P.D. James

I love a well spun mystery but I hate reading novels filled with graphic gore, sex, and violence. That causes a conundrum when it comes to reading modern whodunits, so when I have a yen for mystery I turn to G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy Sayers, or Agatha Christie, all authors from the last century.

Then I met P.D. James. Phyllis Dorothy James White is an British Crime novelist who spent 30 years working in the British Civil Service, including the Police and Criminal Law department. She did not write and publish her first novel until her late 30s, but is now the author of more than 20 books. She was created Baroness James of Holland Park in 1991, and was inducted into the International Crime Writing Hall of Fame in 2008. She is 92 years old.

I was completely ignorant of her work until reading a review last month in the Wall Street Journal of her latest book Death Comes to Pemberley. A continuation of Jane Austen's famous novel Pride and Prejudice with a mysterious death at it's core, the novel is a classic mystery story that draws the reader along with a tight plot, unanswered questions dangled in all the right places, and the loose ends tied in a tidy bow at the end. Ms. James admits that she cannot touch Jane Austen's mastery of phrase and form, but her story is a delightful coda to the Austen cannon of literature and will entertain even those unfamiliar with Jane Austen's work.

If the rest of P.D. James stories are as good as Death Comes to Pemberley, I will soon be a devout fan. Her Adam Dalgliesh series, beginning with Cover Her Face, is next on my reading list. The verdict will soon follow.