Devices and Desires

You know that game with the nutshells--there are three half shells and under one is hidden the nut.  The shells are moved quickly about and you have to guess which one has the nut?  P.D. James's book Devices and Desires reminded me a lot of that game.  She begins her mystery slowly.  If the book hadn't started with a serial killer choosing his victim, you wouldn't necessarily know you were even reading a mystery.  She sets the scene, she introduces a lengthy cast of what seems to be disparate characters, and with an amazing sleight of hand she brings it all together in a way that you didn't even imagine when you started the book.  Nothing was really as it seemed from the start--I love mystery writers who manage this. 

This is my first Adam Dalgliesh mystery.  I've jumped in late in the game and can't quite decide now whether to go back and start from the beginning (how I usually approach a new mystery series) or to just read what I find appealing (there are 13 Dalgliesh mysteries).  I find Adam Dalgliesh immensely appealing.  I don't really know a lot about him yet--just what I've gleaned from the story.  He is fairly high up (Commander) in New Scotland Yard. He is also a poet.  It seems he was married and his wife was expecting a baby, but he lost them both, though I don't know the circumstances.  He seems to be a particularly private person--not really what you imagine the typical detective to be.  He's intelligent and has a firm moral base though nothing is taken to extremes. 

I don't want to give away much of the plot.  I will say that in Devices and Desires Dalgliesh travels to Norfolk to take possession of an old mill that was willed to him by his aunt.  This visit was meant as a sort of vacation, but Dalgliesh gets mixed up in an ongoing murder investigation, which is lead by DI Rickards, an officer Dalgliesh had worked with in earlier years.  What I find so impressive is James's ability to write a story within a story, within a story, within a story.  Although this appears to be a straightforward police procedural, it isn't really.  To be honest when the guilty party was unveiled it was almost anticlimactic, but not at all disappointing.  It wasn't an action filled chase sort of story, but more a 'thinking person's' sort of mystery (not that other mysteries aren't, of course, but I'm not sure how else to categorize it).  You get inside the heads and maybe even inside the hearts of the characters.  You see things no one else sees and can see how far off or how dead on Dalgliesh or Rickards got in solving the crime.  The reader is privy to all the little actions that seem so inconsequential yet would prove to be deadly to the characters in the novel.

Yes, I will definitely be reading more of P.D. James's mysteries.  Although I hate to make this too lengthy of a post, as I am very much in a mystery sort of mood at the moment, I thought I'd share my favorite mystery authors.  It is Thursday, right, so in no particular order thirteen mystery authors I like to read:

1. Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs--You are probably already familiar with Maisie, but these mysteries are set in post-WWI England.  Maisie is a combination sleuth, psychologist.
2. Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley mysteries also featuring Barbara Havers--the pair are rather unlikely.  Lynley is a posh member of the aristocracy and Barbara is working class.  I'm curious to see where this series is going as one of the main characters was killed off in her last book.  There is also a wonderful BBC series, which unfortunately has been canceled (boo BBC).
3. Donna Leon writes a wonderfully atmospheric series of mysteries featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti (whose wife also happens to be a Henry James scholar).
4. P.D. James is my newest addition.  I'll be reading more about Adam Dalgliesh.
5. Tasha Alexander writes a series featuring a young Victorian widow, lady Emily Ashton, who not only reads Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret but also The Iliad in Greek!  This is a fairly new series, which I think shows a lot of potential.  Happily the next installment, A Fatal Waltz is due out in May 2008 (it is set in Vienna--yay--and is already on my list!).
6. Elizabeth Peters writes a wonderful series set in the late 1800s primarily in Egypt.  If you could possibly meet a fictional character, Amelia Peabody is at the top of my list.  She's smart and spunky and married to eminent archaeologist Radcliffe Emerson who is not only rather short tempered but sexy in an intelligent sort of way.
7. Boris Akunin has created a very quirky sleuth by the name of Erast Fandorin.  These mysteries are set in Imperial Russia. 
8. Deanna Raybourn is another new mystery writer that I discovered earlier this year.  Lady Julia Grey is another Victorian widow--I seem to be very fond of them (but then widows have so much more room to maneuver in Victorian society than a single woman would), what can I say.  Silent in the Grave was a little bit fluffy, but incredibly fun and I am already looking forward to Silent in the Sanctuary, which is due out January 1.
9. Carola Dunn writes wonderful cozy mysteries featuring Daisy Dalrymple.  Although Daisy is from the upper classes she is penniless so has turned to writing articles for fashionable magazines to make her living, and inevitably gets mixed up in murder along the way.  She is helped by handsome (though working class) detective Alec Fletcher.  These are set in 1920s England.
10. Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher is something else.  She started out poor but has come into money and she knows how to live it up.  She lives lavishly and finds time to solve murder mysteries.  If I didn't already like her I might be annoyed by her, but I have to say I have a soft spot for this character.
11. Anything by Ruth Rendell.  She does write an Inspector Wexford series, but to be honest I really enjoy her stand alone books as well as her books written under her pen name, Barbara Vine. 
12. Amanda Matetsky writes a fun series of cosy mysteries set in 1950s New York City.  Paige Turner (yes, that's her name!) works for a crime magazine and manages to get involved in murders on the side.  Sort of fluffy, but very enjoyable.
13. Kate Ross wrote wonderful mysteries set in Regency England.  Sadly she died in 1998 having written only four novels.  I believe they are now out of print, but I highly recommend them if you can find copies.  They are smart and well written featuring 'elegant dandy' Julian Kestrel.

Sorry for the lengthy post (I should have split them into two, but I couldn't help myself).  I've not mentioned all the mysteries I follow, but this is a selection of my favorites.  If you are a mystery fan and follow a particular series I've not mentioned here, please feel free to share!