The Black Tower

This book begins in a gloomy mood and in a setting that seems hardly designed to hold a reader's attention: a nursing home. But the writing is so good that I stuck with it, and it all comes to a thrilling finale. Then I did something I rarely do: reread the book. This time I was completely bowled over by the quality of the writing. This is one of the most perfectly crafted books I have ever read. As such, I would rate it with such works as The Great Gatsby, Jude the Obscure, and Appointment in Samarra. What a surprise from a mystery novel.

The bodies of the murder victims keep piling up in this whodunit set in a nursing home on the coast of Dorset. The isolation lends to the aura of incipient terror that hovers over the scene, and more layers to the bottomless depths of Commander Adam Dalgliesh's character are revealed.One of James's best.

P.D. James is reknowned for her ability to combine the psychological novel with the classic murder mystery--but now and then her emphasis on psychology so overshadows her plot that it becomes hard to describe the work as a murder mystery per se. Such is the case with THE BLACK TOWER, a profoundly bleak novel set in an isolated home for "the young disabled," a euphemistic term for victims of slowly progressing but ultimately fatal muscular disease.The story begins when Inspector Dalgliesh, himself recovering from both a serious illness and a crisis of confidence, is invited to Toynton Grange by the home's elderly chaplin; something is amiss, and the chaplin would welcome Dalgliesh's advice. But when Dalgliesh arrives, he finds his old friend has died a few days earlier. With little to go on except his own suspicion, Dalgliesh slowly, grudingly begins to investigate... and finds one suspicious death after another.The premise is a classic set up, but in this novel James places Dalgliesh more as an observer of the inevitable than as a detective, and when the solution arrives it does so more by intuition and assumption than by logical deduction. But if this element is weak, the overall novel is very strong: moody to the point of despair, and peopled with painfully pitiful characters, THE DARK TOWER is perhaps one of James' more memorable novels in terms of style alone. Flawed, yes; recommended nonetheless. But be forewarned: you may need prescription medication to escape the sense of depression the novel creates.

I have read many of Ms. James' books, but this is one of the older ones I had trouble finding. I finally found it in a used book store and have not been disappointed. This is definitely one of her best. Her talent for conveying the dry British wit is displayed very well in this novel about a sort of hospice in Dorset. As one character says: "We all suffer from an progressive, incurable disease. We call it life."

"The Black Tower" is arguably the creepiest of P. D. James's works! In addition to having the highest number of murder victims, the novel has a claustrophobic setting--an isolated nursing home on the Dorset coast--that lends itself well to a level of suspense bordering on terror.H. R. F. Keating has cited "The Black Tower" as one of the 100 greatest mystery novels of all time. (James's "A Taste for Death" is also on the list.) Interestingly enough, although the element of mystery builds throughout "The Black Tower," its resolution is not as satisfying as in some other works by P. D. James. The reason may be that the motive for the multiple murders does not seem to be as well integrated into the heart of the novel when compared to "Shroud for a Nightingale" and "Original Sin," to name novels that both preceded and followed "The Black Tower."Still, the remarkable characters and, yes, the element of creepiness make "The Black Tower" a terrific read. The setting is atmospheric and plays a large role in generating the tension that pervades the novel. Bonus: Fans of both detective series in the P. D. James canon will be gratified by the teasing references to Cordelia Gray in this Dalgliesh novel.