The Nature of Things

(Note: My review of The Private Patient was originally published on Goodreads on January 24, 2009.) The Private Patient by P.D. James My rating: 3 of 5 stars When you pick up a P.D. James mystery, you know that you are in the hands of a master.  Cleanly plotted, meticulously detailed, characters revealed layer by layer, hers are the epitome of the "British mysteries" in the tradition of the great Agatha.  It is a tradition that I know and love. The Private Patient is her latest entry in the saga of Commander Adam Dalgliesh of New Scotland Yard.  It is a police procedural with, as usual, James' touch of humanism. We find that Dalgliesh is about to marry his beloved.  Their romance has had its rocky bits as most romances do, but finally they have decided to join forces officially. Before that can take place though, Adam is confronted with another mystery, the murder of a famous, and apparently rather notorious, investigative journalist, who has a reputation for ruth...

What a delicious read! This book combines two of my favorites: Jane Austen and P.D. James. James writes here in the style of Austen.  She has taken up the story of two of the most-loved characters from  Pride and Prejudice , Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, now Mr. and Mrs Darcy of Pemberley. We meet them six years after their wedding, now at home with their two sons. Elizabeth has adjusted to the role of mistress of Pemberley and is busily planning the Lady Anne ball held each October in honor of her husband's late mother. The ball is to take place on the morrow when suddenly all the best-laid plans are torn asunder by a violent death which occurs in a woodland on the Pemberley estate.  Most distressingly, the Darcys first learn of the death when a horse-drawn conveyance comes barreling up to the house and a hysterically screaming woman emerges from it. The woman turns out to be Elizabeth's ditzy youngest sister, Lydia, who is screaming that "Wickham is dead!"  As it...