Basic Information : Synopsis : Characters : Thoughts : Evaluation : Book Group : New Words : Book References : Good Quotes : Table of Contents : References
Basic Information:
Author: PD James
Edition: Paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 9780345446664 (ISBN10: 0345446666)
Start Date: May 12, 2024
Read Date: May 21, 2024
I have read this book several times before.
429 pages
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Book Group
Language Warning: None
Rated Overall: 4½ out of 5
Fiction-Tells a good story: 4 out of 5
Fiction-Character development: 5 out of 5
Synopsis (Caution: Spoiler Alert-Jump to Thoughts):
A small high church seminary has a death of an ordinal by a sand slide-is it a suicide, accident or murder? Then there is the death of a long employed staff member which looks like a natural death. This is followed by the death of the Archdeacon. All of these deaths are against the background that the Anglican church is trying to shut down this seminary.
PD James leads us through each character in the book on the way to solving the crime, showing the goodness and the darkness which invades each of us. Also, the seminary has a natural limited life span as the sea is encroaching on the buildings. It has maybe another twenty years of functionality.
Adam Dalgliesh is called in informally to examine the first death, but gets involved in the other deaths. The book leads us through the investigation, with the Dalgliesh’s team joining him.
Cast of Characters:
- Charlie Parker-died in the struggle with the IRA. Margret Munroe’s son.
- Adam Dalgliesh-PD James main detective. Killing Sand-3
- Kate Miskin-investigator in Dalgliesh’s team. Death of an Archdeacon-4
- Piers Tarrant-investigator in Dalgliesh’s team. Death of an Archdeacon-4
- Margaret Munroe-narrator for the first chapter. Nurse. Lost son in war. Dies. Killing Sand-1
- Ronald Treeves-ordinal, son of a rich man, dies in a sand slide. Killing Sand-1
- Father Martin Petrie-Long time father, former Warden of seminary. Killing Sand-5
- Father Sebastian Morell--Warden of the seminary. Killing Sand-5
- George Gregory-teacher of Greek and Hebrew. Killing Sand-1
- Ruby Pilbeam-Cook. Killing Sand-13
- Sir Alred Treeves-rich father of Ronald. Killing Sand-2
- Father Peregrine Glover-Librarian Killing Sand-5
- Father John Betterton-teacher. Convicted child molester. The Archdeacon offered testimony against him. Killing Sand-1
- Roger Yarwood-detective who is taking a rest at the seminary. Not part of Dalgliesh’s team. He was the investigating officer in the Archdeacon’s first wife’s suicide. Killing Sand-7
- Clive Stannard-grandson of partner of seminary’s law firm. Studying an ancient family.Killing Sand-8
- Raphael Arbuthnot-ordinal and relative of the original benefactor of the seminary. Left at the seminary to be cared for. Killing Sand-6
- Archdeacon Crampton-murdered. Wants to close down seminary. Killing Sand-18
- Emma Lavenham-guest lecturer in poetry. Killing Sand-14
- Eric Surtees-handyman. Killing Sand-11
- Karen Surtees-half sister of Eric Surtees. Killing Sand-11
- Agatha Betterton-Sister of Father John. Death of an Archdeacon-6
- Robbins-Sergeant, part of Dalgliesh’s team. Death of an Archdeacon-4
- Miles Kynaston-forensic pathologist. Death of an Archdeacon-4
- Mark Ayling-Acting coroner. Death of an Archdeacon-7
- Brian Clark-head of SOCO for Dalgliesh search
- Charlie Ferris-previous head of SOCO team
- Barney Parker-photographer
- Stephen Morby-ordinal. Killing Sand-19
- Clara Arbuthnot-mother of Raphael Arbuthnot. Killing Sand-17
- Mrs. Mellois
- Mike Parker
- Henry Bloxham-an ordinal
- Marcus Treeves
- Mr. Norris
- Harkness-Dalgliesh’s superior officer.
- Peter Jackson
- Shirley Legge-nurse while Munroe worked at hospice.
- Mildred Fawcett-friend of Munroe.
- Elsie Bardurell
- Stacey Whetstone-Matron of the hospice where Munroe used to work
- Paul Perronet-lawyer for the seminary
- Giles-Minor character, boyfriend of Emma
- George Metcalf-doctor for the seminary
- Mr. Mellish-regular coroner
- Dr. Mallinson-doctor who attends the area around St Anselm
- Sadie-girlfriend from St Anselm when Dalgliesh was there as a teen
- Brian Miles-first officer who arrived at Ronald’s place of death
- Irfon Jones
Thoughts:
Each of the chapters are also divided up into smaller sections. James builds her story, section by section. First she sets up who her characters are. This is not just a telling of their characteristics, but a telling of the story of who they are and how they fit into her book. She also makes it seem like Dalgliesh just happens to be at the site of murder. But she has cleverly set him there to look into another matter.
I will be dividing my thoughts into two sections. Things which amuse or resonate with me and the second being hints which James lays down about the deaths.
It is amazing the memory which Dalgliesh has-even remembering a phone number he used once he is able to recall.
I use the term seminary for St Anselm. It is a school of about twenty men and four priests. The men are studying to be priests. It is a small school by Angelican standards and pretty conservative in its views.
