unsatisfying ending. ( )

Re-read; first read a fair while ago. Odd. At times I thought I was reading a masterpiece, at times dreck. Tone uneven at the start, oddly bantering. Settles into the mood. Long build-up, acute psychological observation, clicks into gear; some masterly shifting of perspective. Some of the writing is superb. It's also weirdly masculine in places, so much description of all the breasts. The actual central mystery is fairly easily solved and there's a spurious subplot which only adds obvious red herrings. It feels a little unfamiliar to read a book so obviously informed by a Christian, conservative sensibility. ( )

First US trade edition. Very fine

Adam Dalgliesh, necesita unas vacaciones. Acaba de publicar su último poemario y está cansado de investigar homicidios, así que decide tomarse un respiro fuera de Londres. Sin embargo, el destino elegido está situado en las costas de Norfolk, el área de acción de un asesino en serie que ha matado ya a cuatro mujeres, y aunque a regañadientes, Dalgliesh tratará de desenmarañar el entramado de intrigas y deseos que ha convertido toda la región en un infierno criminal.

A Dalgliesh Cameo in his own Series
Review of the Penguin Canada paperback (1990) [with Notes via the Kindle eBook] of the Faber & Faber hardcover original (1989)

He said: “Am I expected to talk about his poetry?”
“I imagine he’s come to Larksoken to get away from people who want to talk about his poetry. But it wouldn’t hurt you to take a look at it. I’ve got the most recent volume. And it is poetry, not prose rearranged on the page.”
“With modern verse, can one tell the difference?”
“Oh yes,” she said. “If it can be read as prose, then it is prose. It’s an infallible test.” - Alex and Alice Mair discuss the poetry of Adam Dalgliesh.

Adam Dalgliesh* is in Norfolk to settle the affairs of his deceased aunt Jane. He has just published his 3rd book of poetry and turns down his publisher's efforts for a publicity campaign and also takes a vacation from his duties at Scotland Yard CID. He does deliver a book proof to Alice Mair, who writes cookbooks for their mutual publisher and is invited to dinner as a result. He meets a varied cast at the dinner including Alex Mair, who runs the local Larksoken Nuclear Power Station. A last guest arrives with news that the local serial killer 'The Whistler' has struck again. All the dinner guests learn certain details of the crime which are not public knowledge.

The Norfolk CID are running 'The Whistler' investigation and although Dalgliesh is sometimes consulted by local Inspector Rickards, he plays no official role. Circumstances then lead to another murder which can only have been done as a 'Whistler' copycat killing. Complications ensue and while Rickards and his assistant latch onto an apparent false solution, Dalgliesh knows that the true criminal is yet to be discovered.

At various times Rickards reveals his resentment of Dalgliesh and there are entertaining diversions in that regard:

... a large oil showing a man with a rifle on a skinny horse, posed in a bleak landscape of sand and scrubland with, in the background, a range of distant mountains. But the man had no head. Instead he was wearing a huge square helmet of black metal with a slit for the eyes. Rickards found the picture disturbingly intimidating. He had a faint memory that he had seen a copy of it, or of something very like it, before, and that the artist was Australian. He was irritated to find himself thinking that Adam Dalgliesh would have known what it was and who had painted it - Inspector Rickards examines a painting in the office of Dr. Alex Mair at Larksoken Nuclear Power Station.

See painting at https://media.nga.gov.au/iN83_LEtMmlxJaPtQGyYbnn2qZ8=/80x89:4102x3097/800x0//nat...
"Ned Kelly" (1946) painted by Sidney Nolan. From the collection of the National Gallery of Australia

So there are unsatisfactory elements to Devices and Desires, especially since Dalgliesh isn't in the central investigative role. James still provides the extensive character backgrounds and developments which she crafted in her late 500 to 700+ page works. The 'false' solution really comes out of nowhere and is barely hinted at in the early stages (some mysterious figures were sighted in the local Abbey ruins), so it does seem a bit of a cheat. I still enjoyed the book though for the variety of characters, the foreboding atmosphere and the descriptions of the Norfolk coast.

See book cover at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/17/DevicesAndDesires.jpg
Front cover of the original Faber & Faber hardcover edition (1989). Image sourced from Wikipedia.

I read Devices and Desires as part of my continuing 2022 binge re-read of the P.D. James novels, which I am enjoying immensely. I started the re-reads when I recently discovered my 1980's P.D. James paperbacks while clearing a storage locker.
See photograph at https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FSug6xHWYAERmYI?format=jpg&name=medium
Rescued from storage and due for re-reading, my early P.D. James paperbacks, mostly published by in the 1980s.

Trivia and Links
* In Book 1, Adam Dalgliesh was a Detective Chief Inspector, in Books 2 to 4 he is a Detective Superintendent and in Books 5 to 14 he is a Detective Commander.

Devices and Desires was adapted for television in 1991 as part of the long running Dalgliesh TV-series for Anglia Television/ITV (1983-1998) starring actor Roy Marsden as Commander Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard. You can watch the 6 episodes of the 1991 adaptation starting with Episode 1 on YouTube here.

The new Acorn TV-series reboot Dalgliesh (2021-?) starring Bertie Carver as Adam Dalgliesh has not yet adapted Devices and Desires. Season 1 adapted books 4, 5 & 7. There has not been an announcement of the Season 2 and Season 3 adaptations (as of mid-November 2022). ( )