March 12th, 2009
Book Review: The Private Patient by P.D. James
P.D. James is the Queen of Crime writers (in my modest opinion) and her Adam Dalgleish novels have been successfully televised for many years. She writes characters that are believable shades of grey and draws you in to understand the motive behind the latest murder.
Her most recent novel, “The Private Patient” is set in a clinic in Dorset, where leading investigating journalist, Rhoda Gradwyn, goes to have a scar removed. Mr Chandler-Powell, the surgeon, performs an excellent operation but Rhoda does not leave the clinic alive. It turns out that a number of people at the clinic might be the murderer and Adam Dalgleish and his team sensitively probe the clues to reveal the killer.
Just outside the clinic are some standing stones where a woman was burned as a witch in 1654. This past crime seeps its way into the story to add both to the plot and the drama.
The descriptions of the places and the people in this tale are so vivid that you can see the events unfurling before your eyes and you will warm to some characters more than others. The police, who return book after book, reveal a little bit more about themselves each time, which makes this reader look forward to the next book.
P.D. James does her research well into the many different jobs and professions that her characters inhabit. She was given the OBE in 1983 and made a life peer in 1991. Born in 1920 she has an incredible mind that can create such masterly works of fiction. I’ve enjoyed the book and will look forward to the film. I hope you do too!
