Reading the Detectives discussion

Welcome to our December challenge read - the twelfth Inspector Dalgliesh mystery The Murder Room first published in 2003.

When Commander Dalgliesh is persuaded by an old friend to visit the Dupayne, a small private museum on the edge of Hampstead Heath, he can have no idea that he will return to it one week later under very different circumstances. One of the family trustees has been horribly murdered and Dalgliesh and his team are called in to investigate a death which, from the first, is fraught with complications. Even before the murder, the museum was in tumult. A new lease is due to be signed and two of the trustees are determined to keep the museum open, the third passionately determined on its closure.

The museum is dedicated to the years 1919-1939 and one of the galleries, the Murder Room, displays exhibits from the most notorious cases of those inter-war years. And now a modern killer is at work, the crimes uncannily echoing the cases on display. All the small group of people, the trustees, staff and volunteers, who work in the Dupayne, have the means and the opportunity for murder. One of them has the ruthlessness to kill and kill again.

The investigation is complicated for Dalgliesh by his love for Emma Lavenham, but their relationship, at a sensitive stage for them both, is continually frustrated by the demands of his job. As step by step he moves closer to the murderer, is the investigation taking him further away from commitment to the woman he loves?

As we have not completed all of the Dalgliesh series during the year of our challenge, we will be running the final two books:
The Lighthouse and
The Private Patient
will be run as extra buddy reads in January and February, next year.

We hope you enjoy our last Dalgliesh of the year. Feel free to post spoilers in this thread.

To me this was another book that was way too long. James got hung up again on describing buildings, furnishings, pictures on the walls and the state of the tidiness. Then as murder wasn't enough, we had some gays, prostitution and a rich peoples swingers club. We heard again how Kate Mishkin had pulled herself from a poor beginning up the ladder of the police force, along with some other backstories that led nowhere. Then everything was solved with a neat confession. Finally finishing with a slushy proposal of marriage from a man who had never even kissed the woman in question.

The one aspect I did enjoy was the tenuous nature of Emma and Adam's relationship, that the constant disappointments associated with a marriage to a police officer could spell doom for their romance. Once your relationship has been established, delays and cancellations due to cases is par for the course, but early on, it could be enough of an issue to drive them apart. I thought James did a good job here of conveying Adam's anxiety around this issue, which is perhaps one of the more realistic takes on what is it like to be a law enforcement spouse.

I'm completely with Jill on this one - there's something very wrong when not even the sudden revelation of a posh people's sex club can liven things up!

I thought the Emma relationship was ridiculous: the marriage proposal by letter while he waits at the other end of the train platform? When they've never even kissed? Name-checking Austen's Persuasion did not make it ok!

Yes, even when we have something personal about Dalgliesh it is too remote to be real, as in the proposal. I agree with Jill - describing everything on a mantelpiece or dwelling on details with minor characters can slow the pace down just too much.

I also felt that there are too many elements that are repeated from earlier books: the warring siblings disagreeing over the future of their inherited institution, for example.

And PDJ is wedded to the idea of creating a closed community by locating people in nearby cottages - the idea of a cleaner being housed for free (?) in Hampstead is just ludicrous!

Too many inconsistencies such as why would a supposedly ace police team of a commander, two inspectors and a sergeant be put on a murder which is horrible but surely not meriting of such high profile manpower? And, yet again, there's that confession at the end.

Yes, can you imagine, RC? Imagine how much the smallest cottage in Hampstead would cost :)

Exactly - I'd be a cleaner if a little dusting and hoovering got me a free house in Hampstead ;))

These books have become so bloated and such a slog for me that I'm mentally playing PDJ bingo:

* Kate's working-class background
* Dalgleish is a brilliant poet
* Dalgleish grew up in a vicarage
* Suspects in cottages
* Mahogany desk
* Leather-bound, gold-tooled books
* Original oil paintings (which D recognises at a glance)
* Classical music (which D recognises from the first note)
* Fawn coloured clothes
* The police just 'know' the murderer
* Confession
* Crass political commentary (here that state-school kids get into Oxbridge despite their illiteracy!)

I've finished this one now and have mixed feelings - I found some parts really exciting, but do agree it was slowed down too much by padding.

I also found the swingers' club ludicrous and especially the suggestion that it might not be a big scandal if revealed - given the link to a member of the House of Lords and the head of a posh school, I think it would be a massive news story!!

Also, had Muriel's sister been mentioned? If so I must have missed it, so I was a bit surprised at her death being the motivation.

Tara wrote: "The one aspect I did enjoy was the tenuous nature of Emma and Adam's relationship, that the constant disappointments associated with a marriage to a police officer could spell doom for their romanc..."

I agree the relationship was quite touching, but I was a bit surprised by Emma just heading back to Cambridge when Adam had to cancel, and nearly doing it a second time when he was late at the station! Couldn't they phone or text each other?! (I know she had forgotten her mobile on the second occasion, but that would make it more important to wait in case he had been held up.)

I think anyone in a relationship with someone who has a job like Adam's would have to accept that there are likely to be many cancelled dates, so I'm not sure this bodes well, although as a romantic I liked the ending.

Adam seems to be becoming more and more attractive as the series goes on, as happened with Wimsey in the Sayers books. In this one, Kate is pining for him, and Caroline is eying him up at every opportunity, quite apart from his romance with Emma.

