P. D. James - Cover Her Face

Seems like I have been getting into a lot of crime novels lately, and there is no one more expert than P. D. James. I have to admit that this is the first book of hers I have read and up until I opened the book I had always assumed P. D. James was a man. James is the author of twenty books, most of which have been filmed or broadcast on television. She spent thirty years in various departments of the British Civil Service, including the Police and Criminal Law Department of Great Britain's Home Office. She was also a magistrate and a governor of the BBC, so she knows her way around the crime world.

Her novel, Cover Her Face, was her first and the first of fourteen to include the investigator and poet Adam Dalgliesh of New Scotland Yard; it was published in 1962. She published the latest Dalgliesh novel, The Private Patient, in 2008 at the age of 88. Along with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie she has been inducted into the International Crime Writing Hall of Fame; she has won many other awards (too many to list here).

The story opens with a dinner party hosted by Mrs. Eleanor Maxie at Martingale. Mrs. Maxie’s son and daughter, Stephen Maxie and Deborah Riscoe, are both at the party. Also present are Dr. Charles Epps, the vicar Bernard Hicks, Miss Alice Liddell, who is the Warden at St. Mary’s Refuge for Girls, and Catherine Bowers, a guest at the estate who happens to be in love with Stephen Maxie. Serving at the party is Sally Jupp, an unwed mother with an infant son hired by Mrs. Maxie at the recommendation of Miss Liddell. Stephen Maxie champions Sally during dinner, and afterwards Deborah Riscoe cryptically predicts that the young servant will cause trouble. During dinner it is also mentioned that the Maxie’s old domestic servant Martha Bultitaft is not very pleased with Sally Jupp. A week later Sally is found dead and of course, everyone in the house is a legitimate suspect. From here Detective Chief Inspector Adam Dalgliesh, deftly lays out the case as we interview each of the suspects and the case builds to a dramatic conclusion.

Clearly James is a master at her work and it is the details and the characters that make this book a page turner. As with all good crime novels, I had developed and dismissed several theories as I read, and was desperate to see how they played out. Beyond being a great crime story, Cover Her Face, is also an interesting trip back in time, when old landed families still held court and servants and women's roles were modernizing in the early 1960's. This is a classic book, that makes me want to explore more of James' novels.