Most helpful customer reviews
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
very good, Jul 10 2007
This novel is a very satisfying read, it has a wonderful build-up to the story, maybe too much history in presenting the different characters but the plot is well structured and very captivating.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Character Counts, Jul 15 2006
Like many readers, I found The Murder Room to be a disappointing book. Had the inimitable P.D. James lost it?
That concern is happily banished by reading the latest Adam Dalgliesh novel, The Lighthouse.
On an isolated island in the Channel, retainers and a few guests enjoy tranquility and seclusion. A mysterious death occurs, and A.D. is called in to check things out. It seems that "higher persons" are about to retreat to Combe Island, and the unpleasantness needs to be sorted out before that can happen.
A.D. is jolted out his is plans to spend a rare weekend with Emma Lavenham, the woman he has proposed to. Detective Inspector Kate Miskin finds herself faced with the prospect of having a new relationship interrupted. Sergeant Francis Benton-Smith is nervous about working under DI Miskin.
Next, we zoom to the island to meet the staff, permanent residents and visitors. They are an eclectic lot as such lands' end locations tend to attract. Miss Emily Holcombe is the last member of the family that deeded the island for its unique purpose. One visitor has come to take refuge from weighty family and public pressures. Another visitor has a hidden agenda. Some of the staff are like flotsam and jetsam, having washed up on Combe's shore when the mainland no longer seemed right for them. Two would like to escape as quickly as possible. At the center of these diverse persons is a world-famous novelist, Nathan Oliver, who was born on the island. Oliver is unable to experience emotions himself and prefers to stage crises so he can observe how those who do have strong emotions behave and speak. With Oliver are his daughter, who keeps house for him, and his own editor, who's on hand to help finish a new novel.
Against this backdrop, the death occurs. A.D. and his team arrive and the book takes on the air of a police procedural as interviews and investigations proceed.
But then two unexpected events occur that shift everyone's circumstances. The story quickly shifts off into an unexpected direction.
Like a deus ex machina, the solution emerges from almost nowhere. That break in the case quickly sets in motion startling new challenges that bring the book to an interesting and rewarding conclusion.
Although this story at first seems about the puzzle, P.D. James deftly enlarges her tale to help us think about the nature of parenthood and childhood. She also uses brief histories, vignettes and carefully defined action to illuminate and grow her characters in your mind. It's so subtle that it happens almost without her writing hand being seen. By isolating her characters on the island, she highlights them in the way a spotlight causes us to focus on the actors on a stage. In places, you'll feel And Then There Were None being evoked. Yet the story is fresh, unexpected and intriguing. In the end, I'm sure you'll agree with me that this book could easily have been called Character Counts.
Bravo, Baroness!
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5.0 out of 5 stars
See the light, Mar 20 2006
THE LIGHTHOUSE is a great book. I'm rather choosy about mysteries. Anything experimental or slangy --- especially authors who strive too visibly to write "more" than a mystery --- turns me off; James is a favorite because she is a master at taking the classic formulas to a higher level and burnishing them until they glow. Not only is "The Lighthouse" an exciting whodunit, it also is a deeply psychological novel in which the reader gains insight into the personalities of Dalgleish, Kate, and Benton. The central theme of the novel is the intersection of the past and the present, and the impossibility of anyone ever being completely free of his history. This rich and beautifully developed story shows that P. D. James, at eight-five, could give a few lessons to her younger counterparts in the field of mystery writing. Normally one for something a tad more "literary", say, like McCrae's KATZENJAMMER, I found THE LIGHTHOUSE to be a hoot! Entertaining beyond all belief!
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