Unnatural Causes

[sawyl]

Hopping back to Unnatural Causes, the third of James' Dalgliesh novels, I find myself almost, but not quite at the end of my survey.

Dalgliesh is on holiday in Suffolk, visiting a maiden aunt and trying to recover from a particular grueling series of investigations. But the calm of Pentlands cottage is abruptly shattered when a delegation of local eccentrics arrive to express concern about a local mystery writer, Maurice Seton, who seems to have gone missing. When, in the midst of all the kerfuffle, the police arrive to report that a hand-less body has been washed ashore in a dingy, the locals are horrified. Not so much by the crime but because the discovery of the body precisely mirrors the events described in the draft of Seton's novel, which arrived with the first post.

There are many similarities between Unnatural Causes and Devices and Desires but, to invert Marx' famous comment, what first happens as farce later repeats itself as tragedy. Both novels are set in a similar part of the world, both involve an eccentric cast of locals and both have Dalgliesh in a slightly antagonistic relationship with the police officer in charge of the case — in this instance, the wonderfully named Inspector Reckless. Both novels also involve a body being discovered during a social evening, but where the Mairs' dinner party has tension, the impromptu party at Pentlands has much lighter air, with the various potential suspects struggling to out alibi each other.

While Devices and Desires is the better novel, Unnatural Causes is enjoyable in its own right. It's quick and snappy and the mystery works well, while Dalgliesh, broodingly trying to decide whether to marry Deborah Riscoe shows off some new sides to his character. It even has a flood sequence that, surely, must own more than a little to The Nine Tailors. What's not to like?