Services:
- Morning Prayer-From earliest times, Christians gathered at regular hours during each day and night to respond to God’s word with praise on behalf of all creation and with intercession for the salvation of the world. By the fourth century, if not earlier, morning and evening had emerged as the pre-eminent hours for the offering of this sacrifice of praise. Although they have remained so ever since, in the course of time two major changes came over the form of prayer offered. First, regular daily prayer became more and more the practice of the clergy and members of religious orders alone, with the rest of the people of God participating chiefly on Sundays and festivals. Second, as a consequence of this, the forms of prayer came to be thought of more as words to be said or sung than as a liturgy to be celebrated corporately.
- The Euchrist
- Evening Prayer
- Compline-The ancient office of Compline derives its name from a Latin word meaning ‘completion’ (completorium). It is above all a service of quietness and reflection before rest at the end of the day. It is most effective when the ending is indeed an ending, without additions, conversation or noise. If there is an address, or business to be done, it should come first. If the service is in church, those present depart in silence; if at home, they go quietly to bed.
James tries to play up the rivalry/friendship between Piers and Kate. This is an area which I do not think James does well.
Things which interest me:
Book One - The Killing Sand
Margaret Munroe writes in her diary. She had discovered the body of Treeves and Father Martin felt writing might help her sort through her thinking. She does not go to Mass-she once did.
She comments that the Fathers, of course, they noticed; they notice everything. I do not get the feeling that they are on the watch for sin, but more on the watch for things which might disturb the seminary. This will be of interest later on. As priests they have a tendency to be confidential and so when asked by the police, they only say what is being asked and not more. But they have seen a lot more than what they said.
James uses the diary to set out the characters at the seminary, St. Anselm. This is a fictional seminary for traditional students who are first rate scholars. James also gives the layout of the campus. The college is only about a century and a half old, being endowed by a wealthy patron. Over time, the sea has been encroaching on the building and in twenty years, the buildings will fall into the ocean.
Munroe was a nurse in a convalescent home, so she had seen plenty of dead bodies. But everybody else was very concerned because she found the body. Mr Gregory said that Seeing a dead body, any body, is a comforting reassurance that we may live as men but we die as animals. Personally I find that a relief. I can’t imagine any greater horror than eternal life. Gregory is a Greek tutor, but an atheist. I think what James is pointing out is that you have to understand what is being talked about in order to make proper judgment. In this case, Gregory is saying that he does not want to watch his body just getting older and more decrepit. He would rather die. But I do not think that is what eternal life is. For one, there is no decay.
Treeves' father is rich and wants a further investigation. Dalgliesh is sent to St Anselm’s to nose around. Dalgliesh has had prior experience there.
Treeves' father wants to know Why doesn’t the Church bring it up to date. The “it” are the creeds. Dalgliesh points out that these were hammered out with great dispute and this is what the Church’s beliefs are based upon. I snickered at his lack of knowledge-but then again I think James meant for people to either snicker or look at the creed a bit closer.
Dalgliesh has not been to St Anselm since he was a boy and asked himself, why hadn’t he returned. Had it been an instinctive reluctance to court disappointment, the knowledge that one returns to a well-loved place always under judgment, burdened by the sad accretion of the years? A variant on you cannot go back home.
When Dalgliesh was there in his teens, he liked the library. He liked the prevailing but never oppressive silence, the assurance that he could take possession of every new day in unquestioned liberty. The library was his friend then. He also had a friend there named Sadie. Sadie had a strange way of seeing if you were acceptable. If you survived, you were accepted. Dalgliesh wondered if she now had a husband and children. if their fathers hadn’t been drowned, electrocuted or otherwise disposed of in Sadie’s preliminary process of selection. An amusing sentence when you read this in context.
Back to Munroe’s diary. She remembers something. as I unwrapped the leeks that scene on the shore was fresh in my mind and I knew that I must tell the person most concerned. Once I’d done that I would keep silent. Munroe had been living with more than a weak heart. She suffered the pain of losing her son.
James not only talks about the conflict between tradition and modernism in the Church, but she can interject humor into her story. Not slapstick. But humor which when found, you can enjoy. Such as when she is describing Ramsey, Father Sebastian’s secretary, she talks about how Father Martin was always afraid that he might inadvertently let out a fart in her presence.
Father Martin, recognizing that his thoughts were ignoble, made a quick mental act of contrition. This was in relation to what passed through his mind about Father Sebastin’s dead wife. It is always interesting to see how we should act when we find something going on in our mind which we do not like. This is not the only time thoughts like this go through Father Martin’s mind.
Father Martin notes that concerning marriage that a great liking was as important as love, and more durable.
With the connections of the Archdeacon’s past with both Father John and Inspector Yarwood, it would be a long weekend.
We all have our darkness within. One of the many references to who we are and what we deal with, which is one of the thrusts of this book. Father John has dealt with his issues. Father Martin knows his thoughts similar to Chesterton’s Father Brown and sees that many are not good. While it may be related to the murder, it is not the main thrust of the reason behind it.
In chastising Raphael for a poorly written essay, Father Sebastin quotes Evelyn Waugh as saying theology as the science of simplification whereby nebulous and elusive ideas are made intelligible and exact. Waugh’s quote from When the Going Was Good. The actual quote is close: I saw theology as the science of simplification by which nebulous and elusive ideas are formalized and made intelligible and exact.
I do not think I ever want to be described as Sir Alred was as a man whose absence was usually preferable to his presence.
Instead of going the most direct route to St Anselm, Dalgliesh heads to the backroads and takes a quiet lunch. These were the moments he craved in an over-busy life, the knowledge that no one in the world knew exactly where he was or could reach him. We should all have places like this in our lives, where we can pause and reflect. One of the reasons I enjoy being in a fire lookout.
