An Unsuitable Job for a Woman - P. D. James ****

By Brian Clegg

P. D. James was one of the great English crime writers, with one of the more interesting detectives in Adam Dalgliesh, but reading this novel from 1972 I was struck by how interesting it was to me for two reasons. One is purely personal – it’s set in Cambridge just a couple of years before I was there, so comparing the picture James paints with my own experience was fun. But more significant is the stylistic approach she takes.

I’m a great fan of Margery Allingham – and the central character in James’ book is a pure Allingham heroine – Cordelia Gray is young, feisty, intelligent and taking on a role that would in earlier years have been considered the ‘unsuitable job for a woman’ of the title – a private detective. Although technically an Adam Dalgliesh book, we only get indirect references to him until the final chapter where he makes an appearance, very much as a supporting character.

But it’s not really having a murder mystery where the author’s detective is sidelined that makes this particularly striking – it’s not just Cordelia’s character that feels like the work of Allingham. The whole thing feels as if it comes from an earlier period, fitting far better with Allingham’s arguably best inter-war books. Of course there are some aspects that bring us back to the second half of the twentieth century, such as Cordelia driving a Mini – but on the whole it could so easily have been set 40 years earlier. Cordelia even spends most of her time living in a cottage without electricity.

This period feel also comes out in the portrayal of Cambridge student life – what’s front and centre is lying around with picnics and fizz and punting. I’m not saying that such things didn’t exist in the 70s – of course they did – but for most students they were far less central than they seemed to be to the characters that James portrays there.

If I’m honest, this is not a great murder mystery – the plot feels a little contrived and unlikely. But taken as a novel that’s not so much a pastiche as an homage it’s lovely – and although the scene-setting does not feel like the 70s, it is beautifully done for an earlier age, making it a pleasure to read.

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Now Appearing is the blog of science writer Brian Clegg (www.brianclegg.net), author of Inflight Science, Before the Big Bang and The God Effect.