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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN num: 9780743219600
ISBN number: 0743219600
Label: Touchstone
Manufacturer: Touchstone
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 368
Printing Date: 2001-09
Publishing house: Touchstone
Release Date: September 04, 2001
Sale Popularity Level: 102858
Studio: Touchstone
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The young women of Nightingale House are there to learn to nurse and comfort the suffering. But when one of the students plays patient in a demonstration of nursing skills, she is horribly, brutally killed. Another student dies equally mysteriously, and it is up to Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard to unmask a killer who has decided to prescribe murder as the cure for all ills.
The New York Times called Shroud for a Nightingale 'mystery at its best.'
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Rated by buyers -
Adam Dalgliesh, P.D. James' signature detective, is a consummate sleuth, able to use his intelligence to solve the most puzzling of crimes. "Shroud For a Nightingale", only the fourth bok to have featured Dalgliesh, is a bit dated, but it offers a case that Dalgliesh is able to solve but may find impossible to prove. It is a classic closed-scene murder mystery, with the few suspects living together in a place where privacy is closely guarded.
Nightingale House, an old mansion, is in use at John Carpendar Hospital as the dormitory of nurses in training and the Sister nurses in charge of them. On the morning of a General Nursing Council inspection, a student demonstration goes horribly wrong; while demonstrating how to do intragastric feeding on one of their fellow nurses, the students and observers watch as the young nurse screams in agony, poisoned to death. Was it an accident or murder? That answer is surely cleared up when another young nurse is found dead in her bed, a possible suicide, but Dalgliesh is called in, and he knows for certain that these two murders are connected. And that quite possibly, the mystery surrounding Nightingale House goes further back than these two murders.
P.D. James has crafted an ingenious mystery in this fourth novel, although it has some similarities to a later Dalgliesh mystery, "Original Sin". The very first murder is almost too gruesomely described, setting the stage for the twists and turns that follow. "Shroud For a Nightingale" is a fast-paced mystery, but shows signs of being dated in its precise descriptions of nursing uniforms and medical jargon. The fact that Adam Dalgliesh is not quite yet fully formed as a character is evident, and he makes a fitting comment about fictional detectives, yet it is still a trademark enjoyable P.D. James.
Rated by buyers -
Once again PD James proves why she's one of the reigning queens of the classic mystery novel. They're fiercely intelligent, witty, and intricately plotted,not like so many of today's recent entries which mostly involve serial killers with a vendetta. Here, Dangliesh is called to a hospital where two nurses have been murdered,or was it suicide?
Rated by buyers -
I discovered Ms. James with "A Certain Justice" and have set my task to reading her entire oeuvre. In Shroud she very first exhibits her wonderful gift for portraying big egos, a gift that made "A Certain Justice" such a fun read. In this case, the egos are embodied in a surgeon and supervising nurses. Apparently the British nursing profession in the day had a very strict hierarchy--strange to this American reviewer who is used to encountering nurses dressed in pyjamas who are the very soul of casual. Dalgliesh has a healthy ego himself, deservedly so, and is often at war with himself to control it, which makes for excellent interactions that are handled with the skill that make these mysteries so enjoyable.
In short, nurses start ending up dead and Inspector Dalgliesh must come and sort out the mess. The resolution is appropriately cerebral and satisfying. As murder is effectively the work of a person willing to let their own ego control the lives of others, the device of writing big egos into the story makes an excellent background for such a mystery. It takes smarts to commit a crime worthy of Dalgliesh--a fact that is surprisingly lost on many crime authors who run their characters through disappointingly banal events.
This fourth book in the series represents a big leap forward--easily as good as the very first and much better than the second and third. It is representative work from author now confident of her superior abilities and who is willing to exercise the effort to craft an intelligent and intricate mystery.
Rated by buyers -
This novel from the very first writing era of James is a masterpiece itself. It starts quite straightforward with two deaths and continues with unceasing suspense. The writer places Dalgliesh very well among the numerous characters of the story, trying to reveal all of their secrets. Interesting substories are being uncoiled as the reader moves forward. The pages whisk fast. You can never be sure about the killer or the motives underneath. Until the very end, the killer is being skillfully hidden by James. One could say that finishing the book lets the reader think about how far human relationships can go.
Rated by buyers -
Shroud for a Nightingale is a fair book. If you take into account that it was written early in James' career, you might judge it less harshly as it seems she has learned from her mistakes.
What mistakes? James relies too much in giving her suspects prescience in anticipating Chief Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh's subsequent question. All too frequently his interrogations are punctuated with lines like "as if reading Dalgliesh's mind, Nurse Dakers said..." or "Sister Rolfe said ... as if Dalgliesh had spoken his thoughts aloud." Once or twice would be one thing, or at least allowing Dalgliesh to keep mum to prompt the suspect to fill the awkward silence with an unintended comment, but the frequency of the "psychic" segue makes it feel like sloppy writing. Another thing James does several times is have Dalgliesh run an unspecified deduction by his sergeant to which the sergeant graciously allows that "it might've happened that way." Again, it's sloppy and perhaps even out and out cheating.
Despite these rather appalling weaknesses, James' writing at times is as strong as in her more recent masterpieces. Sergeant Masterson's interrogation a la sadistic tango is wonderful, as is Dalgliesh's endeavor to interrogate the housekeeper, Martha Collins. Her pacing is spot on in both cases and in the latter case, her ear for dialect - and ability to transcribe it intelligibly - is amazing. The spooky setting and overall mood of Nightingale house, while perhaps clichéd at times (the wandering ghost, the eerie happenings in the conservatory), is nevertheless effective. James provides perhaps too many suspects, but their varied motives and concomitant blue herrings give the book a rich and robust texture.
As much as I appreciated having Dalgliesh avoid the potentially trite and clichéd path at the end of the book, I'm really not satisfied with the way James wrapped up the mystery. Without spoiling the ending, let me say that while it certainly "could" have happened that way, I would have liked to see Dalgliesh find some way to resolve things differently.
Despite some significant flaws, Shroud for a Nightingale, remains a well plotted and decently constructed mystery. As a piece of fiction that presents its hero as a work in progress, the book is highly enjoyable, though not entirely satisfying.
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