Original Sin

[sawyl]

Another novel in my on-going journey though the works of P.D. James. This time, it's Original Sin, a murder mystery set in a publishing house. Here are a few quick thoughts.

Determined to restore the fortunes of Peverell Press, Gerard Etienne has initiated a program to drop unprofitably authors, to sack under-performing members of staff and, controversially, to sell Innocent House, the publisher's grand mock-Venetian palazzo on the bank of the Thames. Thus, when Gerard's body is found in the archives offices with a toy snake stuffed in his mouth, Adam Dalgliesh and his squad find no shortage of suspects.

Could the murder be Gerard's sister Claudia? Or Frances Peverell, scion of the original family? Or maybe Gabriel Dauntsey, the poetry editor, or James DeWitt, who deals with most of the fiction authors? The firm's accountant, Sydney Bartrum? Miss Blackett, Gerard's PA? Or perhaps it might have been spurned author, Esme Carling. Or could it be Mrs. Demery, the tea lady? Or even Mandy Price, the temporary secretary? Or maybe it's someone else entirely. Maybe it's the anonymous prankster who has been waging a campaign to undermine the publisher's credibility — someone who could, of course, be one of the principal characters acting in secret.

I rather enjoyed Original Sin not least because, The Private Patient aside, it was the first of my recent bout of P.D. James novels that I hadn't already read. Thus, I got to play along with the detective — I'm pleased to say I was successful, largely because James plays fair by the reader, revealing enough, amidst the red herrings and misdirects, to make it possible to work out the solution the mystery.

I also liked the setting: the increasingly misnamed Innocent House, a bizarre imitation of the Doge's palace transported, like something from one of Canaletto's visions of London, from Venice to Britain. I enjoyed the way that the brooding Thames, a river full of secrets, mirrored the past of the house, both building and publisher, with its buried secrets and grubby past just waiting to be dredged up by the police investigation. But on the negative side, I'm not sure that I was entirely convinced by some of the characters. I didn't really get much of a sense of James DeWitt, although this may have been intentional, because one possible take on him is that he's supposed to be slightly bland in contrast to Gerard's ruthless boardroom shark. More worryingly, I'm not sure that Daniel Aaron really worked for me either. Despite an opening monologue and a trip to the pub with Kate Miskin, he didn't really come across as a sufficiently turbulent and troubled to carry off his role.