Cover Her Face | Themis-Athena's library | TinyCat |

2024-05-22 4:17 am

Cover Her Face

by P. D. James

Paperback, 2009

Series

Adam Dalgliesh (1)

Publication

Faber and Faber (2009)

Original publication date

1962

Collections

Your library, Favorites, Own, Own Screen Version, BL Crowdsourced, Read, First Read Pre-Book Sites, Guardian 1000, G1000 - Crime

Tags

British Mysteries and Crime Fiction, Classics, Mysteries and Crime Fiction, Women Writers

Genres

Subjects

Dalgliesh, Adam (Fictitious character) Fiction

Detective and mystery stories

Mystery fiction

Police England Fiction

fiction in English

Awards

Barzun and Taylor's Classics of Crime (1962)

The Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read (Crime)

The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time by BookBub

Description

Fiction. Mystery. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:P. D. James is �the greatest living mystery writer.� �PeopleHeadstrong 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. Cover Her Face is P. D. James�s electric debut novel, an ingeniously plotted mystery that immediately placed her among the masters of suspense.

User reviews

LibraryThing member markatread

The main reason to read this book is because it is P D James and Adam Dalgliesh's first book. It is not a great Adam Dalgliesh book, many of the later books are much better and he is a much more interesting character in later books. In this the first book, he doesn't even show up until later in the

book; you end up knowing other characters much better than him by the end of the book; and he seems somewhat wooden and elusive. Even P. D. James seems to be struggling with what to do with him. She has two of the suspects in the murder go and interview one of the other suspects, as if she knew what they would be thinking and saying to each other better than she knew what Dalgleish would be thinking.

And while it is not a great Adam Dalgleish novel, it is an interesting look at P. D. James as she begins her career as a writer. She obviously struggles at times (there is not an even flow to the book), but it is still a very good book, one that follows in the footsteps of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. The setting is in an English country manor with lots of suspects and a murder that has been committed in a locked room. James does a good job with plotting the book and the denounment is also a classic bringing together all of the suspects so Dalgleish can unravel the mystery and expose the murderer.

LibraryThing member debavp

This may have suffered as being "the book in the car" as I read it very inconsistently over several months. I know it did suffer because I had seen the later installments of PBS' Mystery and could not help but see Marsden as Dalgliesh. Overall as I continue to read the books I'm hoping that will

not be as distracting as with this first book. I do feel that James went quite 'round in circlels with this story and really did not develop the Inspector as well as she could have. If I had not seen some of the tv bits I don't think I would have moved on to the next book.

But it did have an ending I wouldn't have predicted at anypoint while I was reading:) That was a pleasant, unexpected twist.

LibraryThing member rcooper3589

Long ago, when I was in elementary school, my Grandma told me that, when it comes to mysteries, the culprit is always the last person you suspect. After all these years I've yet to be able to prove her wrong, and "Cover Her Face" is no exception. While I enjoyed parts of the book, I wasn't overly

thrilled with it. I didn't like how interviews/meetings with Dalgliesh happened "off screen," so to speak. This made it hard to know what he was thinking and caused for a lot of talk and little action. I also felt like I was being kept out of the loop. I did, however, like it when Deborah and Felix played detective- they were a lot more fun (and easier to sympathize with!) than Dalgliesh. Although I was disappointed in this book, I know it's James' first, so I think I'll give her another try....

FAVORITE QUOTE(S): "No, I'll see the body first. The living will keep." // The crowd were dressed in summer dresses, some of the girls in clothes which would have been more suitable on a bathing-beach than in a cemetery. // The town hall, which looked as if it had been designed by a committee of morons in an excess of alcohol and civic pride, stood in isolated splendour bounded by two bombed sites where rebuilding had only just begun.

LibraryThing member AnnieMod

The first of the Adam Dalgliesh mysteries by P. D. James. England a few years after the Second World War -- the rich are still around living with the maids and everything else. A refuge for unmarried mothers. And a young woman - Sally Jupp - that lived in the latter and went to the first to work.

This is how the story begins - or at least that's how it begins before Sally is found dead.

