The Private Patient by P.D. James
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Recently I have read mystery/crime novels featuring famous British fictional detectives whom I had never "met" before: DCI Morse, created by Colin Dexter, as well as DS Dalziel and DI Pascoe, written by Reginald Hill. Now, I have filled one more gap in my mystery/crime series education and read The Private Patient by P.D. James, the last novel in the series featuring Commander Dalgliesh, published in 2008.

The Private Patient is a classical mystery, where—as the author writes—We have a group of seven people in the household, any of whom could have killed [...]. The detectives are not successful in detecting much, other than possibly hastening the events that lead to the exposure of the culprit. The reader is presented several clever and plausible false leads before the plot zeroes in on the logical, if complicated, denouement.

I like P.D. James's writing more than C. Dexter's and R. Hill's, so it is probable that I will reach for other installments in the Dalgliesh series. The fact that the author published the novel aged 88 should give great hope to all septuagenarians like myself.


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