The Lighthouse

While PD James' The Lighthouse moves satisfyingly in territory that the author has made very much her own -- the classic English crime mystery -- there are several new elements added, proving that Baroness James is not content to rest on her laurels. While Commander Adam Dalgliesh is once again at work, solving a case of murder in a secluded setting, cut off from the rest of the world (James has long been pleased to introduce variations into the beloved crime situations that exercised her predecessors), and while the structure of the novel presents the reader with the usual strongly drawn cast of suspects and victims, there is a new frankness here, with the treatment of sexuality more upfront than would ever have been countenanced in the era of Dorothy Sayers and co. But long-time readers of this most accomplished of British novelists will also be pleased to learn that the things we turn to James for are all satisfyingly in place.

A secluded island off the Cornish coast, renowned for its history of bloody piracy, has become a retreat for under-pressure men and women in the upper echelons of society. But when one of their number is murdered in a grotesque fashion (his body found on the eponymous lighthouse), Adam Dalgliesh is requested to solve the case, but with maximum discretion. However, it is not a good time for Dalgliesh and his team: he himself is going through a fraught period with the woman in his life, Emma Lavenham, while DI Kate Miskin is struggling with similar upheavals in her life. And their Anglo-Indian associate, Francis Benton-Smith, has his own problems in regard to working with Kate. Nevertheless, the team make progress on the island, until a second savage murder threatens to bring chaos.

It's easy to underestimate James' achievement with Dalgliesh and co. So often, long-time series characters betray signs of their authors' growing disinterest, but James has always managed to find new nuances to ensure that we never tire of her cultivated copper. And there's pleasure here in seeing familiar themes orchestrated with such finesse: the difficult, combative figure who alienates a host of people (and thereby set themselves up as a candidate for murder) and, best of all, the cloistered setting -- often a cliché of the genre -- but here, treated with freshness and imagination. --Barry Forshaw

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P.D. James' latest as a first timer - Rated
I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that I liked this book. I struggle to come out of my comfort murder mystery zone of Agatha Christie, Conan Doyle, and 20s and 30s classics - I haven't often gone past the 10th page of a contemporary detective story.

I picked this cheap - second hand - and realised I was starting from the latest; I thought if I liked this I'd probably like the older ones...

I found it a little hard to get into the characters at first - I thought that the opening individual introduction of Dalgliesh and his team was awkward, slow, and did not enlighten the rest of the book. However, as the story evolves you slowly get sympathetic with them and with each character on the island.
On the one hand it is a very stereotyped close-nit community whoddunit, with long stretches that could be set at any time in history, which gives it a classic feel. The subtle reminder of the belly piercing or the helicopter flying in suddenly keeps bringing you back to modern times. On the other hand, it is humanly more complex than the older classics that I usually read and, naturally, much more modern, but without this overwhelmingly shadowing the classic construction of the plot and characterisation.

The secretive island setting is witty and wonderful, and gives it the chance of balancing modern and classic elements; the plot keeps flowing and is intriguing. I wasn't always thrilled - in a sense I felt it didn't go too deep into matters, whether human or murderous - but I did find it hard to put the book down as it kept me guessing.
What worked for me was the balance of forensics, plausible reasoning, modern attitudes and thoughts, centuries-old human feelings, and the classic use of 'grey cells'.

I quite like this paperback edition, it's big and thick, it feels nice in your hands, and it's large print. I just wish they didn't make the author's name way bigger than the title; I understand she is a best-selling author, but I find a little annoying and, coincidentally, it reminds of the victim's ego.

I will definitely read more P.D. James.

I wouldn't put "The Lighthouse" among James' best - Rated
P.D. James' novels combine elements of the classic mystery with in-depth examinations of character and incident found in literary novels. In "The Lighthouse," the lives and concerns of the police officers mean as much to the story as the stories behind the victims and the suspects. To the poetry-writing police inspector Adam Dalgliesh, this mean fretting not only about the case, but about the resolution of his relationship with Emma Lavenham, to whom he proposed by letter in James' previous novel.

So there's no shortage of suspects for Dalgliesh to investigate. The victim, a noted novelist, tried to evict the old woman who lives with her menacing butler, wrote his next novel using the character of a scientist pressured by a failing marriage and animal-rights groups, and did something particularly nasty to the former priest who left the church after being caught drunk one too many times. In introducing each character, James spins passage after well-written passage, dissecting their character, faults and dreams in a way they, being very, very British, would never acknowledge or even hint at publicly.

Yet, I cannot like "The Lighthouse." Respect the writing, yes, admire certain passages when her characters reflect on death and love, even approve of the way she structures the mystery and its solution. But James' intense prose is rarely relieved by a change in pace. The characters whose lives and conflicts are minutely described in the beginning are hastily resolved at the end.

But against that stands the fictional island of Combe, "multicoloured and as sharply defined as a coloured photograph, its silver granite cliffs towering from a white boiling of foam." Its rocky, windswept shore, charming old cottages and the prospect of spending one's days in peace and tranquility is a seductive prospect. While I wouldn't put "The Lighthouse" among James' best, it can be a pleasant place to stay for awhile!! I would recommend reading Tino Georgiou's bestselling novel--The Fates--if you haven't yet!

Capital P - Predictable. - Rated
And really boring. A dozen people cooped up on a Cornish island. Who did it - Agatha style but without her style and panache. Although it seems taboo, a map of the tiny island would have helped. The human element love story of CI Alan Dalgleish was toe curlingly crass. The Dame has surely fallen in love with her own creation. A load of old history comes into play 10 pages from the end. Give it a miss unless you suffer from insomnia.

reviewzbks bookclub review...The Lighthouse by P.D. James - Rated
This was the first book by P.D. James I read. It has colourful characters and a gentle, calm pace, with moments of tension. The last climax is very well crafted. Adam Dalgliesh is an interesting character, though is not your usual detective. We await the next book.

The Late Night Readers Bookclub thought... - Rated
An Adam Dalgliesh mystery set on an island off the north coast of Devon, this whodunit had the fine craftsmanship that we come to expect from James, with atmospheric descriptions of the tiny island and its ill-fated inhabitants. As the mystery unfolds, Adam and his team called in to investigate the untimely death of a famous author, another peril awaits Adam.

Our book club suffered a severe lapse this month, so although we were equally divided 50-50 for and against this novel, in fact, there were only two of us present! We were in agreement that the writing style was good, and that the descriptions of the island and the inhabitants left clear imagery for the reader, but the some of the characters were rather too contrived, to the point of being caricatures in a murder-mystery rather than being believable.