah Riscoe, who readers of Cover Her Face will recognise as the daughter at Martingale, the manor house where the parlour maid was murdered. At the end of that book, we were left with the distinct impression that Dalgliesh and Deborah fancied each other and perhaps something may have come of it had the circumstances been different. Well, here Dalgliesh gets his second chance. Deborah is working at Dalgliesh’s publisher, Hearne and Illingworth, doing shorthand, typing, and “general dogsbody,” as she puts it (16). They just get to talking when Dalgliesh receives a phone call from Scotland Yard. Dalgliesh excuses himself saying he won’t be a moment, but knowing that he won’t be returning to the party (18).

He did not see Deborah Riscoe again, and made no effort to find her. His mind was already on the job ahead and he felt that he had been saved, at best from a snub and, at worst, from folly. It had been a brief, tantalizing, inconclusive and unsettling encounter but, already, it was in the past. (20)

In a way, this brief insight into Dalgliesh’s personal life feels a bit tacked on. These glimpses into his yearning for a romantic partner quite literally bookend the main story line, the murder. But I think the intention here is to show that Dalgliesh only allows himself to “indulge his thoughts” when he isn’t occupied with the job (18). In Cover Her Face, it is only at the end of the book, after the murder has been solved and the murderer is in custody, that we get any indication of his interest in Deborah Riscoe as anything other than a suspect. We see the same pattern here, and I wonder if it continues throughout the series with Deborah and Dalgliesh crossing paths. It does seem a possibility with Deborah working for Dalgliesh’s publisher. I would love to see Dalgliesh progress and grow over the course of the series, and settle down with—if not Deborah—then someone else. Because as it stands, he does not seem to have much in his life besides the job and his writing. His first book of poetry appears to be a success, so there is always the possibility that he could write full-time when he retires from the Yard. But I don’t think that would be enough to keep the demons at bay. Because although he does not appear to dwell on the loss of his wife and son, he does give off the impression that he is just managing to keep is grief in check.

I am a great one for complaining about something and then completely skipping over the positive, which is what I fear I have done in this review. But I assure you, despite what felt to me like a contrived build up in tension by making Dalgliesh doubt his abilities, overall I really enjoyed this book. Set inside a private clinic with the suspects limited to the people inside the building at the time, this one feels a lot like another manor house mystery. Being situated in London, instead of in the countryside, it is different enough from the first book without completely taking us out of the safe confines of the closed circle mystery. I really loved that A Mind to Murder is set in October. The air is crisp. The nights are closing in. And there is something both unsettling and expectant about the month of Halloween. Anything could happen. October is my birth month, so I may be a tad biased. However, autumn just feels like the right time of year for these books to me. I took a glance a the third book in the series, Unnatural Causes, and found that it starts in October as well. Perhaps P.D. James was of the same mind.  

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Error of the Moon by Sara Woods

5 Days of Sara Woods — Day 4

Like The Third Encounter, Error of the Moon, the fourth book in Sara Woods’ 48-book Antony Maitland series, also melds together the espionage thriller and detective fiction genres. 

Dean Street Press Ltd. are republishing the first five books in this series on 2 December 2024! To celebrate, I’m posting a review of one book per day leading up to the big day. I’ve already posted reviews of the first three books, Bloody Instructions, Malice Domestic, and The Third Encounter. If you haven’t read those posts, you may want to read them first and then come back to this one. In the review for Bloody Instructions, I talk about the author and provide a more in-depth overview of the main series characters.

But to get you quickly caught up… Antony Maitland is junior barrister to his uncle, Sir Nicholas Harding, Queen’s Counsel of the Inner Temple, London. As well as working alongside his uncle, Antony, and his dependable wife, Jenny, live in a mostly self-contained apartment on the top two floors of Sir Nicholas’s house at Kempenfeldt Square. However, Sir Nicholas does not make an appearance in this one. We can assume he is out doing the circuit, or away on a case. If you have come to love Sir Nicholas’s dry humour and, at times, outright caustic remarks, do not fear. Sir Nicholas is back in full effect in book five!

Error of the Moon is the first book in this series that is set in Yorkshire, where both the author and Inspector Sykes, the series regular police inspector, hails from. By special request from George Ramsey, an old school acquaintance of Antony’s, Antony goes undercover at Carcroft Works of General Aircraft Limited. Carcroft is engaged in research for an anti-missile that they are calling the Full Moon Project, which has been termed classified by the government. When a leak of information is discovered, just about everyone in the company is a suspect. In a company of nearly six thousand employees spread across a number of departments, Antony does not know where to start. But with one employee dead under suspicious circumstances, and government secrets at risk of being sold to the highest bidder, Antony finds himself unable to decline the request despite being aware that Jenny would prefer him to not accept it.

