Unnatural Causes (Adam Dalgliesh) (urspr publ 1967; utgåvan 2002)

Digital Audiobook read by Penelope Dellaporte

In book three of the mystery series, Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh has a holiday planned. He’ll spend ten blissfully uneventful days with his spinster aunt at her seaside cottage on the Suffolk coast. It’s a well-earned break, and his plans include nothing more taxing that long walks, tea by the fire, and some personal reflection. And then a headless, handless body washes ashore.

I came late to the PD James party, but here I am and I’m ready to enjoy myself. Dalgliesh is a marvelous character – a supremely competent detective, astute, observant, and intelligent, but also sensitive to nuance and willing to reflect on numerous possibilities.

James gives us several possible suspects and enough red herrings to keep the reader guessing. There’s also a thrilling scene involving a major storm that puts everyone in danger. I hadn’t identified the culprit before the reveal. A totally satisfying mystery. I’ll continue with this series.

Penelope Dellaporte does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. ( )

I registered this book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14754243
Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh takes a holiday. Or that is his plan. He drives to a country village where his aunt Jane lives. Jane is a favorite and Dalgliesh likes to spend time with her.

But he hardly has time to set down his suitcase when a corpse comes calling. Not literally. Writer Maurice Seton is found drifting in a dinghy, dead but missing his hands. Seton lived near Jane Dalgliesh and was known to her. As were others in the small community.

Seton, a mediocre writer, had few friends and one relative: a nephew on whom he didn't dote. Many of his acquaintances could be said to have motives for his murder. Dalgliesh struggles to stay out of it but he really can't, and it does provide some distraction from the big question: should he propose to Deborah Riscoe. The thoughtful, understanding Deborah had been sharing time with him and he could feel the need to end the dangling nature of the relationship.

With help from the astute Aunt Jane, Dalgliesh seeks out and...does he catch the murderer? Does he ask Deborah to marry him? ( )

I really appreciate PD James writing. She creates a wonderful sense of place and great characters. This was typical and just what I was in the mood for. Penelope Dellaporta is an excellent narrator. ( )

Honestly this whole book felt like a waste of time. The only reason why I am giving it two stars is I liked how James described the location of the murders and we get into Dalgliesh's family history more.

"Unnatural Causes" follows Adam Dalgliesh as he returns to Suffolk to visit his aunt Jane. I maybe smiled at her name and had thoughts of Miss Marple dancing in my head. Adam's visit though is interrupted by a local writing group coming to call and then an Inspector Reckless interrupting to tell them that one of their own, Maurice Seton, was found dead and missing his hands. James takes you through all of the characters in this one, Adam, Sylvia Kedge, Maurice's secretary who is handicapped, Maurice's half brother and only heir, Digby Seton, Oliver Latham who is a critic, Celia Calthrop and her niece, Elizabeth.I am probably forgetting someone. We also have to deal with Adam and his tedious relationship and where is it going next throughout this one.

Honestly the description of Suffolk was great, I liked hearing things via Adam's third person point of view and other than that, this book dragged. I just didn't care about what was going on after a while. When the action moves from Suffolk things became even slower.

I have to say the ending was lackluster. The killer is revealed and I maybe went really? We then get the killer's taped confession that goes on and on for dozens of pages. I felt bored and things can be wrapped up by saying they felt insulted so they just went about murdering everyone they could. ( )

Unnatural Causes by P. D. James

A dingy bearing a corpse is discovered, adrift off the coast of England. The vessel has neither oars nor oarlocks nor a mast. Also absent are the corpse's hands. Hmm. The deceased is identified as Maurice Seton, a middling sort of crime novelist, who lives in a cottage by the sea. It is in a remote area and the residents are few. But almost all congregate to share what they know (or most of it, or very little of it) and to test their alibis. This dress rehearsal—carried out before the inevitable police interviews—takes place at the home of Jane Dalgliesh, the spinster aunt of Adam Dalgliesh, a well-known investigator with New Scotland Yard's Metropolitan Police. And, gosh, Adam just happens to be spending his holiday with his aunt.

Dalgliesh wants to stay out of the investigation, but the local police investigator named, of all things, Reckless keeps drawing him in.

An interesting mix of characters, many of them writers: A drama critic for a London newspaper; a past-her-prime author of romance novels who is sheltering a glum niece; a remote literary giant, author of three excellent novels, who's published nothing in more than a decade. The victim was predeceased by his wife, a suicide, and he has a ne'er-do-well half brother. He leaves behind a crotchety, handicapped assistant who has done typing and clerical work for many people in the neighborhood. Affairs come out and grudges are revealed.

But who would cut off Maurice's hands? Where were the hands?

Not a bad mystery, though I thought the crime, as revealed, was awfully complicated and unlikely to come off without a screw-up.