What follows is a standard mystery which reveals a lot not only for the dead but also for everyone in the house and in the village and unearths secrets that had been buried for ages. It's well written and it does make you feel the time but it is very obvious an early work - Dalgliesh sounds just as any other inspector and there is nothing special that makes him such a likable character later on. And something with the things that were happening off the pages was not exactly right - in a few places it sounded almost as if James could not find how to tie the things together without a revelation that should have been mentioned much earlier. But at the same time there are enough clues to lead you through the book.

Overall a good start for the series and I do not sorry for reading it - I had meant to read the series in order for ages and I had never read this one before.

3 and a half stars out of 5 and a good book for starting the year.

LibraryThing member sarah-e

I am of two minds about this book. On one hand, I enjoyed it - it did not stir me up much, but I did read it quickly and I did find it thought provoking. On the other hand, I am confused by what this book really was. If it's a detective novel, I missed anything compelling in Dalgliesh's character -

no quirks, no fastidiousness, the only detail I think I can give about him is that he likes plain English foods. If it's a whodunnit, I prefer a mystery that presents facts plainly and doesn't scream at me to look this way! and now this way! and you think it's this person! and now this one! - I want to figure it out based on the clues given, not guess at who it is because of how the writer set it up.

I will read another Dalgliesh book before deciding if I'm in or out of this series - none of the problems I had with the book were distracting enough to keep me from enjoying it.

LibraryThing member wyvernfriend

Interesting story of a family who are waiting for a father to die, trying to find their place in the world and be a part of a society that's changing before their eyes. Full of stock characters from and English Country village, this is the story of an unmarried mother who is killed shortly after

announcing that she is marrying the son of the family. As the story unfolds the twists and turns of the family's problems come out.

Some of the story is pretty predictable, and there were moments where I lost the run of the plot and missed details. While the father of the house is upstairs dying this wasn't made clear until a bit into the story and I had to re-read a section to see if I missed details, which I hadn't done but it felt like I was missing something. It was the same for a lot of the story but I got used to the style pretty quickly.

Dalgleish is an interesting character and I look forward to more of this series.

LibraryThing member MusicMom41

I read this book years ago and she stilled fooled me this second time around. She has a diabolical device to completely throw you off so the ending becomes a big surprise—except once you know, you remember several “hints” along the way that you should have picked up on. P.D. James really

knows how to tell a good mystery story that also is a good novel with character development not just a “puzzle.”

LibraryThing member kjcameron

It's interesting seeing James' style evolve. Over the years she has become more fluid in her storyline, but has stayed true to her attention to the intricacies of each character she creates -and there are always many in each book.

LibraryThing member bcquinnsmom

I read this book EONS ago but had totally forgotten the plot, the mystery and the killer, so it was truly like reading it for the first time. Now I'm interested enough to reread more of my books by this author. If you haven't read it, go get a copy. It's a great book, a great mystery, filled with

enough suspects and red herrings to keep the most avid mystery fan interested through the entire book. I thought I had it figured out but I was so off the mark it wasn't funny.

brief summary, no spoilers

Sally Jupp is a very attractive, unwed mother who has been taken on as a maid in the Maxie household. Sally has come from a home for unwed mothers and lives at the house with her infant son. Every year the church holds an annual celebration (a fete); this year, the day after the proceedings finds Sally dead at unknown hands, behind locked doors. Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard must figure out who killed her, but there are many motives and many suspects to rule out before he can do his job.

As I said, an awesome book, one I very highly recommend. Mystery readers, especially those who enjoy a good British whodunit, will really enjoy this one. It is NOT a cozy, so prepare to spend some time with it!

LibraryThing member idiotgirl

Kindle. P. D. James inventing herself as a writer and Adam Dagliesch as a character. Her first book. A fun read. Didn't knock me over. You could hear the gears of a writer figuring out how to do this. Trying out various narrative techniqus and conceits. But I would be thrilled to have this be a

first novel I had written. Have I said before that I love P. D. James.

LibraryThing member mkschoen

A bit Christie-ish, country-house murder etc. And Dalgliesh isn't quite the stuffy, cerebral detective that he turns into later (at least I find him stuffy -- don't quite see what all those women see in him).

