Book Review: The Private Patient, by P.D. James

The Snapshot Review

What I Liked: Commander Adam Dalgliesh and all the much-loved regulars are back; the suspects and victim are well-characterized as usual; the mystery is complex and intelligent.

First Line: On November the 21st, the day of her forty-seventh birthday, and three weeks and two days before she was murdered, Rhoda Gradwyn went to Harley Street to keep a first appointment with her plastic surgeon, and there in a consulting room designed, so it appeared, to inspire confidence and allay apprehension, made the decision which would lead inexorably to her death.

Ms. Bookish’s Very Quick Take: Another Adam Dalgliesh novel from P.D. James is always cause for celebration, and this one definitely does not disappoint.

The Full Review of The Private Patient

Rhoda Gradwyn, a 47-year-old investigative journalist, decides it’s finally time to remove the scar that has been on her face since she was a teenager. To this end, she visits the eminent plastic surgeon, Mr. Chandler-Powell, and books her surgery at The Cheverell Manor, Chandler-Powell’s clinic in Dorset. She is discovered murdered at the Manor on the evening on which her surgery was completed successfully, and Commander Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard is called in to investigate.

As with P.D. James’ other mysteries featuring detective and poet Dalgliesh, The Private Patient begins with a detailed exploration of the characters central to the mystery: the victim, Rhoda Gradwyn, and all the people who will eventually become major suspects. I found myself liking Rhoda Gradwyn in particular; her motivations and back story are moving, and by the time of her murder, I wanted very much for her to have a chance to lead a life unfettered by the memories associated with her facial scar. I knew this wasn’t going to be possible, but I still couldn’t help feeling sad when she was murdered.

Mysteries often begin with the murder itself, or shortly before or after the murder has taken place; part of the appeal of James’ Dalgliesh series is that she allows the reader to become involved in the lives of the victim and the potential suspects, so that by the time the murder actually occurs, the reader feels she knows all the characters, and not just the familiar series characters.

The mystery itself is complex, involving many plot twists that will leave the mystery lover very satisfied. There are the usual handful of suspects, and eventually we discover, along with Dalgliesh, that most of them hold a plausible motive for Gradwyn’s murder.

Even at the point where the reader thinks the solution must be just around the corner, it isn’t really – James piles on yet another layer of intricacy. Altogether, The Private Patient is an absorbing and satisfying mystery.

There is one possible sad note throughout: James suggests throughout that this may well be Dalgliesh’s last case, and story lines in which the series characters have been involved throughout the past several books are more or less resolved by the end of the book. Ms. Bookish’s Rating: Wonderful ?

Where to buy:

U.S. (Amazon.com)

Canada (Chapters)

UK (Amazon.co.uk)

Title: The Private Patient
Author: P.D. James
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Canada
Genre: Mystery
Format and length: Hardcover, 395 pages
Published: 2008