THE PRIVATE PATIENT

TITLE: THE PRIVATE PATIENT
AUTHOR: P.D. JAMES
Pages: 395
Date: 07/01/2009
Grade: 5+
Details: no. 14 Adam Dalgliesh Mystery
Library

On very rare occasions I read the last page of a book, turn over the cover, look at its back and say: "Thank you". Finishing this book was such an experience.
Mrs. James writes such wonderful prose, while plotting an excellent mystery with characters both likable and realistic that each of her books is a treasure.
In this story, Adam Dalgliesh and his team are called in when Rhoda Gradwyn an investigative journalist is murdered while recovering from an operation to remove an almost lifelong scar from her face.
Both the operation and the murder have taken place in a private clinic in a beautiful manor house in Dorset, and the cast of suspects is small. However, the investigation isn't easy or straightforward. And neither is its conclusion entirely satisfactionary for the investigators.
P.D James is now 88 years old, and although I don't want to be morbid, I couldn't help fear that this might well be the last new Adam Dalgliesh mystery. A thought that may have crossed the author's mind as well, considering how she tied up the main characters private lives.