Tuesday, December 20, 2022

"The Mistletoe Murder" by P. D. James

This is a collection of four short Christmas mysteries by P. D. James.  I'm afraid I didn't actually love any of them, though I did enjoy three of the four.  Here's a bit of what each is about, and what I thought of them:

"The Mistletoe Murder" -- A crime novelist reminisces about the time she was invited to a traditional English country house Christmas, someone got murdered, and she eventually figured out how and why.  I liked the 1940s setting and atmosphere, but was overall meh about the way this one basically excused murder as being okay if you have "good" reasons.

"A Very Commonplace Murder" -- A peeping tom knows that the wrong person is being tried for murder, but doesn't come forward.  This one was fairly icky and voyeuristic, and I was not a fan.  Also, I figured out whodunit before the reveal, which annoyed me.

"The Boxdale Inheritance" -- Chief Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh investigates a long-ago death at the behest of a family who wants to know if they can accept an inheritance in good conscience.  This one surprised me several times, and I quite enjoyed it.  My favorite of the four.

"The Twelve Clues of Christmas" -- Sergeant Adam Dalgliesh investigates what appears to be a suicide, but which he is convinced is a murder.  It got a little too cute here and there, and I kept feeling super sorry for Dalgliesh because he was missing out on enjoying Christmas with his family to deal with the crime.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 overall, but R for "A Very Commonplace Murder," which has all sorts of stuff about porn and voyeurism and rape.  The rest have little light cussing, four murders, some adult dialog.


This is my fourth book read for the Literary Christmas reading challenge and my 60th for #TheUnreadShelfProject2022.

2 comments:

  1. I've had lots of hope in this one, I put it on my next year's list. I've never read PD James before. Maybe the Christmas mood will help a little in making me liking it? Let's see... in a year! :))

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    Replies
    1. Fanda, I've only read two other books by PD James -- Death Comes to Pemberley and a book about the history of mystery fiction. I would like to try more of her books about Adam Dalgliesh because I liked him a lot in these two stories here.

      I did enjoy this collection, it's just not something I'll want to reread. But it may hit you totally differently!

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