The Mistletoe Murder
And Other Stories
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4.0 • 73 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Throughout her illustrious career as the Queen of Crime, P. D. James was frequently commissioned by newspapers and magazines to write a special short story for Christmas. Four of the best are collected here.
“Mystery lovers are in for a very merry time. . . . Will entertain and delight.” —USA Today
Each of these stories is as playful as it is ingeniously plotted, the author's sly humor as evident as her hallmark narrative elegance and shrewd understanding of some of the most complex--not to say the most damning--aspects of human nature. In "The Twelve Clues of Christmas," James's iconic Scotland Yard detective Adam Dalgliesh is drawn into a case that is, in his own words, "pure Agatha Christie." In "A Very Commonplace Murder," a respectable clerk's secret taste for pornography is only the first reason he finds for not coming forward as a witness to a terrible crime. "The Boxdale Inheritance" finds Dalgliesh's godfather imploring him to reinvestigate a notorious murder that might ease the godfather's mind about an inheritance--but which will reveal a truth that even the supremely upstanding Dalgliesh will keep to himself. And, in the title story, a bestselling crime novelist describes the crime she herself was involved in fifty years earlier. A treat for P. D. James's legions of fans and anyone who enjoys the pleasures of a masterfuly wrought whodunit.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The four previously uncollected mysteries in this collection show that James (1920 2014) was just as adept at the short form as she was at novel length; they efficiently introduce characters and create atmosphere, while posing fair challenges to readers eager to match wits with her. The title story presents a solution to a very cold case, provided by a mystery author who was in the house where an antiques dealer was bludgeoned to death. The author subtly conceals the signpost to the truth in "A Very Commonplace Murder," the most complex selection, in which an alibi witness dithers over coming forward to clear an innocent man. In "The Twelve Clues of Christmas," Adam Dalgleish, her series lead, comments, "I don't think I'll ever have another case like it. It was pure Agatha Christie." Such a comparison isn't gratuitous the puzzles are sure to please Christie fans, while offering enough psychological depth to satisfy those who want to emotionally invest in the characters, even if they appear for just a few dozen pages.
Customer Reviews
The Mistletoe Murder
P. D. James never disappoints. This series of short stories are as cunning and clever as ever. The writing sparse with the usual intelligence making the stories undertow lethal pull bring to the reader's skin goose bumps.