The Skull Beneath The Skin

Cordelia Gray #2

by P.D. James

Private detective Cordelia Gray is invited to the sunlit island of Courcy to protect the vainly beautiful actress Clarissa Lisle from veiled threats on her life. Within the rose red walls of a fairy-tale castle, she finds the stage is set for death.

"Richly intricate and literate," James's second Cordelia Gray mystery "shows James at the height of her storytelling powers" (San Francisco Chronicle).

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Detective, Mystery Thriller, British Literature, Audiobook

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

P. D. James, byname of Phyllis Dorothy James White, Baroness James of Holland Park, (born August 3, 1920, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England—died November 27, 2014, Oxford), British mystery novelist best known for her fictional detective Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard.

The daughter of a middle-grade civil servant, James grew up in the university town of Cambridge. Her formal education, however, ended at age 16 because of lack of funds, and she was thereafter self-educated. In 1941 she married Ernest C.B. White, a medical student and future physician, who returned home from wartime service mentally deranged and spent much of the rest of his life in psychiatric hospitals. To support her family (which included two children), she took work in hospital administration and, after her husband’s death in 1964, became a civil servant in the criminal section of the Department of Home Affairs. Her first mystery novel, Cover Her Face (1962), introduced Dalgliesh and was followed by six more mysteries before she retired from government service in 1979 to devote full time to writing.

Dalgliesh, James’s master detective who rises from chief inspector in the first novel to chief superintendent and then to commander, is a serious, introspective person, moralistic yet realistic. The novels in which he appears are peopled by fully rounded characters, who are civilized, genteel, and motivated. The public resonance created by James’s singular characterization and deployment of classic mystery devices led to most of the novels featuring Dalgliesh being filmed for television. James, who earned the sobriquet “Queen of Crime,” penned 14 Dalgliesh novels, with the last, The Private Patient, appearing in 2008.

James also wrote An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1972) and The Skull Beneath the Skin (1982), which centre on Cordelia Gray, a young private detective. The first of these novels was the basis for both a television movie and a short-lived series. James expanded beyond the mystery genre in The Children of Men (1992; film 2006), which explores a dystopian world in which the human race has become infertile. Her final work, Death Comes to Pemberley (2011)—a sequel to Pride and Prejudice (1813)—amplifies the class and relationship tensions between Jane Austen’s characters by situating them in the midst of a murder investigation. James’s nonfiction works include The Maul and the Pear Tree (1971), a telling of the Ratcliffe Highway murders of 1811 written with historian T.A. Critchley, and the insightful Talking About Detective Fiction (2009). Her memoir, Time to Be in Earnest, was published in 2000. She was made OBE in 1983 and was named a life peer in 1991.

Reviews

[Berengaria · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of James' work, but this one is subpar. The only other one as bad is "The Lighthouse".

The plot:
Nothing happens, nothing happens, nothing happens, over-the-top-death-defying scene, end of novel.

Yes, it's atmospheric. Yes, it has interesting facts in it, but then James' novels always do. Yes, it's competently written — this is PD James after all. Unfortunately, our detective Cordelia makes all sorts of silly amateur errors that just has you shaking your head and longing for Dalgliesh.

I'm not surprised this series was abandoned. Not surprised at all.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second of only two Cordelia Gray novels – the first being, “An Unsuitable Job for a Woman,” published ten years previously, in 1972. When we catch up with Cordelia again, she is still running her detective agency, although most of her work consists of trailing cheating spouses, or tracing lost cats. She has inherited a little money, so now has a comfortable, river-side flat, which is a definite improvement.

A sudden job opportunity, though, offers something a little more interesting. The actress, Clarissa Lisle, is planning a comeback. She will be taking part in a private performance on a private island, owned by Ambrose Gorringe, owner of Courcy Castle. However, Clarissa has been receiving poison pen letters and so, her current husband, Sir George Ralston, suggests Cordelia should accompany his wife, posing as her secretary/companion to avoid upset and help his wife feel safer.

Also on the island is Clarissa’s previous lover, dying theatre critic, Ivo Whittingham, her dresser, Miss Tolgarth, her step-son, the shy, young, Simon Lessing, who was caught up in Clarissa’s enthusiastic whims, but is now, to her mind, becoming boring and a financial drain, her cousin, Roma Lisle, who wants money to keep her married lover interested, and Ambrose, plus his staff, including butler, Munter.

