I'd give this another half star if I could.

I'm sure I would have liked this better if I'd known more about Dalgliesh (the detective) before reading it. James doesn't explain too much about him--which I like because although it's #11 in the 'series' I easily picked it up and read it. On the flip side, because I haven't been through ten other books with him and his other detectives, and because I don't get a load of back story, I didn't really care about him too much.

The mystery itself was fine, although not the sort I usually flip over. I adore Christie's big 'reveals' with Poirot where the murderer is shown up and all is explained. James is much more understated about it (more modern, perhaps?), and as a result I felt it was a bit anti-climactic. Dalgliesh suspected who it was, pretty much knew who it was, and then they just had to get evidence and then catch him. So not a lot of mystery.

Beautifully written, though. James's prose is terrific and the narrator was great. I think I just prefer the thriller type books of hers (Children of Men). Although I might read the first AD book to see if it sucks me in.

Really enjoyed this. My first introduction to James was, alas, Death Comes to Pemberley. But I was encouraged to give this one a try, and I must say, James does so much better when she isn't trying to write like another author. She gives us complex characters with varied motivations and all the usual psychological baggage that comes with being human. She depicts a developing romance without being saccharine, and if there are characters she really doesn't want us to like, she makes us hate them without being over the top. This isn't exactly what I would call light reading, either. It's compelling and difficult to put down, but at times leaves the reader very thoughtful. James shines in her own element here, and I plan to find more of her books.

Between 2 and 3 stars.
First audio in series (in the editions available to me from my library) not narrated by Penelope Dellaporta. Charles Keating is much more pleasant and even makes passages of description sound poetic.
The first in series that I can remember that shares Dalgliesh's poetry.
Yet another story where Dalgliesh happens to be taking holiday leave into a part of the countryside where there’s a couple mysteries that want solving. But I like the armchair traveling out of the city and away from the more usual police doings.

While others' age is talked about, Dalgliesh seems to be at an immortal middle age, whereas I reckon he should be 70. In comparison Father Martin who was at St. Anselm's when Dalgliesh visited as a boy, is talked about as old, "eighty by now", "nearly eighty", "over eighty". Other people are described as past retirement age (some as 60-somethings), but not Dalgliesh.
Again there's some physical heroism, though I can see that it would be possible if you've really taken care of your body, but somehow still having dark hair seems unlikely. And while it's not unheard of, I thought the romance hinted at was a bit icky, if he is in fact 70 and the lady 31 (and a 19 year difference in age is mentioned in another couple in such a way that maybe the age gap, along with other differences, was too much). He does say something about certain feelings at his age, but that could apply to anyone past adolescence. He does also say to someone else that he's too old for the woman, but I don't think that's admitting to a 40 year difference.

Introduction of Eric who keeps a garden and pigs, a gentle quiet man, and at first mention of his sister’s visits I thought it would be a nice sibling friendship but then it had to turn in to incest, in what at 20% had started to be one of the more pleasant Dalgliesh books.
Then Karen, the sister, repeatedly brings it up to others but with the excuse that they're only half-siblings (not the maybe more sensible excuse that they didn't know each other growing up). She's announcing and making excuse but not making excuse when no one's asked or accused her of it.

At 50% with reintroduction of the London Met team this book has become closer to previous, with Dalgliesh now officially on a case.
Tarrant, in thought, brings up the Macpherson Report (an actual historical publication) from two years before (1999) and that it had upset Miskin and changed her respect for the police and her work. The report declared that the Met had institutional racism. Miskin who grew up in a tower block, for whom "Blacks had been her neighbors and friends at school", after the report said "would you join the Met if you were black?...Is that what they wanted, then? To discourage blacks from joining and drive out non-racist officers...I perceive this report as racist - racist against me as a white officer." It seems a very odd response and doesn't seem to make any sense. The report apparently was declaring that the institution was racist, and maybe encouraging recruitment of non-white officers. The report stems from investigation into a young Black man's murder. I'm sure that people of color and sympathetic white people would've been aware of the institutional racism, and that while maybe there weren't (and still aren't) many people of color amongst the Met, they weren't nonexistent, yet Miskin's comment makes it sound like she thinks they are.
I wonder if this is another instance that says more about the author. The only other mentions of Black people I remember in previous books in the series were in [b:A Certain Justice|29204|A Certain Justice (Adam Dalgliesh, #10)|P.D. James|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320443875l/29204._SY75_.jpg|2781025] when Venetia Aldridge basically complains about something like affirmative action, and later in the book when a Black family is briefly introduced only for one of them to be killed; [b:Devices and Desires|46020|Devices and Desires (Adam Dalgliesh, #8)|P.D. James|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1170311557l/46020._SY75_.jpg|887936] where a teacher left teaching under a cloud of publicity because she refused to do diversity training because she'd already been teaching diverse classes for years.

Is Kate jealous of Dalgliesh with women, wants him to herself but professionally? She foolishly asks Piers what Dalgliesh might think of a woman and she's annoyed when she gets a typical response. What did she expect other than that? When the same conversation goes on to others, about Raphael, who everyone reacts to as too beautiful for a man, Piers asks "Turn you on?" "No, and nor do you." Why does she say this? He hasn't seemed to hint at anything between them. And she has said in the past that she wants to keep the personal out of the professional. Apparently her uncertainty about her professional choices has turned her petulant and resentful when she apparently wants only to be professional.

But she's not the only one who sounds resentful or defensive. Most when questioned are likewise, questioning the police why certain details are relevant and getting defensive when there's no need to be. But then there's also some commentary on that, how everyone reacts to the police.

Also in this book Father John who'd been sent to prison for sexual misconduct against seems to get lots of sympathy, such that the presence of a man who collected evidence against him (including apparently making young men present more evidence than what actually happened) is dreaded and gets no sympathy. And pedophilia isn't named until the end when his new job and location are mentioned in regards to having to register his address as a convicted pedophile.

It's mentioned that it's very important that Dalgliesh catches/arrests this villain as he'd been defeated in his last case when he'd known the murderer and heard a "quickly withdrawn confession" and had insufficient evidence to make an arrest. This sounds like the last book [b:A Certain Justice|29204|A Certain Justice (Adam Dalgliesh, #10)|P.D. James|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320443875l/29204._SY75_.jpg|2781025] but was that his last case, does he go 3-4 years between cases (which is the gap between books?