Death of an Expert Witness, by P. D. James

This mystery was published in 1977. It is an interesting book for a number of reasons, but one of them is that the murder that starts off the book, that of a young girl is not at all the focus of this book. Rather it is a quite different murder – that of Dr. Lorrimer, a very experienced expert witness and highly respected academic, who was found dead one morning in his lab, with his skull smashed in, which is the book’s real focus. The first murder actually serves a different purpose; to introduce readers to the staff of a forensic laboratory, the background of this mystery.

Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his associate Detective Investigator the Honorable John Massingham are called in to investigate the Lorrimer murder. Dr. Edwin Lorrimer was respected but not well-liked, and even hated by quite a few. He was not a pleasant man – he was bad-tempered, petty, smallish, bitter and vindictive – and he had insulted many people over the years. The suspects of this murder are all limited to the lab, but even so there are several possible suspects; almost too many motives and no physical evidence to go by.

Dalgliesh is left to use his deductive skills to find who among the suspects the killer is. Then the killer decides to claim a second victim Stella Mawson.

This is another very crafty mystery novel by P.D. James. The setting is memorable, the plot is complex, the characters are very alive and believable, and all elements of the tales are wowen together in a suspenseful fashion. Death of an Expert Witness is a very elegant mystery book, quite engaging and a pleasure to read.

Praise:

‘P. D. James is one of the national treasures of British fiction… Each new book gives pleasure not just for macabre crimes or ingenious solutions but its density of experience.’ –Malcolm Bradbury, Mail on Sunday

‘Unlike so many crime writers, James still has the power to move, fascinate and astonish.’ –Independent

Links to P.D. James’ books at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

Tagged as: an Adam Dalgliesh novel, book review