Of course, everyone has secrets and Clarissa is the stereotypical actress, who is alternately demanding and cruel, as well as self-centred and selfish. As well as the cast of characters, the island itself has secrets, which go back to the war. Indeed, much of this mystery seems rooted in the past and that is mirrored in the style of P.D. James. Personally, I enjoy her books and find her mysteries comforting and well-written. This is a fairly long book, but I always looked forward to going back to the story and never felt it drag.

[Madeline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had never read anything by PD James, but she's been on my shortlist of authors-to-read for a while now. I think she first came onto my radar when I heard about her recent mystery, Death Comes to Pemberley (which did not particularly interest me itself, since not even a murder mystery could make me give a crap about the Bennett sisters), but she's been a prolific detective author for decades. This one, published in 1982, is obviously not one of her newer mysteries, but it caught my eye when I was browsing in a secondhand bookstore, and I decided to give it a shot.

It was the setup that convinced me to buy this one: Private detective Cordelia Gray is hired by the husband of aging actress Clarissa Lisle, who has been receiving death threats in the form of literary quotations. It doesn't seem particularly sinister, but Clarissa has an important performance coming up and the notes are affecting her career, so her husband calls Cordelia in to find out who is leaving the notes. To do this, Cordelia pretends to be Clarissa's secretary and accompanies her to Courcy Island, where Clarissa is scheduled to perform in a production of The Duchess of Malfi, held in the theater of the castle on the island. Also on the island: Clarissa's cousin, a theater critic who has a history with the actress, her stepson from a previous marriage, and their host and owner of the castle.

If it sounds like the setup for a classic 1930's detective story, that's very intentional. I haven't read any of James's other work, so I don't know how this plot compares, but this book reads almost like someone challenged her write her own version of an Agatha Christie closed-house murder mystery. The resemblance to an old-school detective story is so great, in fact, that I spent the first chapter thinking that it did take place in the 1930's, and was slightly jarred when a character referenced an event in 1977. The book's similarities to a classic Agatha Christie novel are so frequent that it serves as a running joke throughout the story. When the two police officers are discussing the suspects, this exchange happens:

"'And the butler, sir.'
'Thank you for reminding me, Sergeant. We mustn't forget the butler. I regard the butler as a gratuitous insult on the part of fate.'"

I realize the the story's close resemblance to a 1930's mystery is intentional, and part of the joke, but the problem is that I generally read mysteries written and taking place exclusively during that era, and couldn't get used to the fact that this book was happening after Woodstock. That being said, modern life doesn't intrude on the story too often (the characters' dialogue, possibly because they're all posh and British, sounds almost exactly the way 1930's dialogue sounds, and they still do things like dress for dinner and sit around drinking claret served by a butler) so if you want to pretend that the book is taking place in 1935, nothing is really stopping you aside from the rare reference to an event that took place in 1977 or something.

Putting my own personal preferences aside, this is a very well-done mystery. It's more of a psychological thriller than a classic detective yarn, but there's still plenty of poking around crime scenes and interviewing suspects to satisfy the Christie fans. Cordelia Gray (come ON, tell me that isn't the name of Nancy Drew's plucky girl-detective best friend who grew up in New York and brings her street-smarts and tough-girl charm to help with Nancy's investigations and excuse me I have a fan fiction to write) is a good heroine, equal parts capable and self-doubting. This is the second installment of her adventures, and there are a lot of references to the first Cordelia Gray book, where she apparently investigated a murder with an older detective who trained her how to solve crimes, and frankly that sounds fun as hell, so I'll have to look that one up soon. The ending is perfectly satisfying, with all the loose ends nicely tied up, although the final confrontation is a bit predictable - early in the book, all the guests are getting a tour of the crypts under the castle, and the host is like, hey, everybody look at this trapdoor that leads to a cave where some guy was drowned a long time ago! and I was like, well, I know how someone's going to try to kill our heroine now.

But all in all, a good introduction to PD James and her work. I liked the mystery, and I liked Cordelia (time period non-withstanding), and will definitely be on the lookout for more of her adventures in the future.