“You wanted to go, Antony; I couldn't bear you to refuse because of me. At least,” she corrected herself, “you'd never have been happy if you'd turned them down.”

“How well you know me, love! And, of course, you also know why.” His tone was light; but to Jenny, who knew him so well, the undercurrent of bitterness was very evident.

“It’s a job that needs doing,” she said quietly. “And one that you can do.”

Antony meditated this for a moment, and then grinned at her.

“That’s really neat,” he approved. “Almost true and all the uncomfortable bits left out.” Jenny met his eyes steadily, but her face was flushed, and after a moment he held out a hand to her. (16-17)*

I love these moments between Antony and Jenny. Despite her concerns for her husband’s welfare, Jenny is as careful to not hold him back, as she is in avoiding asking about the injuries he sustained in the Second World War. It is their first hand experience with the dangers involved in Antony’s previous work in intelligence that makes their willingness to put it all on the line, again, and again, so very compelling. When the country’s safety is put into question, Antony will stop at nothing to protect it, with his personal safety dropping down in the hierarchy of importance. In this case, Jenny is also put in the line of fire, as she accompanies Antony on his trip to Yorkshire, adding verisimilitude to the story that Antony has been hired as Assistant Secretary. 

Carcroft is located on a lonely moor overlooking the fictional town of Mardingley, the closest city is Harrogate, about a half hour drive away. Sara Woods uses the stark setting to full effect. 

On a clear night the glare of the floodlights forms a pool in the surrounding darkness, but on this November afternoon the fog had come creeping: across the moor, through the high wire fence; with prying, inquisitive fingers that sought out every corner of the sheds and muffled sight and sound so that the plant stood isolated. (1)

The book opens on a foggy night in November on the Yorkshire moors, and when Antony and Jenny drive north to Mardingley it is on “a bleak Sunday in mid-December” (19) with Christmas fast approaching. And while one wouldn’t call this a Christmassy book by any stretch of the imagination, it is the perfect time of year to read this one if you happen to be looking for a book with just a whisper of Christmas about it. There is mention of Christmas presents, a not very cheerful staff party, and a Boxing Day outing that ends in… Well, you will just have to read the book to find out.

Despite the fact that Jenny is on the trip with Antony, there are fewer of the cosy domestic scenes that we come to love in the first three books. They are staying in rooms at Holly Royd, where meals are communal, and while they do have tea in their rooms, there are simply less opportunities to see the couple alone together. A number of employees of Carcroft live in the home too, which means the couple do not get a lot of time off from investigating. However, we do get to see Jenny at her most dependable, and most brave. She really is something.

There is a brief respite from all of the intrigue on Christmas Day, and I simply had to include this next passage as it provides so much insight into the type of person Jenny is, always willing to help with whatever is needed, even when it goes against what she would do herself if left to run things, and we get a glimmer of her sense of humour and good nature too.

Christmas at Holly Royd was uneventful, and if Jenny privately thought Mrs. Ambler’s preoccupation with food a little excessive, she cooperated willingly enough; though with a strong feeling she was taking part in provisioning an army. (77-78)

My one quibble with this one is the number of characters. There are many and I found it difficult to distinguish between them, despite the handy list of 34 employees in the Missile Division that Antony (and the reader) is provided with on page 54. These first five books in the series all have a number of characters, but this is the only book that I had any trouble with keeping everyone straight. Generally, Sara Woods does a good job in assisting her readers with floor plans (Bloody Instructions), a character list (Malice Domestic), or with a character list in the form of an employee list (in this one). I take comfort in Antony’s response when he is handed the employee list. ‘“There are too many people.” Antony waved the list in a distraught way to illustrate his point. “It would take a year to sort them out”’ (54). Well, quite. 

In Antony’s defence, it was thick with fog the night of the accident, so a lot of the alibis are unhelpful. And in my defence, Carcroft is almost exclusively staffed by men and a lot of this novel takes place at the works so it was difficult to distinguish between them, as it’s not like characters stay fixed in their departments. They move around, of course! My advice is to bookmark that employee list Sara Woods so thoughtfully provides so you can flick back to it when needed. Advice that I myself should have adopted! If I were to reread one of these five books in the immediate future, it would definitely be this one, so I could take better note of who is who. And, yes! I would absolutely indulge in a reread of this book, and the others in this series with great pleasure! 

Thank you to Dean Street Press Ltd. for kindly sending me a copy of Error of the Moon for review. As always, all opinions on the book are my own.

Tomorrow is day five and we will be discussing the fifth book in my new favourite series. I'm telling you, you won't want to miss this one! I hope to see you then,

*All page numbers are from the ebook and are not likely to correspond to the paperback edition.