LibraryThing member RedH

This makes for a good read on a sunday afternoon.Church fete with stalls of cakes, bishops and SCANDAL! Really great to visualise and easy to get into!

LibraryThing member ponsonby

As the first of PD James' Dalgleish books this is leaner and sparer than the more spacious later books, with less about the police and more about the characters. The descriptions of settings are also less indulgent. Plot-wise it is fairly straightforward. An enjoyable read though.

LibraryThing member LisaMaria_C

This was laid out as a classic locked room mystery--set in a Tudor-era manor, with the brilliant detective--Inspector Adam Dalgliesh--bringing together the suspects in the end for the big reveal. The mystery, involving the murder of the estate's maid, Sally Jallup, kept me guessing until the end

while playing fair with the reader--a rather neat feat given this was written in omniscient, going into the mind of many of the suspects, and it's a well-done omniscient too. This was a quick, enjoyable read.

However, given James' reputation, the novel did fall short of my expectations--James has been compared to Christie, but although the mystery was well laid out, it didn't feature an amazing twist the way the best of Christie's do, and the romantic feelings of Dalgliesh for one of the suspects was so subtle I wasn't even sure it existed in the end. And while James was good about making the characters stand out as individuals, neither did I come to care about any of them. I have read the series gets much better and Dalgiesh's character more compelling and complex in later books, but this novel doesn't push me to bump the later books high up on my to-read list.

LibraryThing member BooksForDinner

6/3 - 6/7Always wanted to read a PDJ, figured I'd start from the beginning... I enjoyed this book and will definitely read more as I love mysteries, however:** Spoiler Alert**I'm not one to try and solve mysteries as i read them... occasionally i guess them, but I can't be bothered to keep all the

clues tallied in my head as i go... but there are a couple clues in the final 'I've gathered you all here' scene that Dalgliesh divulges that there is no way the reader could have known about,specifically Proctors fake right hand?!? How were we supposed to know that, and in turn surmise that he was the gloved hand in the barn? And there was no evidence at all against Mrs. Maxie, she just confessed... I pretty much assumed by the end that it was her by process of elimination, but only because as the book goes along, James tells you who it can't be...When I learn the murderer at the end, the fun for me is to say "Ohhh, of course....". On her website, James says one of her main rules of writing mysteries is to play by the 'fair play' rule, so i am assuming this shouldn't happen again.All in all, though, it was fun and of course this is one of the all time masters of the craft writing her very first book...I will look forward to another to see her develop.

LibraryThing member NellieMc

I decided to read all of the Adam Daigliesh mysteries in one fell swoop and am glad I did. First, they are classic British mysteries all well-deserving of the respect P.D. James has earned for them and all are a good read. However, what is interesting is to watch the author develop her style from

the early ones to the later ones. And, in fact, A Shroud for a Nightingale and The Black Tower (the fourth and fifth in the series) is where she crosses the divide. The later books have much more character development -- both for the players and the detectives -- make Dalgleish more rounded and are generally much more than a good mystery yarn -- they're fine novels that happen to be mysteries. The first three books (Cover Her Face, A Mind to Murder, Unnatural Causes) are just that much more simplistic. But read any or all -- she's a great writer and they are definitely worth the time.

LibraryThing member nosajeel

A classic detective novel. With all the positives and negatives that go with that. In some ways the first fifty pages -- before the murder -- were a better written, more interesting novel than what followed which relied on the typical devices of a locked room, an English manor house, and a solution

that ultimately involved three different people involved in different aspects of the murder -- all unbeknownst to each other -- in a manner that strains credulity, to say the least. That said, I did keep reading with interest to the end and the coda, like the opening, renewed interest in the characters and their relationships.

LibraryThing member IreneF

I decided to read this because I'd never read any P.D. James, and I thought I'd give her a shot. She's said she thinks of this as a lesser effort, and she's right. The novel is structured like a game of Clue--Miss Scarlett in the buttery with a soup tureen, all the suspects gathered in the dining

room for the big denouement--which can be amusing if *extremely* well-written, but this is clearly a practice run. (See, for example, A.A. Milne's The Red House Mystery, which isn't very mysterious, but remains stylistically fresh.) The characters were stereotypes, and I got to only about the middle of the book before reading ahead. Ho hum.

