The Mistletoe Murder by P. D. James

Classic mystery lovers are in for a treat with the four crisply refined stories (two set at Christmas) collected in this volume—two featuring James's standout character Adam Dalgliesh.

The Mistletoe Murder stars James herself in a personal murder from 1940, when at eighteen she spent a country Christmas with her grandmother, cousin Paul, and a distasteful second cousin - who is found on Christmas Eve in the library, locked from the inside, killed by a single blunt strike - an intriguing Christie-type death which led her to pursue crime fiction.

A Very Commonplace Murder follows a man who hides at work after closing to spy on the illicit affair of a couple in a next-door apartment. One night, the woman is killed before her lover arrives, and our voyeur luxuriates in his power to exonerate the lover after he is wrongly arrested. He stalls throughout the trial, frightened as he was not supposed to be at work after hours in the first place. So surprising, I had to read it twice.

The Boxdale Inheritance features Chief Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh investigating a bequest—his late aunt left someone a modest fortune, but they believe she poisoned her wealthy husband to gain it years ago, although she was acquitted. A music-hall entertainer, she lived a lavish life, and no one really thought her innocent.

The Twelve Clues of Christmas has Dalgleish meeting a man on a snowy country night whose father has just committed suicide. At Harkerville Hall, the family were shocked to find the old man deceased in his bed, wearing a Christmas cracker hat, with a handful of pudding, and a suicide note left at his side—the room locked from the inside, naturally.

P.D. James shows her prowess as a master crime writer in these stories. Refined like a gem, the writing is spare and precise, and although the clues are left in plain sight, I was consistently entertained. Reading a great collection like this is in another league from some of the trashy pulp I enjoy. With a classic style, James is not afraid to face nasty and brutal murder, balanced with surprising humor and clever wit.

2016 / Hardcover / 176 pages