The Third Encounter by Sara Woods

5 Days of Sara Woods — Day 3

Ooo! I know I keep saying this, but this one is my favourite in the series, for sure! Part espionage thriller, part detective fiction, The Third Encounter, is book three in Sara Woods’ 48-book Antony Maitland series. Dean Street Press Ltd. are republishing the first five books in this series on 2 December 2024! To celebrate, I’m posting a review of one book per day leading up to the big day. I’ve already posted reviews of the first two books, Bloody Instructions and Malice Domestic. If you haven’t read those posts, you may want to read them first and then come back to this one. In the review for Bloody Instructions, I talk about the author and provide a more in-depth overview of the main series characters.

Antony Maitland is junior barrister to his uncle, Sir Nicholas Harding, Queen’s Counsel of the Inner Temple, London. As well as working alongside his uncle, Antony, and his dependable wife, Jenny, live in a mostly self-contained apartment on the top two floors of Sir Nicholas’s house at Kempenfeldt Square. 

This one starts with an absolutely gripping prologue, which provides a snapshot from November 1943. In the first chapter we jump to present day, which is sometime in the late 1950s in London. Antony's old friend Dr. Henry Martin has been strangled and Antony and Sir Nicholas are defending, Gerry Maitland, Dr. Martin’s cousin and heir, on suspicion of murder. But Antony suspects someone from his past might have something to do with it. Antony goes to one of his former colleagues from his work during the war to put the feelers out, and finds himself working along with the Secret Intelligence Service. 

It was past nine-thirty when he turned into Kempenfeldt Square. The night was clear and frosty, but at that hour few people were about. Across the square a car door slammed, and a man set out to cross, skirting the dusty patch of garden in the centre. Then at the corner he paused, standing in the deeper shadow cast by the bare branches of the sycamore that grew there. Something about the tall figure standing there renewed Antony's feeling of disquiet. He told himself impatiently that it was foolish; in that light he could not see the stranger clearly, let alone make out whether he was, in fact, being watched. This was what came of letting memory run riot over the past. Now imagination had taken over, and here he was, peopling the square with his own private ghosts. (17)

It is scenes like the one above that make is apparent how frightened Antony is of this person from his past. Antony is not prone to flights of fancy and while he dismisses his concerns as coming from an overactive imagination, the reader is not so easily convinced. It’s no wonder then that Antony finds comfort in the house in Kempenfeldt Square and in coming home to the familiar scene of his uncle and wife by the study fire.

He saw as he went in (as he had seen so often before) Sir Nicholas, stretched out at ease before the blazing fire, raise a hand in languid greeting; and Jenny, curled up with a book on her lap and her back to the door, turn with a quick smile of welcome so that, as she moved, the lamplight tangled strands of gold in her brown hair. Because of the contrast with the place he had just left, the comfortable, familiar scene was for a moment vivid and unexpected, so that he looked at it blankly before he crossed the room and bent to kiss his wife. (10)

This one provides us with insight into Antony Maitland’s past, while still treating us to cosy domestic scenes like the one quoted above. We find out just what Antony was up to during the Second World War, how he sustained the injuries to his right arm and shoulder that still plague him, the effect his experiences had on his mental health, and why in the first two novels it seems like he is still fighting an invisible enemy. We also find out about the personal tragedy Jenny faced during this time. Honestly, if you aren’t attached to these characters by the end of this book, you must be some kind of monster!

“He said, ‘I’m afraid you may have to resign yourself to the fact that your husband is getting mixed up with that gang of thugs in Whitehall again.’” [Jenny's] anxiety faded as she saw his frown give way to laughter.

“And I’d rather know,” she added.

“Of course. But there's nothing . . . a watching brief, John said, and that’s fair enough.” Her gaze was steady and disconcerting, and he looked down again at the fire. “I couldn't refuse,” he said, after a moment, and there was something like desperation in his voice. (51-52)

It’s this desperation, this fear, that keeps Antony going through to the end of the book. He keeps agreeing to things he would rather not do, because he knows that if he ever wants to have peace of mind he must follow this thing through to the end. His wanting to run away, but instead running towards trouble is part of what makes this book so tense and the character of Antony so compelling.

The first two books in this series are set exclusively in London. In this one Antony has a brief visit to France and some of the key scenes from during the war take place in France too. Oh, and this one starts on a cold evening in January? The perfect book to send chills up your spine while you hunker down by a roaring fire with a hot cuppa at hand!

Thank you to Dean Street Press Ltd. for kindly sending me a copy of The Third Encounter for review. As always, all opinions on the book are my own.

Tomorrow we will be talking about book four, Error of the Moon. I hope to see you then!

*All page numbers are from the ebook and are not likely to correspond to the paperback edition.