He makes it to St Anselm and meets his old friend, the ex-Warden of the school, Father Martin. This is pleasant for him.Reviews the circumstance why he is there with Father Sebastian. Also the cast of characters.
There are several pieces of art work talked about in the book. Two of the most talked about are van der Weyden’s Madonna and the Doom. Not sure if either is made up. But there was several van der Weyden Madonnas. Van der Weyden did an altar piece similar to Jan van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece. Nothing was insured. But they were putting their confidence in isolation and a modern alarm system. James gives us this description of the Doom: it was designed to terrify medieval congregations into virtue and social conformity literally through the fear of hell. Now it was viewed by interested academics or by modern visitors for whom the fear of hell no longer had power, and who sought heaven in this world, not in the next. Father Martin says that it is similar to the Wenhaston Doom. Dalgliesh is interested in knowing what happens to the art if St Anselm closes.
Dalgliesh is brought back to his teens when he stayed at St Anselm’s. I like the description of Agnes Arbuthnot, the lady who started St Anselm. Dalgliesh says that she was a beautiful woman who did not use her beauty to get what she wanted or for joy, but looked elsewhere for power. Something to ponder about what gives us joy? How do we use what we have for power?
Dalgliesh and Martin visit the spot where Treeves dies. Suffocating under a pile of sand would seem like a terrible way to day. Why not just swim into the ocean and let the cold and ocean take you? Treeves was scared of the sea. To Martin, part of the tragedy was that Ronald killed himself without us even knowing that he was so unhappy, then we failed him unforgivably. I can’t really believe that he came here with the intention of committing what for him would have been a grave sin.
To Dalgliesh, this death seems more like a suicide than an accident. He talks to the doctor about Munroe’s death and does not find anything unusual.
Interesting phrase which Emma says about Father John and his relationship with his sister: even love was an added burden rather than a comfort. This is in background of being convicted of sexual acts with some young boys and then rooming with his eccentric sister at St Anselm. Love can be both a comfort and burden. But the burden part should be one which we accept and desire when we love someone. Love is not all roses, but it includes making sure the roses are well cared for.
When Dalgliesh interviewed Eric Surtees, he had just come in from taking care of his pigs. He washed himself up. Dalgliesh’s thoughts were that He seemed like a man cleaning himself of more than superficial dirt. It was evident that Eric was fond of his pigs. Dalgliesh had more thoughts about the general condition of mankind: the capacity of men to be genuinely fond of their animals, to have a lively regard for their welfare and minister to their needs with devotion, and at the same time be so easily reconciled to their slaughter. I think this is derivative of my thinking. I think I would be pretty squeamish slaughtering a chicken or a cow, and yet I enjoy eating them. Which is better to slaughter an animal you have raised for the food it will provide or to shy away from the slaughter without regard that this is your food?
In talking with St Anselm’s law firm, Dalgliesh finds out that the four fathers would inherit the seminary and contents, including the silver and paintings if the seminary closes. That is if there is no living legal relation. There is none, only Raphael which was born out of wedlock which meant he is not legal. An unusual wording, surely, ‘legitimate in English law One of the relations was an atheist which brought up the lawyer's retort: Can an atheist be fervent? Since fervent means used to describe beliefs that are strongly and sincerely felt or people who have strong and sincere beliefs, I think his point is that an atheist is one without beliefs in God. So how can you be fervent if you hold a lack of belief?
Talks about the Archdeacon and his first wife’s death. Yarwood was the investigating officer.
He felt that St Anselm was too elitist in how it recruited its students and too small to be useful, also too expensive and remote. So it should be closed. This made him an enemy of everybody at St Anselm. He would make it his business to ensure that all valuables were removed from the college before it was formally closed. The Archdeacon wanted to see the van der Weyham painting. Father Sebstain needed to go with him into the church. Surely in church two priests could talk to each other without acrimony.
This was a struggle between two visions for the church: one which sees itself true to its calling and one which is in tune with the times. What is it that you want? A Church without mystery, stripped of that learning, tolerance and dignity that were the virtues of Anglicanism? A Church without humility in the face of the ineffable mystery and love of Almighty God? Services with banal hymns, a debased liturgy and the Eucharist conducted as if it were a parish bean-feast? A Church for Cool Britannia?
Afternoon tea with the ordinals. Mrs Pilbeam is given cooking lessons. Emma asks the ordinals who hear their confessions, do the Fathers? Henry answers that We may be incestuous but we’re not as incestuous as that. A priest comes in once a quarter. This is one of those places which James gives us a laugh.
The ordinals think of the Archdeacon as a Victorian throw-back. When he’s here I feel I’m in a Trollope novel, except that the roles have got reversed. Father Sebastian ought to be Archdeacon Grantly, with Crampton playing Slope. … Oh, he’s sincere all right. Hitler was sincere. Genghis Khan was sincere. Every tyrant’s sincere. This is one of the places where James gets her digs into our current society. We count sincerity as being a badge of rightness. If we are sincere in our beliefs then we are OK. But if I am sincere in my beliefs and I cross whatever line a person has then it is no longer OK.
Archdeacon finds out that Yawood is at St Anselm for a sabbatical. Then at the dinner Raphael does a reading from Barchester Towers by Trollope. This reading is aimed at the Archdeacon and it hits. Tension is in the room.
