The Private Patient
May. 10th, 2009 08:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylIn lieu of any of my favourite detective series of on the radio, I've been listening to the audiobook of P.D. James' The Private Patient, read by the excellent Michael Jayston.
Rhoda Gradwyn, a successful journalist, decides, in a moment of sudden insign into herself, to have a facial scar removed. Consulting with elite plastic surgeon George Chandler-Powell, she arranges to visit his clinic in Dorset. On her initial visit, she becomes intrigued by the ill-matched members of Chandler-Powell's household and decides to do some investigating ahead of her return for the actual surgery. The operation, when it happens, goes well but shortly afterwards, Gradwyn is strangled in her bed and suspicion naturally falls on the members of the household. For reasons that are not immediately clear, Adam Dalgliesh and his squad are called in to investigate the crime. Questioning the staff, they uncover a number of possible motives for murder but make little headway with Gradwyn's opaque background — a private patient in more than one sense.
Whilst I rather enjoyed the story — and Jayson's reading, which is wonderfully nuanced — I wasn't totally convinced by it. Perhaps it's not all that surprising — James is in her late 80s — but the book felt like a period piece. For all that everyone had a mobile phone, they seemed to act as if they came from another era, one where everyone knew their place and showed due deference to their social betters — the kitchen staff identified by first name, the professional staff by surname and, in the case of Sister Holland, by occupation — and I found some of the language slightly jarring — it's hard to imagine any modern public servant using Miss instead of Ms or talking about a secretary rather than a PA.
But for all my quibbles, there was a lot to like. As with her other books, James's sense of place was spot on with Chandler-Powell's Tudor manor and Rhoda Gradwyn's townhouse evoked particularly well. I also enjoyed the characters, particularly Chandler-Powell, every inch the arrogant Master of Surgery, and Helena Cresset, the daughter of the former Lord of the Manor and now acting as the clinic's adminstrator, who quite clearly intends to win her home back the only way she can. Gradwyn too is well drawn and, while the reader is given access to parts of her history denied the other characters, large portions of her personality remain unclear. Gradwyn in many ways mirrors the obsessively private Dalgliesh. He feels at home with her house and can imagine himself living there; he too has decided to change his life and break from the past; he worries about his reluctance to discuss his work with his fiancee and is concerned about the possible barrier between them.
So, in summary, a wonderful reading of a generally enjoyable book.
Rhoda Gradwyn, a successful journalist, decides, in a moment of sudden insign into herself, to have a facial scar removed. Consulting with elite plastic surgeon George Chandler-Powell, she arranges to visit his clinic in Dorset. On her initial visit, she becomes intrigued by the ill-matched members of Chandler-Powell's household and decides to do some investigating ahead of her return for the actual surgery. The operation, when it happens, goes well but shortly afterwards, Gradwyn is strangled in her bed and suspicion naturally falls on the members of the household. For reasons that are not immediately clear, Adam Dalgliesh and his squad are called in to investigate the crime. Questioning the staff, they uncover a number of possible motives for murder but make little headway with Gradwyn's opaque background — a private patient in more than one sense.
Whilst I rather enjoyed the story — and Jayson's reading, which is wonderfully nuanced — I wasn't totally convinced by it. Perhaps it's not all that surprising — James is in her late 80s — but the book felt like a period piece. For all that everyone had a mobile phone, they seemed to act as if they came from another era, one where everyone knew their place and showed due deference to their social betters — the kitchen staff identified by first name, the professional staff by surname and, in the case of Sister Holland, by occupation — and I found some of the language slightly jarring — it's hard to imagine any modern public servant using Miss instead of Ms or talking about a secretary rather than a PA.
But for all my quibbles, there was a lot to like. As with her other books, James's sense of place was spot on with Chandler-Powell's Tudor manor and Rhoda Gradwyn's townhouse evoked particularly well. I also enjoyed the characters, particularly Chandler-Powell, every inch the arrogant Master of Surgery, and Helena Cresset, the daughter of the former Lord of the Manor and now acting as the clinic's adminstrator, who quite clearly intends to win her home back the only way she can. Gradwyn too is well drawn and, while the reader is given access to parts of her history denied the other characters, large portions of her personality remain unclear. Gradwyn in many ways mirrors the obsessively private Dalgliesh. He feels at home with her house and can imagine himself living there; he too has decided to change his life and break from the past; he worries about his reluctance to discuss his work with his fiancee and is concerned about the possible barrier between them.
So, in summary, a wonderful reading of a generally enjoyable book.