I agree with RC that too many elements from previous books seem to be being recycled. She's got enough padding in her descriptions without having to resort to recycling to make the book longer.

I also agree with the silliness of the swingers club. A quite unrealistic attitude considering the times, and the status of those involved.

I looked forward to the blossoming of romance between Adam and Emma, but was disappointed how Emma seemed intolerant of Adam's profession and the impact it would obviously have in their lives. I hope it doesn't continue as I see Emma endeavouring to take Adam away from his profession.

Who on earth was Muriel's sister? When she came to light as the motivation for the murder I was taken totally by surprise. To my recall she'd not been mentioned at all until then.

I found the book seemed to drag more than the others because there were not enough exciting parts to compensate for the overdone descriptions. I much more enjoy the TV series of these books, and that's because the descriptions are there visually thus eliminating slogging through pages of it.

I finished the book and then watched the BBC movie of it. Knowing Muriel was the killer, I especially watched her character for clues-- but still wouldn't have seen it coming. Movie has her saying she has a sister who was anxious to move in but that she(Muriel) valued her independence and refused. Most of the characters were as I had pictured them except for Tally. She was more scattered and scuffy than I had pictured.

I enjoyed the book. The details and padding didn't bother me as much as how long it took to finally get to the murder. Adam's first visit to the museum seemed unnecessary--- and it was left out of the movie version. Listening to the book on audiobook while doing other things may have kept me from noticing the padding you all mentioned.

ChrisGA wrote: "I finished the book and then watched the BBC movie of it. Knowing Muriel was the killer, I especially watched her character for clues-- but still wouldn't have seen it coming. Movie has her saying ..."

I haven't watched this particular movie episode yet, but I do usually find the characters and settings are pretty true to PDJ's descriptions so I guess at least the movie makers would have appreciated the detail.

I also listened to the book on audio. My mind would often drift and I'd replay to see what I'd missed, but it was almost always the long passages of detail I'd drifted off in.

I have to be doing something mindless--housework or knitting or just jigsaw puzzles- while listening or I drift off too. Somehow something else going on keeps me focused --- I know it doesn't make sense but that's me. Even so, I have to back up sometimes too.

I basically enjoyed the first 2/3 or 3/4 of the book but then the resolution rather ruined it. I have learned to skim the boring bits. I totally agree that James' has used the setting and family dynamics multiple times.

My problems with the ending include the unlikely coincidence of this former pupil, hated by the murderer, unlikely to be invited to join this high-class swingers club, happens to witness the crime. On the plus side, I loved the ringing cell phone in the trunk, though I did wonder about battery life when a phone is not used.

Then there was this random sister, dead for 12 - 15 years, whom Muriel may not have seen for the 12 - 15 years before that (implied by her having left home). She was unnecessary as the more important motive was insuring the museum stayed open for Caroline.

Roman Clodia wrote: "These books have become so bloated and such a slog for me that I'm mentally playing PDJ bingo:

* Kate's working-class background
* Dalgleish is a brilliant poet
* Dalgleish grew up in a vicarage
..."

Love this game! Some are the result of having to accommodate readers who haven't followed the series. I didn't notice any 'fawn' in this book, but I have learned to skim descriptions.

Regarding Dalglish and Emma, is it mentioned that they never kissed? They did make it out to dinner at least once (witnessed by Piers). We know he never took her back to his place which makes it strange that she refers it to 'home' in the last line.

Sandy wrote: "Regarding Dalglish and Emma, is it mentioned that they never kissed?"

I thought it did but just looked back and I may have misunderstood: after she accepts his written proposal the text says 'he didn't take her in his arms, nor did they kiss. For those first sweet intimacies they needed solitude.'

I read it initially as they'd never kissed but maybe it means the first kiss after the proposal.

It does say earlier that they only managed to meet for four dates and haven't been to each other's homes.

Sorry if I have misled people, but I thought that during her talk with Clara(?), she imagined what kissing, embracing him would be like.

I may be mixing up books as I read this one a little bit ago, but wasn't it mentioned that Muriel's sister committed suicide after their father died?

And I agree that if you are going to marry a police officer (or anyone whose career will include unpredictable schedules and long hours), you have to be willing to accept that that is the way things are. But it is harder to navigate last minute cancellations and rescheduling when the relationship is new and trust is still being built. It did seem odd to me that despite not having her cell phone, she didn't seem willing to wait for him for more than a few minutes.

One of the interesting issues that for me is how she does not really age Adam although the books are written over a 40 year period. She has added maybe a few more years to his life over this time and given him a promotion, but she has updated technology etc completely to be in line with the time of writing.

I agree the end felt rushed in this one and that an editor should have attacked the padding more. In general, I liked most of the characters more than in most of the other books, they seem a bit happier.

I enjoyed this book more than many of the others, but agree that similar ideas are too repetitive between books. It’s much more obvious when reading a book each month instead of the long gaps between the books being published. I liked the descriptions of London in this book. I thought the most exciting part of the book - which I thought she probably added later - was the race to find Emma at the end. But I am irritated that in all her books we have read this year almost every character is wealthy, has a title or very posh name, lives somewhere very exclusive & usually drives a very expensive car. Did she know that ordinary people exist?