Book Two - Death of an Archdeacon
Follows the Archdeacon’s thoughts as he prepares for bed. He is restless, sleepless, but content with the sermon he preached at Compline. The sermon was that a place like St Anselm is out of date, His thought was there were, he reminded himself, battles of principles which had to be fought if the Church of England was to survive to serve the new millennium. Closing St. Anselm’s might be only a minor skirmish in that war, but it was one which would give him satisfaction to win. A reminder that the Church’s survival does not depend on a man, but on God. For him a church was functional, a building for worship, not a place of worship. I have thought that as well, but in my later age, I have been more willing to recognize that certain places will cause my heart to rise to God more easily. Maybe it would be more apt to say that God can be worshiped wherever you are, but there is a call to come and worship together in certain places.
As he is sleepless, he is thinking over his life and what he has been. This included the last moments of his first wife, before she committed suicide. This included the questioning which Yarwood had of how she died. This was broken by the ringing of his telephone.
Father Martin also had a sleepless night because the howling of the storm brought back memories of being in a Japanese concentration camp. He went to the church to find some comfort. He found with a small shock of surprise but no anxiety that the spotlight which illuminated the Doom was on, so that the west end of the church was bathed in its reflected glow. The Doom had been defaced, but at the foot was the Archdeacon with blood all over him. What he found [registered] by slow degrees, detail by detail. The smashed skull; the Archdeacon’s spectacles lying a little apart but unbroken; the two brass candlesticks placed one on each side of the body as if in an act of sacreligious contempt. Martin then pulled the church bell, summoning help. Emma came, summoned by the bell.
Dalgliesh hears the bell as well and goes to the church where he finds both Martin and Emma huddled over the body. His thought was that Compassion for his companions was overlaid with more urgent preoccupations: the imperative to preserve the scene from contamination as far as possible, and the need to ensure that the method of murder was kept secret. Only those two were awoken by the bell.
This murder quickly becomes Dalgliesh’s case along with his team being assigned to it as well.
Dalgliesh and Sebastain enter the church. Sebastain prays for the Archdeacon. Dalgliesh thinks The last time he remembered having prayed with passion and with the belief that his prayer was valid had been when his wife was dying, and it had not been heard—or, if heard, had not been answered. I was thinking about this. It may not be that the prayer was not answered, but it may be answered not how we want it to be.
Agatha Betterman likes the theater, but is hard of hearing. She wonders if actors have classes in mumbling at drama school and sit in a circle mumbling at each other? Hilarious!
Chapter 8 summarizes things in Piers and Kate’s vision of St Anselm
The murderer was called Cain until they could figure out who the person was.
Interesting couple of thoughts which James has: Apart from the morality of lying. Raphael has asked Emma if she would tell Dalgliesh that they were together on the night of the murder. Interesting that an ordinal who wants to be a priest would want both to confess to being a liar and the carnality associated with this alibi. Emma refuses and as a rejoinder she says: You don’t sleep with a man in principle, you sleep with him in the flesh. It is one thing to have sex as a thought, but it is more than just thoughts, it is also a desire of the flesh. The conversation makes Emma realize things about her relationship with her boyfriend back at Cambridge.
Father Martin was the previous Warden. This did not seem to bother Father Sebastian. Says something about how Martin was and how Sebastian is: The most confident of men, he[Sebastian] could probably have accommodated the Archbishop of Canterbury on his staff in a junior capacity without difficulty.
Even saintly people have thoughts which they consider inappropriate. Father Martin was amazed and shaken that an idea so perversely inappropriate could have come into his mind. He must, he thought, be getting light-headed. And even Sebastain has thoughts of his own lack of perfection. He feels that he should have been able to comfort the Archdeacon’s wisdom: I’m afraid I failed her.
And then there are the thoughts of mortality. What have we done with our lives as we approach the end? Father Martin thought: Had he, during the course of his ministry, changed a single life? He recalled the words of a woman overheard when he was leaving his last parish. “Father Martin is a priest of whom no one ever speaks ill. It seemed to him now the most damning of indictments. Is it enough to live gently, to live honorably? Do we all need to have stars in the sky shining our good deeds at the end of our lives?
Your friends, if they can, may bury you with some distinction,
and set up a monument, to let posterity see that your dust lies under such a stone;
and when that is done, all is done.
Your place is filled up by another, the world is just in the same state it was,
you are blotted out of its sight,
and as much forgotten by the world
as if you had never belonged to it.
Is it therefore worth your while to lose the smallest degree of virtue,
for the sake of pleasing so bad a master, and so false a friend, as the world is?
--William Law, A Serious Call to the Devote and Holy Life, chp 17
Raphael: People one hates ought not to get themselves murdered. It gives them an unfair advantage. I didn’t kill him, but I feel as guilty as if I did.
No one is at his best when involved in an investigation of murder; even reasonable and public-spirited witnesses, fortified by innocence, can come to resent the intrusion of police probing, and no one faces it with an entirely clear conscience.
Tractarians-the study which Stannard was making.
Dalgliesh and Piers get Stannard to be caught up in a major lie about him not having been in the church on this visit. It was one thing to put a suspect at a disadvantage, another to witness this transformation of a man into a terrified animal. Reducing a human to an animal.
Stannard confesses to trying to find the St Anselm papyrus. He was unsuccessful. But in doing so, he reveals that he does not know how the Archdeacon died. Sebastian says about Stannard that Perhaps the Archdeacon was right: we are too apt to be in thrall to our past. Father Martin asks Dalgliesh would like to see the papyrus.
