December 5, 2016
Two of this quartet of posthumously collected short stories feature James’s New Scotland Yard sleuth, Supt. Adam Dalgliesh, narrated crisply and with touches of wry humor by reader Weyman, the voice of the poet-detective in previous audiobooks. In “The Boxdale Inheritance,” Dalgliesh investigates an infamous 67-year-old murder case, while “The Twelve Clues of Christmas” presents a younger, newly minted Sergeant Dalgliesh who, on his way to his aunt’s Christmas Eve dinner, is interrupted by a frantic man who has just discovered his uncle’s apparent suicide. James brightens all four tales with metafictional touches—from unapologetic references to her use of mystery tropes to allusions to Agatha Christie’s works. Weyman’s narration dryly takes note of these, as does Agutter’s in the other two stories. Her reading of “A Very Commonplace Murder,” a study of a smarmy, porn-addicted clerk who could alter a murder trial but doesn’t, is hard-edged and at times venomous. Her tone softens for the title piece, matching its narrator, an elderly popular crime novelist who recalls a Christmas half a century before when she wound up involved in a vicious murder. Agutter also provides a rather aloof rendition of a brief but informative essay by James on short crime fiction. A Knopf hardcover.
Starred review from August 8, 2016
The four previously uncollected mysteries in this collection show that James (1920–2014) was just as adept at the short form as she was at novel length; they efficiently introduce characters and create atmosphere, while posing fair challenges to readers eager to match wits with her. The title story presents a solution to a very cold case, provided by a mystery author who was in the house where an antiques dealer was bludgeoned to death. The author subtly conceals the signpost to the truth in “A Very Commonplace Murder,” the most complex selection, in which an alibi witness dithers over coming forward to clear an innocent man. In “The Twelve Clues of Christmas,” Adam Dalgleish, her series lead, comments, “I don’t think I’ll ever have another case like it. It was pure Agatha Christie.” Such a comparison isn’t gratuitous—the puzzles are sure to please Christie fans, while offering enough psychological depth to satisfy those who want to emotionally invest in the characters, even if they appear for just a few dozen pages. Agent: Carol Heaton, Greene & Heaton Ltd. (U.K.).