Customer Reviews
Pleasant - By: Katja Beck, 02 Oct 2008 
A very pleasant mystery book to read. The story itself is not out of the ordinary, but keeps you guessing until the end & I had fun turning the pages. I am reading the author's booksin chronological order & can already see how her writing style & the complexity of the stories improve with each novel. This is a book for anyone who enjoys an English mystery.
Murder of the Health Service - By: Ed Foy, 01 Aug 2008 
The Adam Dagliesh novels could be divided into two periods- an earlier one & more recent one. The earlier novels are shorter, have a wonderful period quality & are, one the whole, darker & colder. The more recent ones are a lot more interestedin Adam Daglieshs love life & show the detectivein a far more humane & happy light. One could wonder if this changein the great detective reflects the quiet consolations of later life & family for the author- certainly the newer novels are all dedicated to her loved ones.
With thatin mind- its very easy to put this novel into the darker & colder earlier period. The novel opens on a dark wet midwinter's morning when a nursing school inspector prepares to leave the dubious comforts of her little flat to visit a training schoolin the country. We are quickly introduced to an antiquated style of hospital with the matron, sisters & primadonna consultants that are (alas?)no more. Certainly, there is no mention of managers, targets or mrsa; & one gets the impression that the floors of the hospital are clean enough to eat your dinner off. The nurse training appears remarkably practical & devoid of the over emphasis on protocol & science that has ruined the NHS. The nurse training inspector watches the students insert a nasogastric tube into one of their colleagues as part of a demonstration. Unfortunately someone substituted the milk that was meant to be given to the volunteer with detergent. The young student diesin some considerable pain. The investigation that follows carefully dissects the apparent order of the hospital & instead portrays a sad cold lonely world with deeply damaged healers that livein an uncomfortable proximity together- the ultimate institution.
Dagliesh is at his most unsympatheticin this novel. Its is even difficult to imagine how he could ever be a poet- such is the coldness of his characterisation. He certainly shows little humanity & appears to be as difficult to his subordinates as to those under his investigation. Yet if he is cold his assistant is sociopathic. Despite this the novel flows with the author's usual ease. The ending is rather cold & brutal & there is little redemption.
Alongside the murder, this novel evokes a changing timein the medical system & the authors talents lie as muchin the evocation of social history asin crimewriting. James seems to rather relish the future direction of the health service as the novel ends but for those of us who are stuck with the current one can only think of those seemingly less complicated days with some envy.
Shroud for A Nightingale - By: Rich, 27 Oct 2005 
P. D. James strikes again, with another crime novel which sucks all the fun & enjoyment out of the genre.
Despite the fact that the book takes place over a matter of 2 or 3 days, the pace is cripplingly slow. Her characters have too many contradictions & they struggle make an impression on the reader's mind, leaving them dull & unsympathetic.
The author leaves me with the impression that she does not actually like whodunnits & seems to have little interestin telling the reader who did.
Shroud for a Nightingale - By: , 06 Dec 2002 An excellant & compelling read. The author seems to be able to write an incredibly complex novel - & keep the reader hanging on until the end. Workingin a hospital myself, it is obvious that the story was very well researched & brings back the old memories of Schools of Nursing! As the plot thickens, I think that even the most seasoned of crime readers would not be able to solve this one alone!
A good thriller with an unexpected twist at the end. - By: , 09 Jun 2001 
Another Adam Dalgliesh mystery. Two bodies are discovered over a week at a nurse training school. Staff are all reluctant to become involved with the police, who appear to have found no motive. Then it is discovered that one of the murdered student nurses was involvedin blackmail.
I enjoyed this book more than most by the author, & would recommend it as a first book, if you've not read P.D.James before.