In a dialogue with Father Martin, Martin says: You believe then, Adam, that the truth can never hurt.” “I wouldn’t say that. But I believe we have to search for it, however unwelcome it may be when we find it.” “That’s your job, a searching for truth. You never get the whole truth, of course. How could you? You’re a very clever man, but what you do doesn’t result in justice. There’s the justice of men and the justice of God.
“My son, for one who every hour of his life has the assurance of the living presence of Christ, why should I worry about what happened to earthly bones?”
Emma wants to talk to somebody about an ethical situation with the investigation. She talks to Gregory. He wonders why she chose him and he says that Emma is not interested in him and that she don’t believe I murdered Crampton. You’re perfectly right, I didn’t. He made virtually no impact on me when he was alive and he makes even less now he’s dead. I admit to a natural curiosity about who killed him, but that’s as far as it goes.
words once spoken can’t be recalled
Gregory’s view is that the Church is failing and becoming irrelevant. Even football (soccer) is more relevant than the Church. Emma’s response is to ask when all these things fail, even the music, the poetry, the art? Gregory is a believer in science.
Pascal. ‘Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.’
Gregory said that if he was to kill anybody, it would be Sebastain. An old grudge. He stopped me becoming a Fellow of All Souls. It isn’t important now but it mattered at the time.
Gregory is interviewed.
That night Dalgliesh wondered What was it, he wondered, about this place which made him feel that his life was under judgement? Is this something about places which have a sense of holiness about them, that you feel the weight of your own life not living up to expectations? He also wondered Was there anything in his life that was spontaneous?
Emma thinks that Dalgleigh had no allegiance except to the truth
That night, Emma felt that fear was stronger than exhaustion. Dalgliesh happened to be passing by her cottage and understood this fear and offered to let her sleep in his cottage and he would sleep in the armchair.
Book Three - Voices from the Past
St. Anselm’s was no longer a safe and holy place. Humans made this true of all places all the way back to Adam and Eve in the Garden, making a muck out of perfection. This reminds me of what C.S. Lewis wrote in Till We Have Faces:
Holy places are dark places. It is life and strength, not knowledge
and words, that we get in them. Holy wisdom is not clear and thin
like water, but thick and dark like blood.
The Pilbeams find Agnes Betterton dead on the stairs. Sebastain says that It is only work and prayer.
Kate and Robbins were sent to where Munroe worked before she started at St Anselm. Dalgliesh was either tying up loose ends or working off of a hunch Kate knew from her own experience that a detective’s strong hunch usually has its roots in reality: a word, a look, a coincidence, something apparently insignificant or unrelated to the main inquiry which takes root in the subconscious and gives rise to that small shoot of unease.
Kate felt too that they [the priests and ordinals] were in possession of some secret knowledge, some esoteric source of authority which subtly diminished her own. In many ways, she was reacting to the masculine world of the seminary. Religion did not seem to be part of her life, none had been possessed of a coherent philosophy. For her, she could live without a god, but not without her job.
Henry James called death ‘that distinguished thing.’ Note: Henry James said this on his death bed. To Kate, it Reminds us that we’re animals. But are we only “just animals”?
They mostly struck out at the hospice, but did get an address for a person who was a friend of Munroe.
Emma reflected angrily that much of the world’s grief was caused by people who claimed that they were only doing their duty. After Agatha Betterton died, Dalgliesh’s team searched Father John’s rooms.
I mean cared for me. Myself. Raphael. Not as the object of general benevolence. Speaking about Agatha Betterton. His point is there is a difference between being a charity case and the love which goes with it and the concern for the person as a person, not an object.
Marriage isn’t therapy. Marriage does not cure problems, but introduces new problems which were not there before.
Walking more slowly on the edge of the cliff, she[Emma] felt a great sadness for Raphael, for Father John and for all the people she loved at St. Anselm. The feeling of the loss which another person has.
Karen Surtees wants to know the process of receiving the communion wafer.
Dalgliesh says that it is Gregory’s responsibility, not ours to tell Raphael about his status. When investigating murder, you often uncover things which muck up people's lives.
Dalgliesh takes Gregory’s sweatsuit without asking for a warrant. Is that legal in England?
Yarwood now regains consciousness.
Karen Surtees admitted she wanted a consecrated wafer for an article she was writing about the Black Sabbath. That is why Eric Surtees was in the building that night, to steal one. She collaborated on his story. This was the second wafer. The first she had gotten from Treeves in exchange for sex. She lost that one.
official thieving of identity-interesting way of saying someone is being fingerprinted.
Father John seemed to accept the deaths of the Archdeacon and his sister. He had the same puzzled acceptance of a life which had to be endured rather than possessed.
After talking with Father John, in less than five minutes later the whole team, including the SOCOs, were behind the closed doors of St. Matthew’s Cottage. They were on the search for the cloak.
The Fathers have a lot of the clues. In their effe\ort to stay out of the way and answer questions exactly, they do not tell the police anything but what is being asked. This leaves out important details.
More questioning of Gregory and samples taken of all of the people at St. Anselm.
Emma was sorting through Agatha Betterton’s stuff and was thinking that Medieval congregations, exposed Sunday after Sunday to the terrifying imagery of the Doom, prayed to be delivered from sudden death, fearing that they might go to their creator unshriven. Nowadays man, in his last moment, was more likely to regret the untidy desk, the unfulfilled intentions, the incriminating letters.
Why was it, she wondered, so difficult to believe that the old had been young, with the strength and animal beauty of youth, had loved, been loved, laughed and been full of youth’s unmeditated optimism. Emma’s thoughts.
