I have an impression that this isn’t my first Adam Dalgliesh novel ever, but it’s definitely my first in a long time. Since I enjoyed The Mistletoe Murder, I wanted to read a full-length mystery starring Dalgliesh. I didn’t expect it to be quite this long (its 594 pages for my edition!) but I ended up finishing this in two days!
Devices and Desires starts with a serial killer – the Whistle – and his latest victim. You’d think that Dalgliesh, who’s taken leave to head to that part of England in order to settle his aunt’s estate, would be entangled in a serial murder case, but as it turns out, the serial killer kills himself in the front part of the book and the murder the book is concerned with is that of Hilary Robarts, the efficient but not very liked Acting Administrative Officer at the local nuclear station and one of the people that Dalgliesh just had dinner with.
In her short introduction to this book, P.D. James talks about how modern mystery is “exploring the response of men and women to the ultimate crime” which I guess explains the length? The murder of Hilary is basically a string that is pulled and most of the book is about how various people respond to the murder and the investigation. There are many characters who I initially thought were side characters, but their stories are explored in quite some detail. Everything comes together by the end, but if you’re expecting a story that focuses only on the investigation, you may find this to be on the meandering side. I personally enjoyed it and I found the community to be fascinating, but I was also reading this over the Chinese New Year holidays so I had the time to be absorbed into the story.
Since this is part of the Adam Dalgliesh series, I expected this to star Dalgliesh. But while he is one of the main characters in the book, he isn’t the lead investigator or even taken an active part in the investigation. On one hand, it’s nice to see that he has faith in the local police force, on the other hand, I did wonder if all Dalgliesh books are like this – ones where he is around the mystery, but not actually solving it.
The only part of the book that threw me was a sudden twist at the end that came out of nowhere. I don’t want to spoil it, but it basically is very conspiracy-theorish and I didn’t pick up on any hints about it before it was abruptly mentioned. Personally, I thought the story would have been stronger if it stayed focused on the complicated relationships of people in the community instead of suddenly pulling two characters together and imbuing them with a motive that was not mentioned before.
Overall, this was better than I expected. I was afraid that the book would be dull because of its length, but I genuinely enjoyed the story all the way until that unexpected twist at the end. I guess I’d be somewhat interested picking up another Dalgleish mystery, but I’m definitely not in a rush to do so.
There‘s a bit of a „personal development“ arch to Dalgliesh‘s back story, and James‘s writing also evolved over time — it‘s not strictly necessary to read these novels in publication order, but at some point it might be a good idea to go back to the first novel („Cover Her Face“) and some of the earlier sequels (say „Unnatural Causes“ — just spare yourself „A Mind to Murder“‘ which is really subpar) to see where it all began. (For the same reason, although the final installments — beginning with, and especially, „Death in Holy Orders“ — are among my personal favorites, I‘d counsel against getting to them too early; you might just spoil the rest of the series for yourself.)
„Devices and Desires“ was published over 25 years after the very first book and has a very 1980s feel, e.g. in reflecting how after Chernobyl, many people in Europe started to be really worried about nuclear energy. Both James and Dalgliesh had come a long way at that point.
And, btw, the events at the end of the book may read as tinged with conspiracy theory now, all these years later, but James actually was drawing on real life there — that shows just how much of a hot button issue nuclear energy was back then. And it never really went away: After Fukushima, the German government, for example, literally at the drop of a hat made the decision to immediately give up Germany‘s reliance on nuclear energy because it found that Chernobyl and Fukushima had shown that the consequences of an accident (however statistically unlikely) are simply too grave in the balance of things.
As for the Dalgliesh series as a whole, Dalgliesh is always the person who ultimately solves the crime, but he is never the only POV character, and there are frequently — though not in every novel — other policemen / -women besides him; either his London team when it‘s a case set there or local police, when it‘s a case outside of London: James worked for the police herself before becoming a novelist, and she largely stays true to reality in making those „abroad“ cases officially local investigations, with Dalgliesh only unofficially lending a hand. The reason why he‘s being given a more official „in“ behind the scenes in „D&D“ is due to the rather exalted position he‘s reached by this point. (In some books, James also comes up with a plot-based „excuse“ for Dalgliesh to be able to use his London team outside of the capital, though.) At least one of the other policemen / -women are usually among the POV characters, as are typically several members of the (always close-knit) community where the murder takes place; and though their stories may start at distinct and apparently unrelated points, they are woven tighter and tighter together as the story progresses.
Thank you for all the background information! I never would have realised that the ending was in lines with the fears of that time if you didn’t point it out.
I will go back and read some of the first books in the series at some point in time, so thank you for the recommendations!
Okay but “the murder is a string that is pulled” is a FANTASTIC descriptor and I will be stealing it for future use!
Thank you~ I’m super honoured!