[Roman Clodia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Throwing in the towel on this one: after slogging through 100 pages, nothing seems to be happening to move the plot/story on. Yes, James writes in elegant, literate sentences but that can't hide the fact that the content of them is just static filler. Everyone is oh so earnest, and their conversation awash with poetic quotations from Yeats to Marlowe - so show-offy on the part of the author when it doesn't add to characterization or the plot.

The plot could have been fun: the Golden Age tropes from detective fiction (poison pen letters, amateur theatricals, a house party where everyone has a motive to kill, a butler) though just feel anachronistcally out of place in the 1980s setting.

I can't help thinking that Agatha Christie would have introduced the suspects deftly and be well on the way to solving the crime after 100 pages while James is still faffing around describing room decor... too much, too slow.

[mark monday · Rating 3 out of 5]

the novel appears to be PD James looking back at agatha christie by taking the basics of the classic murder mystery (an enclosed and gothic setting, a finite number of suspects, stylized characters)...and then updating it with all of the intricate details, narrative complexity, and emotionally nuanced characterizations of a later-period psychological thriller. the scene in question is wonderful - per the book jacket, a "fairy-tale castle on the sunlit island of Courcy". the often self-doubting but adept and intrepid Cordelia Gray is an appealing heroine. the language is surprisingly bright and sparkling - at least for a James novel. despite the rather gleefully morbid title, this is an unusually bright-toned offering from the author. very enjoyable overall.

[Alan (on December semi-hiatus) Teder · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cordelia Gray Bumbles through in Second Outing
Review of the Sphere Books paperback edition (1983/1986 reprint) of the Faber & Faber hardcover original (1982)

She guarded her privacy. None of her friends and no one from the Agency had ever been in the flat. Adventures occurred elsewhere. She knew that if any man shared that narrow bed for her it would mean commitment. There was only one man she ever pictured there and he was a Commander of New Scotland Yard. She knew that he, too, lived in the City, they shared the same river. But she told herself that the brief madness was over, that at a time of stress and frightening insecurity she had only been seeking her lost father-figure. There was this to be said for a smattering of amateur psychology: it enabled one to exorcise memories which might otherwise be embarrassing.

It was not a good sign when the nameless cameo of P.D. James' regular detective character Commander Adam Dalgliesh of New Scotland Yard CID was one of the most intriguing aspects of the second outing of her private detective character Cordelia Gray. Following a 10-year hiatus after 1972's An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, Cordelia Gray returns in a case which promises gothic intrigue and dramatic revenge but which falls flat and leaves one forced to tag it with an Unsatisfactory Ending Alert ™.

The Pryde Detective Agency is moderately successful and Gray has even hired two office assistants to help with paperwork and research. The caseload is dominated however by the search for lost pets. A more serious case appears when Cordelia is hired by Sir George Ralston to be a bodyguard-companion to his wife, the actress Clarissa Lisle, on a weekend outing to Courcy Island. The actress has been the nervous subject of a disturbing poison pen letter campaign and her career has suffered as a consequence. She hopes that a staging of John Webster's Jacobean revenge tragedy The Duchess of Malfi (1614) with an amateur theatrical company at Courcy Island's restored Victorian era theatre will be the start of a late career revival.


Front cover of the original Faber & Faber hardcover edition (1982). Image sourced from Wikipedia.

Although the gothic atmosphere of Courcy Island and its rather foreboding history of deaths from the bubonic plague through to World War II prisoner of war internments is well described, the supposed investigation is rather weak. Gray does just about nothing for 80% of the book which of course results in fatal consequences for her client. She is then finally fired up to chase down what at first appears to be an insignificant press cutting reviewing an earlier Clarissa Lisle performance. The press cutting proves to be the key to the solution of the case, but instead of alerting the authorities, Gray proceeds to bumble through and almost gets herself killed. In the denouement we learn that justice will probably not even prevail. In the end, Cordelia returns to the cat and dog investigations.

There were no further Cordelia Gray private detective books to be had from P.D. James.

I decided to include P.D. James' (1920-2014) series of Adam Dalgliesh and Cordelia Gray novels as one of my 2022 re-read binges due to the fortuitous discovery of several of the early paperbacks while I was emptying a storage locker. This went together with the discovery that there was a rebooted Adam Dalgliesh TV-series adapting the novels as well, which began in 2021.