Dalgliesh goes to the lab which will process the cloak. He finds out there are fibers which match and they can now make an arrest. Not to be present now would leave something incomplete, although he was unsure precisely what.
And he would be risking his life not out of compassion and humanity, but out of obstinacy and pride.
Dalgliesh knew that Gregory had one almost overwhelming advantage: only one of them was happy to die.
Book Four - An End and a Beginning
Dalgliesh has been invited back to St Anselm as a last hurrah before it closes. All of the occupants have been taken care of.
Gregory has written to Dalgliesh. In the letter it points out that I have noticed before how often evil comes out of good. But is this an excuse not to do good? Rather it is a reason to do good to overcome evil.
If we can’t praise God as He deserves, we can at least thank Him.
Who is Sadie? When Dalgliesh was drowning, he called out to her. Emma wanted to know.
Father Martin burns the St Anselm papyrus.
Dossier
They’ll tell you, laddie, that the most dangerous emotion is hatred. Don’t believe them. The most dangerous emotion is love
Hints on the deaths
(You can go to the Evaluation if you do not want to see the hints):
Book One - The Killing Sand
Chp 4 : Munroe’s diary: and as I unwrapped the leeks that scene on the shore was fresh in my mind….I knew that I must tell the person most concerned. Once I’d done that I would keep silent. Then the murderer slipped in and strangled her. To struggle would have been useless, but she had no wish to struggle, only to go easily and quickly and without pain.
Chapter 5: It was next to the utility-room and his only concern was about the students’ use of the noisy and somewhat antiquated washing machines after ten o’clock at night. There is that little piece here which will take on significance way later in the book. Once again in chapter 9 gave sight of four large washing machines and a drier.
Two large tins of white paint and a small one of black, with brushes in a jam jar at their side, were neatly stacked against the wall. Very convenient. A small detail which James gives us.
Father Martin found Margaret Monroe’s diary. He gives it to Dalgliesh.
Mrs Pilbeam talked about finding Mrs Munroe. She was holding knitting needles in her hands. Pilbeam says that it was a really complicated design, a kind of cable with a pattern in between, and she told me how difficult it was. She wouldn’t be knitting it without the pattern open in front of her.
Karen Surtees says when Dalgliesh asks her about Ronald Treeves, says: Well, I can’t help him. I only met his son once or twice when he was out walking.
There are dates from Munroes files which will be important.
St. Anselm papyrus-this is a red herring. Also there does not seem to be a lack of forgeries and fake papyrus’. Their fake is a made up one. Maybe a double fake one? her brother[Agnes’] would make the matter public and the fact of its destruction would serve to prove its authenticity. Once destroyed, no one could prove that it wasn’t a fake.
At the conclusion of the interview with the lawyer, Dalgliesh thought It was an odd coincidence that Clara Arbuthnot had died in the same hospice where Margaret Munroe had been a nurse.
After the interview, Dalgliesh stopped at the newspaper and reviewed a copy of the newspaper which Eric had given Munroe. It included the local stuff including pigs and brides.
While the Archdeacon and Father Sebastain were arguing in the church, Sebastain says There’s someone here with us. We’re not alone. But then they decided that there was no one there.
Oh no,” said Raphael. “I’ve a feeling no one will be apologizing to the Archdeacon in the morning. You can almost hear the background music announcing this is an important statement.
There had been hatred in his [Raphael] voice
Book Two - Death of an Archdeacon
The Archdeacon’s telephone rings in the middle of the night: The sound was so unexpected, so discordant, that for five seconds he didn’t recognize it. Then he got stiffly to his feet and put out his hand to answer the call.
When Emma comes into the church and sees Father Martin huddled over the body, she hears him say Oh God, what have we done, what have we done.
Dalgliesh works to keep how the death occurred a secret from everyone, except those who found the body. The bars to the door were thrown closed. Also the sacristy door was locked. Martin gives Dalgliesh the keys. He finds that in one of the pew boxes dust had been disturbed. Besides the Doom and the victim, those were the only things out of the ordinary. Nothing had been stolen.
Yarwood is not in his cottage.
Dalgliesh and Sebastain check the keys to the church. There is one set missing.
Agatha Betterton notes that Raphael can take any part and mimic every voice.
The pathologist noted that there would have been blood spatter from the multiple strikes
When Piers and Kate come in they see that a tree has recently been removed. The tree came down at 10pm the night of the murder of the Archdeacon and was cleared at 6:30. Only one through was the motorcycle of the pathologist.
Goes through what was worn. Was the murderer naked? In his night clothes? In a cloak? Also why in the church? Why not in the Archdeacon’s cottage?
Raphael says that there is a twig in his room which was not there when he left to take care of Buckhurst.
Central question: Why was the murder planned how it happened?
Gregory has a deformity which he never made any attempt to conceal. The top half of the third finger on his left hand had been chopped off in adolescence in an accident with an axe.
During Gregory’s interview, he notes he has a meeting in London the next day which he will cancel. I’ve a feeling there will be more to interest me here than in a tedious discussion of my publisher’s delinquencies.
A call to the Archdeacon’s wife had been made from the college at 9:28pm of the night of the murder, asking for his phone number. That clears those in the Compline service. That leaves us with Surtees and his sister, Gregory, Inspector Yarwood, the Pilbeams and Emma Lavenham.
Emma says that Martin's words when she came was Oh God, what have we done, what have we done?
