Cover Her Face by PD James - RIP V Review I

My very first RIP V challenge review! Woot!

This novel is not what I generally read. I'm a fantasy/scifi girl to the core. Back cover description:

Headstrong and beautiful, the young housemaid Sally Jupp is put rudely in her place, strangled in her bed behind a bolted door. Coolly brilliant policeman Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard must find her killer among a houseful of suspects, most of whom had very good reason to wish her ill.

 I am a sucker for Masterpiece Mystery!, the BBC show that comes on every Sunday on the educational television channel. As I was reading this, I was reminded of those little stories I watch every week and tried to imagine what it would be like acted out. When I later discussed the book with my parents (who both love PD James), I realized that my gripes really don't have anything to do with the book itself, but rather mostly the genre. I'm just not a mystery reader. I like watching them, I even like listening to them on podcast or CD, but I'm just not crazy about reading them.

I got a bit lost in her descriptions sometimes. I noted that sentences could be as long as a paragraph in some places. Along the same lines, I felt like there was a lot of extraneous information. I would have thought that the story would follow Dalgliesh closer, but he doesn't even show up until the middle of the book (understandable) and even then there are some scenes that he is not even present in which seemed unimportant anyway (less understandable). I will say that the characters were diverse and well fleshed-out. I could picture these people, and their mannerisms were consistent and varied.

All in all, I struggled with this book a bit, and was glad it was only 250 pages. I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I'd gotten it on tape/CD/podcast. It wasn't a bad book, just not my taste. I will still try Death in Holy Orders by PD James, but it probably won't be the next book I read.

Bottom Line

Overall Rating: 2.5 / 5

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Content

Plot: 3 / 5 (solid, but not exciting)
Setting: 2 / 5 

Characters: 3.5 / 5

Style 
Pace: Slow to Middlin' 
Descriptiveness: Poetry 
Fantasy factor: Not fantasy

Amazon.com Link