Rescued from storage and due for re-reading, my early P.D. James paperbacks, mostly published by Sphere Books in the 1980s.

Trivia and No Link
The Skull Beneath the Skin has had no TV or theatrical film adaptations made to date as of this writing mid-August 2022.

[Luffy Sempai · Rating 2 out of 5]

These books that get 2 stars are beginning to have a particular feel to them. Professionally written but ultimately ill sustaining books that do enough but don't tell enough. I'm leaving the ultimate choice to fans who want to buy the second Cordelia Gray book. The first one was a real find. This one is not.

In the first book, the story was told from the young lady's eyes. Here, there's the laborious setting up of unlikely future suspects. They all seem sinister - yawn. However things picked up after the police came after the murder. Here was a perfect opportunity for Cordelia to pit her wits against the pugnacious and hostile police force. The Chief Inspector and his sergeant sidekick exit from the story abruptly, never given the chance to shine.

The fate of the murderer is quite disconcerting. The Gorringe fellow lustily tells of his exploits before a police officer stationed near, without fear. Didn't understand that part, and by that time I didn't care. A mystery book is as good as its murder. Cordelia is the youngest detective of this genre. The goodwill from that fact is exhausted here. Read the first book, An Unsuitable Job For a Woman.

[Mara · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars - I was very impressed with the actual prose of this book, and I very much enjoyed the plot. It delivers on the closed circle mystery, and I thought the setting of this creepy castle on the island was an effective mileu for that plot type. That said, I didn't really feel a connection to most of the characters until the VERY end, and I was confused why the POVs were handled the way they were. If it had been either more solidly multi POV or if it had been 100% with Cordelia, I think it would have been more successful

[Leslie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although this book has all the elements of a mystery that I would really like, it failed to engage my interest. I don't know whether it was Cordelia or something else but I had to force myself to finish it.

[Georgiana 1792 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Secondo e ultimo caso per Cordelia Gray, devo dire che mi ha un po' deluso rispetto al primo (a parte quando P.D. James, da ottima Janeite, cita Emma.
«Vado a fare due passi con la signorina Gray» disse con tutta calma.
«Non si può dire che la recita finora sia stata di quelle che inchiodano l’attenzione. Meglio andare a respirare una boccata d’aria fresca.»
E uscirono, seguiti dallo sguardo degli attori.
«Grazie, signor Knightley» gli disse poi Cordelia.
Lui ebbe un sorriso. All’improvviso si sentiva bene, straordinariamente bene. Misteriosamente, tutto il suo corpo era leggero.
«Temo proprio che nelle attuali condizioni non sarei un granché, come ballerino; e se volessi identificarla con un personaggio di Emma, non si tratterebbe certamente della povera Harriet. Deve scusare Clarissa: quando è nervosa, capita che si comporti da maleducata.»)
Il caso si svolge a Courcy Island, un'isola a un paio di miglia al largo della costa del Dorset; l'isola che equivale a una camera chiusa quando si tratta di giallo, tanto che Agatha Christie la utilizzò come location per il suo Dieci piccoli indiani.
Qui la vittima è Clarissa Lisle, un'attrice di teatro sul viale del tramonto che da tempo riceve messaggi anonimi con minacce di morte tratte proprio da tragedie famose. Clarissa manda il marito a ingaggiare Cordelia perché la protegga in occasione della rappresentazione della Duchessa d'Amalfi che si terrà su Courcy Island, di proprietà del suo amico Ambrose Gorringe, che ha restaurato il piccolo teatro vittoriano costruito dal suo bisnonno.
Clarissa non è una persona facile, e in molti avrebbero un movente per ucciderla. Purtroppo la presenza di Cordelia non impedisce all'assassino di uccidere ugualmente Clarissa.
Ho trovato le indagini un po' confusionarie e deludenti; non so, con tutti i possibili assassini e moventi che c'erano, mi sembra che la James abbia scelto i meno soddisfacenti...

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let's try to be quick about this . . .