Book Three - Voices from the Past
Kate and Robbins go to the hospice where Munroe worked and Clara Arbuthnot died. They are looking to see if there is a connection. Dalgliesh says that I have a feeling that these three deaths—Ronald Treeves’s, Margaret Munroe’s, and Crampton’s—are connected. Not directly perhaps, but in some way. It’s also possible that Margaret Munroe was murdered. If she was, then her death and Crampton’s are almost certainly linked. I can’t believe we’ve two murderers loose in St. Anselm.
They visit Miss Fawcett who had nursed with Munroe. But Munroe was the witness when Arbuthnot married. But she did not know who the groom was. But she noted that The top part of the ring finger on his left hand was missing.
two important questions to which he [Dalgliesh] needed answers before they interviewed George Gregory. The first was the exact wording of the will and the second related to the provisions of an Act of Parliament and the date on which the legislation had come into force. The marriage now makes Raphael legitimate in the eyes of the law.
Dalgleigh confronts Gregory about the marriage: You married Clara Arbuthnot on 27 April 1988.
Yarwood saw Eric Surtees around the church, going into the house, a little after 12:05 on the morning of the murder. Dalgliesh interviews Eric Surtees and he confesses he went to the church to get a wafer for his sister. But he saw someone else was there in a brown cloak. Also another person entered the church. He could not recognize either person. Surtees left.
All the brown cloaks have name tags and are accounted for. Treeves cloak is unaccounted for as his family never received it. Father Betterton had packed all of Treeves belongings, except for the cloak, which he hung in the cloak room.
Behind the thick glass, blurred but identifiable, were the folds of a brown woollen garment. They had found the cloak-in the laundry. There was blood still in the water, and a card from Father Peregrine which meant not to wash after ten. He had turned off the machine.
Dalgliesh makes the arrest after being pulled into the ocean by Gregory. And he would be risking his life not out of compassion and humanity, but out of obstinacy and pride. … Dalgliesh knew that Gregory had one almost overwhelming advantage: only one of them was happy to die.
Evaluation:
I love Dorothy Sayers detective books. Why? Because her books are intelligently, witty, put together well, and good for reading through several times. And that is why I am also attracted to P.D. James’s stories. Each time I have read through Death in Holy Orders it is an adventure not so much in discovering the murderer, but enjoying the thinking, the humor and nuisances.
This is an Adam Dalgliesh detective story that takes place in a small English seminary. A student has died and Dalgliesh is sent to investigate an already declared accidental death. Before the book is over, there are three more deaths to investigate, one definitely a murder. But are the others murders? And then who did ? That is what Dalgliesh and his team needs to solve.
James leads us through finding the murderer-you knew that had to be a murder didn’t you? She does it methodically. But methodically should not be read as boring. You just have to watch for her humor which she quietly slips in and her opinions about a variety of things from British culture to Church thinking. Hint about one such dialogue is when an industrialist remarks that the Church’s creeds should be modernized.
If you wanted something light to read through, you might pick another writer. But for something which will keep you thinking, read Death in Holy Orders or practically any James books.
Notes from my book group:
James is a successful writer. Why do you think she wrote Death in Holy Orders?
What clues does James give you on who and why the murder happened? When did you figure out who it was?
What were the strengths of the plot? Weaknesses?
What does a writer need to do to make a mystery great from being an average who-dun-it?
Why is Dalgliesh at St Anselm? On what pretense does James get him there? Was this effective?
I was finding that Dalgliesh has almost photographic recall of things, such as phone numbers. Is this something which you would find in a real life detective? Do you think this is a facility which Dalgliesh has sharpened through the years or something he was born with?
What did you think of the relationship between Piers and Kate? How does James describe it? Does James make use of this rivalry?
Since James talks about Kate more than Piers, how does Kate come off in this book? What was James trying for in her character? James says that Kate lacked a coherent philosophy, Also she had more use of a job than God. How does this affect the Kate character? Does one require a coherent philosophy in order to live life well?
What is James portraying through the Father Martin character? What qualities do you think she would like us to emulate?
To the priests, Treeves killing himself was a tragedy, but they internalized their part of the tragedy as they did not know how unhappy he was. Why did Treeves kill himself? What signs do you think they should have picked up on? Would you have noticed these signs in a friend?
Describe the Archdeacon. What rationale does he have for closing St Anselm? Do you think it is a correct assessment? Do you think a different messenger would have had a different reception by St Anselm? Why does James make his character like it is?
When Dalgliesh arrives at the murder scene. He finds Father Martin and Emma with the Archdeacon’s body. Compassion for his companions was overlaid with more urgent preoccupations: the imperative to preserve the scene from contamination as far as possible, and the need to ensure that the method of murder was kept secret. What duty does Dalgliesh have in this situation? How does duty and concern conflict in everyday situations? How do you decide which takes precedence?
Why is the murderer called Cain? How does this naming shade your understanding of the murder?
Emma is asked by Raphael to create an alibi of having slept with him. She is not attracted to him and he is disappointed that she is not. Her reply is that You don’t sleep with a man in principle, you sleep with him in the flesh. What does this mean?
St. Anselm’s was no longer a safe and holy place. What makes a place safe? Holy? Can the two be the same?
When Agnes Betterton is found dead, Father Sebestain says that the only way to put this behind you is through work and prayer. Is this just a religious person talking or is there understanding behind it?
Throughout the book, James gives you tidbits of her thinking. What opinions does she weave into her story? What did you think she was trying to tell you, the reader?
