Customer Reviews
Good plot, shame about the characters - By: Mortimer, 01 Dec 2008 
I always read each of P D James's books as it is published & quickly come to the same conclusion each time: although her books are well-plotted, she has a rare talent populating them with characters that it is very difficult to relate to, whom we never really get inside the skin of, & who are universally dislikeable.
Dalgliesh, Miskin & Benton are far too cold & clinical - they either spend time focussed 100% on the case or else they ruminate on their personal livesin isolation. We never see them let their hair down, enjoy themselves or exchange the odd irreverent or humourous comment that is the difference between a robot & a human being.
Maybe the only poignant moment is when the potential suspect whose car was seen near the standing stones is recounting events that happened many years ago, concerning a modern-day character & her sister. I'm being a bit vague here to avoid spoiling the plot, but anyone who's read the book will know what I mean.
At least the last few Dalgliesh books have had the added dimension of the relationship between Dalgliesh & Emma Lavenham, but as with so much of James's writing, it comes across as relationship-by-numbers.
And P D James leaves one crucial question unanswered: why does the victim say that she "no longer has need for" the scar that she has removed at the clinic? If James had no intention of answering the question, why did she make her character utter this irrelevant throwaway linein the first place.
Give me Frost, Morse, Wexford, Banks or Diamond any day: they are interesting characters who I could happily spend an evening chatting to over a glass of wine or a pint of beer. I fear that an hourin Dalgliesh's company would pass very slowly & be very tedious.
The Consequences of Love and Its Lack in a Novel Where Crime Outpaces the Investigation - By: Donald Mitchell, 26 Nov 2008 
Adam Dalgliesh fans will feel wonderfully rewarded by a deep & long look at his workin diligently investigating this case while attempting to balance his life to leave room for his love of Emma Lavenham. You'll end the book wondering about how that balance might changein future books. These thoughtsin many ways make for a better mystery than solving the murder.
The Private Patient is more about love, its effects, & the harm it costs to not receive & give it . . . than about crime, detection, or justice. As with The Lighthouse, Baroness James has created deeply etched new characters while turning her on-going characters into ever-more real seeming personalities.
While many novelists are only too quick to paint a victim as harmless or harmful & bump them off, Baroness James gives us a complex portrait of a woman, investigative journalist Rhoda Gradwyn, whose youth scarred both her face & her psyche. As a result, she uses her slashed face as a mask to hide behind . . . & to keep people away on her own terms. She becomes good at ferreting out the secrets of others & displaying those hidden scars for a large pay day.
With the death of her abusive father & her mother's plan to remarry, Gradwyn realizes she doesn't need the scar any more & seeks one of the most expensive & highly regarded plastic surgeons, George Chandler-Powell, to repair her face. But she decides that there might be stories involved, & her meddling brings forth counter forces that lead to her death.
Strangledin her patient suite, steps from the nurse's bedroom, it begins to appear that an insider is involved. But no one remembers meeting Gradwyn before. What's the motive?
AD is dispatched to work on the case shortly after a call comes from number ten. Why is this case so important?
The murderer wore gloves so forensic clues aren't going to solve this case. Carefully examining opportunity & motive should narrow down the list of suspects. But more events occur faster than AD can untangle the clues he uncovers. As a result, the book is more of a crime story accompanied by a police procedural where the detective trails the killer too slowly rather than a classic mysteryin which the brilliant detective solves everything by pulling a rabbit out of the hat.
The story is a gripping one involving lots of memorable characters, sympathetic & unsympathetic motives, & damaged personalities ill equipped to deal with human stress & conflict. To me, the best crime & mystery books are as well developed & interesting as a well-written novel . . . independent of the mystery. By that standard, this is an excellent book.
I found it annoying to have the police investigation be so ineffectual. It made the book seem a bit pointlessin a way. I graded the book down one star to express by disappointmentin this regard.
You, however, may not mind . . .in which case this will be a clear winner for you.
Lost in the Dorset countryside... - By: Ann Richards, 25 Nov 2008 
I was really looking forward to reading the latest offering from P.D.James & settled down to enjoy her latest mystery. The plot surrounds the death of journalist, Rhoda Gradwyn, who is booked into Mr Chandler-Powell's private clinic to remove a disfiguring scar. Commander Adam Dagleish & his team arrive at the clinic to investigate the murder. All the ingredients are there for an enjoyablable read - the familiar characters, atmospheric setting, characters who have secrets to hide & a murderer to be exposed.
Unfortunately, I was disappointed as I found the story very slow moving. it didn't help that I worked out the name of the murderer about half way through the book. I think the problem was that the character of Adam Dagleish has become very robotic. Suspects & his team make comments & he listens but he seems so passive that I felt his presence was very weak. In the novel 'To The Lighthouse' he was portrayed as a human being, especially when he became ill butin this novel he seemed to be fading out of the action leaving a lot of questioning to his team.
He does have a girlfriend but evenin the scenes with her, he reactsin a wooden manner. When she arrived with a tale of woe, he speaks to herin a cold manner as though they were strangers.
In fact many of the characters are discreet, quiet individuals & I must confess I did keep getting the female occupants at the Manor confused with one another. Even the murder victim is a very private person.
The story did leave me with lots of questions & P.D. James uses the end of the novel to try & tie up lots of loose ends which led to a boring end to the story. In the end I did not care who had committed the murder & I only partly understood the fire incdent at the standing stones.
Having said all that, I have enjoyed all the previous P.D. James's books & there is a lotin this story for people to enjoy so I've given it three stars. I hope you will follow the plot a little better than I did.
Loss of Momentum - By: Eileen Pollock, 25 Nov 2008 I wish I could give 5 stars to this, probably the last PD James mystery featuring the stalwart yet sensitive Commander Adam Dalgleish. Most of the book was 5 star material, with the winning PD James formula of isolated setting, cast of improbably named suspects, a gruesome murder or two, & meandering setting description with words like "minatory", "gule" & "subvention" cropping up early & often to establish once again the author's literary bona fides. (Emma wears not a jacket, but a jerkin, as we are reminded three timesin three pages.) The final 80 pages were however a disappointment, a rushed flurry of events, interviews with newly found characters appendedin too-neat resolution. The ending seemed hardly connected to the build-up that preceded it. If a mystery lacks a satisfying conclusion, all the previous story-telling seems futile. Sorry to say, I have seen a loss of momentumin PD James's last several mysteries. She takes pains to keep up with the times, but her unnecessary subplot about lesbians is so painstakingly tolerant, so jarring, so entirely lackingin narrative reality. The effort to be open-minded is always just that - an effort, & the display of faux acceptance self-consciously calls attention to itself because it rings false & extraneous to the story. Poor Dalgleish, as I remember from earlier novels, was always more interesting as a solitary poet/police officer. Since he acquired a continuing romantic interest, the incongruously young Emma Lavenham, he has become too comfortably uxorious. His depth has dissipated. The detective sidekicks, Miskin & Benton, while again politically correct, are never as interesting as was Dalgleish at his philosophical best. Dare I add that the dialogue is simply not believable? Onlyin a PD James novel do characters speakin such perfectly shaped paragraphs.
Not her best - By: Zebedee, 24 Nov 2008 Beautifully written, but as far as the story goes I couldn't have cared who did it as the plot was so unreal &in one glaring obvious way the culprit gave themselves away. Too many unanswered questions - why did she want the scar removed, why did she refuse to see anyone when there was the suggestion of a prearranged meeting?