Cordelia Gray runs a detective agency whose main source of income is finding lost pets. However, she's hired to accompany actress Clarissa Lisle for a weekend on the small island of Courcy, off the Dorset coast, for a vanity performance in the private theater there of The Duchess of Malfi.

The fading actress has for years been receiving anonymous notes that read a bit like death threats. No one suspects her life might be in danger -- in fact, there's suspicion that the manipulative Clarissa might be sending the notes herself -- but in due course she's found murdered. Who among the collection of oddballs on the island for the performance could be the guilty party?

The setup's hugely artificial, of course, with all sorts of unlikelihoods being invoked to make sure the cast of suspects is a limited one, but that didn't bother me: it's a frequent characteristic of classic mysteries. I was reminded of the setting in James's much later novel, The Lighthouse : Combe Island, off the northern Cornish coast rather than the southern Dorset coast, but near enough.

I was reminded of The Lighthouse in other ways, too, most of them not good. Lemme explain. Many years ago I read a couple of James's early novels, was pretty bored by them, and gave up on her. More recently I tried two or three of her later novels, which tend to be considerably longer (why is this so often the case with modern mystery writers?), and was bored by them too: they tend to be grossly overwritten, drearily pompous . . . and, besides, I can't stand the ghastly poet-copper-aristocrat Adam Dalgliesh, even though he's basically a rehash of Ngaio Marsh's Roderick Alleyn, whose company I quite enjoy.

So recently, looking at the shelves and spotting I had a couple of James's early novels still unread, I thought it might be a good idea to give her another try -- after all, my tastes have changed over the decades and I might enjoy now what bored me then. And these were a lot shorter than slabs like The Lighthouse and The Murder Room.

But, oh boy, was my optimism misplaced. All the same obnoxious self-importance was here, too, even at this relatively early stage in James's career. The opening chapter's quite jolly, but then we have a hundred or so pages of abject dreariness, during which James shows off her penchant for description -- or over-description. When a box of Victorian toys is mentioned (lost the page number) we have to have ten or twelve lines itemizing its contents -- details that are of zero interest to the plot or, for that matter, this reader. The bloodless Cordelia wears a guernsey, because that's posher than her wearing a jersey. When Cordelia arrives in the guest bedroom she's been allocated, its fixtures and fittings are described at such tedious length that I was well on the way to throwing the book at the wall.

But then at last the description of the bedroom ended. Phew! Lucky escape, wall! Except then the text moved on to describe Cordelia's private bathroom at similar excruciating length . . .

For a couple of score pages after the discovery of the murder, James remembers what the art of storytelling is supposed to be all about, and my spirits temporarily rose. But it wasn't to last. Back into the swamp I dove (there's even a couple of paragraphs about bloody Adam Dalgliesh[*]) until finally I reached the protracted action sequence that serves as the book's grand climax -- and, while this lasted, I was romping through the pages. Clearly the author could do the stuff when she wanted to; why on earth did she spend so much of her writing time not doing it?

So much for my being quick.

All in all, then, you'll not be surprised to learn that The Skull Beneath the Skin is headed for a library sale, as are the other P.D. James books from my shelves. I know lots of readers hold the author in high regard, and I'm sure her work has sterling qualities that somehow I'm missing, but my shelves are bulging with books I want to read. So . . .

[*] Page 232 is the one to skip.

[Margie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit of a far cry from her later books. The structure is there, but she makes some major leaps without bringing the reader along. Having read mostly her later books, this makes a nice contrast to see how she's grown as a writer.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love PD James. This one was not predictable. I have to say that This was my book for waiting at appointments so it took me a while to read it. I picked it up at the VA and am returning it there.

[Shauna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I downgraded this to three stars after rereading it. Far too wordy and slow in places. It would have benefited greatly from some judicious editing.

[Christopher (Donut) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always been curious about this book, with its awesome title out of T.S. Eliot, and was glad to have the chance to read it while driving around (although the cabin wind noise while on the highway means I may have missed some of it).

The book is well-written and well performed.

The reader is quite histrionic- by which I mean the female characters raise their voices under emotional stress to an almost shrill level.

The scene is Courcy Castle, a restored Victorian royal residence on a small island near Speymouth, wherever that is. Private Eye Cordelia Gray is hired as a bodyguard for an actress who is performing in The Duchess of Malfi in a small theater there. Not a spoiler to say the actress is killed just before her performance. Hence this becomes a classic country house mystery, with everyone present a suspect.