LibraryThing member eleanor_eader

This was James’ first crime novel, debuting DCI Adam Dalgliesh who gets far less character padding or attention than the victim, suspect pool, or even his accompanying sergeant. I enjoy James’ character building enormously, it’s really her forte, and especially the way she often leaves

Dalgliesh to the role of observer, concentrating on the crime rather than the draw of a serialised detective. In Cover her Face, none of the characters are overly likeable, but they are all very strongly presented, their actions, opinions and dialogue very human… if a little dated, in places.

The Maxies have taken in Sally Jupp, single mother, and recent resident of a refuge for women in similar ‘trouble’, to be their maid. Sally proves to be ambitious, secretive and a trouble maker. When she is found dead, the family reaction is more affront than surprise. But the motive that seems obvious dangles just out of the reach of provability… only painstaking assessment of the family and guests’ movements and characters will winnow out the culprit. Good old fashioned detective work, in other words.

I’ve read these out of order over the years, just now coming to the first book, and was surprised to find it so cohesive. It isn’t perfect; for a start this is written to be a puzzler, not a gripping page-turner, but James’ writing skills cover up any small flaws; she’s no less competent a storyteller at book one than book fourteen.

LibraryThing member Britt84

Easy read, nice detective story, bit old-fashioned... Surprising ending, keeps you guessing till the very end.

LibraryThing member tututhefirst

James is a great mystery writer. I see lots of Armand Gamache in Adam Dalgleish and found myself wondering if Louise Penny is a P.D. James fan. Detective Chief Inspector Dalgleish is quiet, urbane, cultured, and brilliant. In this opener, the police quietly, calmly go about solving a locked room

mystery, narrowing down the list of suspects to find who murdered a young unwed mother serving as a maid in an upper crusty household. There are almost a dozen suspects from jealous women to unexpected fiancees, to aging step-parents and unsavory hangers-on. I'll admit I didn't figure out how, but had my suspicions and guessed correctly who dunnit. After the murderer was revealed, the reader gets an "Of course!!!" moment.

I also liked that James doesn't try to pull all the strings together and wrap up the characters and the story with a pretty bow. There are some boils left to be lanced, and some intimations that some relationships may develop in the future. Which is exactly what the debut of a series should present.

LibraryThing member FCH123

Not so great. I expected this -- the first book in a series usually is weak (but good enough) to allow the author to continue to develop as a writer. Maybe I shouldn't read these in order? I'll think about it.

LibraryThing member poonamsharma

Let me think, was I surprised during revelation? Um, it was much of an anticlimax, no thrill in end. Even though victim Sally's character was very promising and suspects around her pretty plausible. Only end did not live up to it.

LibraryThing member Belsornia

'Cover Her Face', P.D. James' first novel, lacks the originality and challenges to the traditions of the genre of the later Dalgliesh books. Instead this is very much a traditional British mystery, with a host of suspects ensconced in a country house when a murder takes place. The mystery is

quotedian, but the book's strength is James' consistently excellent characterisation; even the most minor personages are fully rounded and believable. One of these is Dalgliesh himself, who remains in the background of the plot. Although the police case provides the frame around which the story develops, Dalgliesh is a foil to the actions and character development of the Maxies and their circle, rather than the captivating protagonist he becomes as the series develops. James' gentle probing of social prejudices and neuroses also provides an indication of themes which will be expanded in future works.

LibraryThing member MrsLee

A young single mother stirs up trouble in a village and especially in the household where she is employed as a serving maid. It surprises none when she turns up dead. Now Dalgliesh is on the case. The tension mounts as he digs around for the facts.

This story was an enjoyable mystery, though I

quibble with the character resolutions at the end. I do think the author played "fair" with the reader. I won't be keeping it, as I have no desire to read it again. The author never lets us get close enough to Dalgliesh to enjoy him or even root for him.

Language

Original language

English

ISBN

9780571245901

Physical description

224 p.; 5.04 inches

Other editions

Cover Her Face by P. D. James (CD audiobook)

Pages

224

Library's rating

Rating

½ (777 ratings; 3.6)

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