Traditional Mystery P.D. James Says Her Novels Are About Solving Puzzles, Not Murder

There have been many kinds of murder in the best-selling novels of P.D. James - murder by stabbing, murder by poisoning, murder by strangulation, murder by slashing, murder even by a sabotaged set of brakes on a wheelchair.

But woe to those who suggest to Great Britain’s Grande Dame of Crime that all these murders most foul might somehow contribute to a modern world that takes murder for granted, even finds murder just another form of titillating entertainment. TV violence may do that, James conceded in an interview, and many films, too, but not the sort of traditional mystery that she has written for more than three decades.

“For one thing, I almost never describe the actual killing, although I do describe the finding of the body accurately because I want readers to see it through the eyes of the person who finds the body and feel the horror they experience in coming upon such a horrible, horrible thing,” James remarked.

“But a traditional mystery, unlike a lot of films and television, is about solving a puzzle, something that affirms the sanctity of life. In a society where dead bodies are increasingly taken for granted, a traditional mystery is consoling. Solving the unique crime of murder - the crime for which one can pay no appropriate reparation - is an affirmation that we live in a rational universe.”

Thousands of loyal readers on both sides of the Atlantic have been rushing to enter this Jamesian world once more with her latest best-seller, “A Certain Justice” (Knopf, 364 pages, $25). This is yet another sterling example of how the 77-year-old James has been able to elevate the traditional mystery to something approaching literary art, with her acutely observed settings, her insider’s knowledge of investigative techniques, her complex characters, her restrained, yet irresistible pacing.

“P.D. James,” writes acclaimed novelist Joyce Carol Oates in the current issue of New York Review of Books, “does not ‘transcend’ genre; she refines, deepens, and amplifies it.”

Or as James herself put it: “I want to be a very good novelist who has chosen to write in the convention of mystery.”

“A Certain Justice” concerns the murder, discovered in her locked office, of London lawyer Venetia Aldridge, one of the country’s leading defense attorneys, a driven woman much-respected for her talents in the courtroom, and much-despised for her relentless and chilling personality. Only a few suspects might have had access to her office, it turns out, but many of them may well have had motive to drive the dagger she used as a letter opener directly into her heart.

On the case again is Cmdr. Adam Dalgliesh, the inscrutable Scotland Yard maverick, a longtime widower and well-considered poet who is James’ signature creation. Dalgliesh, as portrayed by actor Ray Marsden, has become a familiar detective to TV audiences (through the popular PBS’ “Mystery” series), as filmed versions of James’ novels now follow book versions like clockwork, as is to happen soon with “A Certain Justice.”

Some critics suggest that James seems to have grown tired of Dalgliesh, this restrained and intellectual detective whom she often describes as having “a splinter of ice in his heart.” But his creator insists otherwise.

“I am not weary of him,” James said. “It’s just that he doesn’t dominate the books and the reason for that is that there is so much else I want to do.

“Probably one-fifth of ‘A Certain Justice’ passes before he even appears because I wanted to set the scene, to show Venetia Aldridge at work and at home, to examine the lives of the other barristers she works with, as well as my longtime detective, Kate Miskin, and her new partner. But Dalgliesh is there at every critical stage of the investigation.”

Phyllis Dorothy James herself may have had a more complex and probably more difficult life than many of her creations. This daughter of a civil servant ended her formal schooling at 16 to get a job to help her family make tattered ends meet.

Her father never recovered from his service as a machine gunner in World War I. Her husband, and the father of their two daughters, never recovered from his service as a doctor in World War II and suffered many years of mental illness until his death, a probable suicide, in 1964.

World wars played a pivotal role in James’ life, changing in horrible ways the character of the two crucial men closest to her, and also providing some of her strongest memories.

“I can remember falling to sleep during the Second World War to the sounds of bombers taking off and later to the sounds of bombs in London,” James recalled.

“And I can remember going to dances with all those handsome young aviators and making dates for next Saturday night and then they wouldn’t show up - and you knew they had been killed.”

With a husband who was in and out of mental hospitals, James always supported her family, as she steadily rose in the British civil service to leadership positions in hospitals and in the police bureau. These government experiences paid considerable dividends in her mysteries after she finally acted, at midlife, upon her childhood dream of becoming a writer. She began putting words to paper at the kitchen table for two hours each morning before she set off to work.

“I suppose what kept me going was love, both for my husband and my children, and wanting to do well for them,” James reflected. “But I was also reasonably ambitious, and tough; you do what you have to do. And what I had to do was certainly no worse for me than it is for many other people. Religion was also a factor for me.”

James, an amiable and erudite conversationalist, considers herself a “private person” and has refrained from writing about herself, although she has conceded that some of her characters in her 14 novels do possess some of her own traits, especially her love of the intellectual life, plus her reticence about the emotions.

Only recently has James given any thought to writing a memoir of her long and varied life, although it would certainly not be the sort of memoir that points fingers of blame. Another mystery is probably more likely.

But James definitely has no plans to retire from writing, at least at this point in her productive life that now has her in the midst of a book tour through 14 American cities.

“As long as I get ideas which excite me, ideas which make me feel I must write this book, then I’ll continue,” she stressed. “But it will definitely not just be to write more books or make more money - I don’t need it. Time is much more precious to me.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: BEST-SELLER P.D. James’ newest novel, “A Certain Justice” (Knopf, 364 pages, $25), is No. 3 on the New York Times best-seller list.