There are enough red herrings and twists right up to the end, but without spoiling the ending, I don't think it will satisfy everyone. If all mysteries ended this way, the genre would not be popular. Still, if this upending of the genre is one last twist, I can enjoy it for once.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

PD James thriller with Greta Scacchi and John Moffatt.

An magnificent plot, as usual, by Dame James.

[فریبا ارجمند · Rating 3 out of 5]

گمونم میشه این کتاب را یکی از کتابهای پلیسی ژانر نوار حساب کرد، اگر اصلا چنین ژانری وجود داشته باشه‌.
کمی بیش از حد لازم طولانی است و اجرای صوتی کتاب دو ویژگی آزار دهنده داشت: یکی اینکه دفعات بیشماری
she
را
he
تلفظ می‌کرد که اوایل گیج کننده بود بعد آزارنده شد، و یکی اینکه گاهی تشخیص عوض شدن کاراکتری که حرف می‌زد دشوار می‌شد.

[Yngvild · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Skull Beneath the Skin looks back to the days when readers expected large dollops of philosophy and literary references along with their stories. This P D James novel contains references to John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi (the play within a play), Nietzsche, Donne, Shakespeare, William Morris, the Bible, the Book of Mormon, E M Forster, Malory, Voltaire, Austen and Rattigan amongst others.

Bosola: Other sins only speak; murder shrieks out.
The element of water moistens the earth,
But blood flies upwards and bedews the heavens.
-- The Duchess of Malfi, John Webster 1613

It could be pretentious, but P D James is correct that many of us enjoy the endless game of tag with literary quotations. It was a direct reference to Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi in Agatha Christie’s Sleeping Murder: Miss Marple’s Last Case that led to me to read Webster in the first place. All praise Dame Agatha and Baroness James.

Although there is a cracking good murder mystery at the heart of The Skull Beneath the Skin, the book is slightly spoiled by the unsatisfactory device of inserting Girl Detective, Cordelia Gray, solely for the purpose of providing a character to whom the others can tell their innermost thoughts. She does come into her own later, but that does not redeem her "hot tears coursing down her face" earlier on.

Webster was much possessed by death
And saw the skull beneath the skin;
And breastless creatures under ground
Leaned backward with a lipless grin.
-- Whispers of Immortality, T S Eliot 1920

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Private investigator Cordelia Gray has been hired by Sir George Ralston to accompany his wife, Clarissa, to Courcy Island, where Clarissa is to star in a play. Cordelia’s mission is to keep the persistent poison pen letters away from Clarissa. They’ve already caused one meltdown on stage and Sir George doesn’t want another. Protecting Clarissa from the letters is one thing, but protecting her from death is something else. When Clarissa is discovered murdered prior to the performance, Cordelia’s guilt prompts her to help find the killer.

The Skull Beneath the Skin is classic P.J. James, employing the same style as her Dalgleish mysteries, with suspects cloistered in a remote area and plenty of bad blood to go around. However, the primary difference between Gray and Dalgleish novels is the protagonists. Cordelia shares similar traits with Dalgleish in that she’s focused, serious, and resourceful, but there’s much more. Her youth, emotion, compassion, and doubts are all beautifully displayed through inner monologue that gives readers an intimacy lacking in a Dalgleish novel

Since this isn’t a police procedural and James incorporates multiple viewpoints, there is a jarring section from the police POV, which has little to do with Cordelia, and went on too long. Also, as Cordelia searches for a piece of the missing puzzle on the mainland toward the end of the book, she makes a baffling error in judgment by not sharing a key piece if evidence with the police. Still, I enjoyed the book, as Cordelia was a breath of fresh air from the stodgy Dalgleish.

[Jim Bowen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won't lie, this book irritated me. In it, Cordelia Gray is asked to investigate who is making threats to kill a famous (well B-list famous) actress. We travel to an island with Gray and said actress, watch said actress give the remaining characters in the book enough reason to kill her (if mysteries to be believed), and die. Gray then does her best to work out whodunnit.