Treeves' father wants to know Why doesn’t the Church bring it [the Creeds]up to date? Should the Creeds be brought up to date? What would they look like? Who would you invite to work on this project? Do you think there would be agreement among Christians? Would it look too much different than the old Creeds?
Father Martin notes that concerning marriage that a great liking was as important as love, and more durable. What do you think?
The seminary lawyer asks the question, Can an atheist be fervent? What do you think? The definition of fervent is: used to describe beliefs that are strongly and sincerely felt or people who have strong and sincere beliefs.
James describes a struggle between two visions for the church: one which sees itself true to its calling and one which is in tune with the times. What is it that you want? A Church without mystery, stripped of that learning, tolerance and dignity that were the virtues of Anglicanism? A Church without humility in the face of the ineffable mystery and love of Almighty God? Services with banal hymns, a debased liturgy and the Eucharist conducted as if it were a parish bean-feast? A Church for Cool Britannia? Is this a true dichotomy? Do you think James adequately describes the choices which the Church needs to make today? Where would you stand on this?
The Archdeacon is described as sincere in his beliefs. What argument does she give against sincerity? How is James criticizing some of the inclinations of our current culture?
The priests particularly disturbed the investigators. Munroe noted that of course, they noticed; they notice everything. And yet, when they were asked a question, they would answer the question within the confines of the question, not in the broader context of the investigation. Do you think they were purposely withholding information? How does their training lead to this narrowness of answering questions? How do we ignore larger questions and look to the narrower answers of what we are comfortable with?
Gregory upon uncovering Treeves body, says: seeing a dead body, any body, is a comforting reassurance that we may live as men but we die as animals. Personally I find that a relief. I can’t imagine any greater horror than eternal life. Comment on this. Does death show we are no more than an animal? What is the horror of eternal life which he is talking about? What is James trying to show us by this statement? If you have read the book, which I assume you have, how do these statements fit in with the murder? Robbins notes that Henry James called death ‘that distinguished thing.’ This was said on Henry James’ death bed. How is death the distinguished thing? What does death distinguish us from?
James comes up with a variation on the question of What is truth? He has Father Martin and Dalgliesh conversing about it: You believe then, Adam, that the truth can never hurt.” “I wouldn’t say that. But I believe we have to search for it, however unwelcome it may be when we find it.” “That’s your job, a searching for truth. You never get the whole truth, of course. How could you? You’re a very clever man, but what you do doesn’t result in justice. There’s the justice of men and the justice of God. What does Father Martin mean by there is a justice of men and the justice of God? How do they differ? Should they differ?
Why does Dalgliesh go into the sea to try to save Gregory? Upon arriving back at shore, he calls upon Sadie. Why?
Father Martin is above 80 years old and has thoughts of mortality. He thinks: Had he, during the course of his ministry, changed a single life? He recalled the words of a woman overheard when he was leaving his last parish. “Father Martin is a priest of whom no one ever speaks ill. Is this a valid fear in Father Martin? How is a life well lived?
Margaret Munroe was murdered but she died willingly. Do you think of this as a suicide? This question is based upon a quote from Émile Durkheim: the term suicide is applied to all cases of death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive or negative act of the victim himself, which he knows will produce this result.
How do you want your life to change because you read this book?
Many of these questions are either from or adapted from LitLovers.
Why the title of Death in Holy Orders?
Does this story work as a mystery?
Did the ending seem fitting? Satisfying? Predictable?
Which character was the most convincing? Least?
Which character did you identify with?
Which one did you dislike?
Every story has a world view. Were you able to identify this story’s world view? What was it? How did it affect the story?
In what context was religion talked about in this book?
Was the book overtly religious? How did it affect the book's story?
Why do you think the author wrote this book?
What would you ask the author if you had a chance?
What “takeaways” did you have from this book?
How did this book affect your view of the world?
Of how God is viewed?
What questions did you ask yourself after reading this book?
Talk about specific passages that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...?
What was memorable?
Reading Groups General Fiction Guide
New Words:
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- Mulliner by P. G. Wodehouse
- The Diary of a Nobodyby George Grossmith
- Barchester Towers by Trollope
- Hamlet by Shakespeare
- Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney
- Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll.
- Early Victorian Novelists by David Cecil’s
- Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
- The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
- The Quidditieby Willard Van Orman Quine
- Paradise Lost by John Milton
- Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky
- First Line: It was Father Martin’s idea that I should write an account of how I found the body.
- Last Line: They then watched together in silence as the fire died down and the last frail wisp of white smoke drifted over the sea.
- We all have our darkness within. Chp Book One - The Killing Sand
- I saw theology as the science of simplification by which nebulous and elusive ideas are formalized and made intelligible and exact. Evelyn Waugh, When the Going Was Good
- words once spoken can’t be recalled. Chp Book Two - Death of an Archdeacon
- Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. Blaise Pascal, Pensées 894
- They’ll tell you, laddie, that the most dangerous emotion is hatred. Don’t believe them. The most dangerous emotion is love. Chp Dossier
- Author’s Note
- Book One - The Killing Sand
- Book Two - Death of an Archdeacon
- Book Three - Voices from the Past
- Book Four - An End and a Beginning
References:
- Amazon-Book
- Amazon-Author
- Barnes and Noble
- GoodReads-Book
- GoodReads-Author
- The Guardian’s Review
- Compulsive Reader
- Writers Bloc
- Party Books blog
- Crime Reads
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