The book irritated me no end. In and of itself it wasn't bad. It was just too damn similar to the only other Gray book out there (it is so similar that the way the killer tries to kill her is the same, I really can't believe that no one else has pointed this out yet).

Another issue is that it reads like an Agatha Christie novel for people with literary aspirations (and like at least some character development). there are elements of "And Then There were None", "Evil Under the Sun", "The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, and "Murder on the Orient Express". The murderer was different from the murderer in these books, but it almost feels like James made a list of different aspects from the Christie canon, and said "I'll have a bit of this, and a bit of that."

The most irritating thing for me though was the fact that Gray isn't a very good detective, and that'a almost unforgivable for a detective story

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overwrought. James continues to be extremely good at mystery plotting and setting. The ties to Webster and the Jacobeans are interesting and well-distributed. She’s good at suspense and tension, though that’s a bit vitiated by the book’s length.

Unfortunately, she’s not as good at people as she wants to be. Cordelia is a kindly relief as a protagonist compared to Dalgliesh, and the minor characters have a solid reality. But the motives and personalities of murderer and victim don’t ring true. And really, would the detectives treat Cordelia the way they do, girl or not? But the story goes where James requires it to go, and one feels the stress of bent corners and weakened metal.

Technical question: if James stayed with one perspective—Cordelia’s—for the whole book, rather than switching when it’s convenient, would this book (and her other books) work better? Cordelia’s viewpoint controls 80% of the book. Could she not do 100%? Discuss.

[Helen Cairns · Rating 2 out of 5]

These detective stories by PD James have not aged well. I think this is partly because she was trying to recreate the golden age of detective fiction. The books are set in the 1980s, but the plot and characters seem to be from the 1920s or 30s. The very upper class setting and trappings of the story just jar. The young female detective packing corduroy knickerbockers in case of country walks, the private island and castle, the dressing for dinner, and the obsequious butler all give an artificial feeling to the story which makes it difficult to invest in the characters.

[Colin Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story, the second in the Cordelia Gray series, is set in the very Agatha Christie like fictitious island off the Dorset Coast. The gathering was for the performance of Clarissa Lisle in the Duchess of Malfia. Cordelia was responding to the death threat messages received by Clarissa when she is cast into the midst of a murder investigation.

The book is saved by the wonderful descriptive text used by P.D.James reminiscent of the great crime writers of the between wars era.

[Matt Bowyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first half sure took a while, especially in introducing all of the characters. I didn't like how passive Cordelia was, and I really did not like how it ended. Much of the writing is quite sharp, but again, that ending.

[Mary Slowik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solid, creepy mystery, written with consistently dry humo(u)r. I quite liked it.

[Clare Snow]

The library wanted this back. The island of my boredom could not refuse.

DNF p.135

[Kristina Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice, solid little mystery. I like her ability to evoke a time and place, much like Agatha Christie. Nothing too wild or graphic in these ones.

[Les Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me not the best best of P D’s work but still a good read.

[Katharine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Skull Beneath the Skin is the last PD James I'm going to read for a while. I will say that this was a lot more fun to read than The Black Tower. I found Cordelia Gray to be a more sympathetic detective character than Dalgleish, and the plot followed a little more closely in the style of a classic English house-party murder.

The downfall of this one is that the theatrical setting is such a cliché, with the self-absorbed diva and her circle of followers – even to the mysterious and devoted female servant, the taciturn husband, the lover, etc, etc. *YAWN* It's all been done before and much more convincingly by authors like Ngaio Marsh and Agatha Christie.

I suppose I'd consider reading another Cordelia Gray mystery in the future, but not for a while. I need a break.

[Filip · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with P.D. James's books. They are all well-written, but some of them contain waaaay too much misantropy and navel-gazing (not to the extent of Elizabeth George books, though). This one, on the other hand, contained quite a good mystery, very much in the classic sense (along with a suitable amount of lampshade hanging) with a cast of interesting characters. The police officers were a bit under-utilized for the amount of development they received, but that's also part of the genre. There is something about the ending that doesn't sit right with me, but I can't put my finger on what exactly. Maybe the lack of a clear aftermath? Still, while it wasn't exactly an easy book to read (one should read it with a thesaurus), I really enjoyed it. One of better P.D. James's books, definitely.