It has been quite some time since I have read any detective fiction and even longer since my last P.D. James. Whereas I still think she can write the pants off just about anyone else, I must say that this book was rather more formulaic than any I have ever read by her. The laughable premise that so many interrelated people could come to one obscure place at a particular time so as to make up the perfect plot for a mystery, not to mention the odd concatenation of events, including more deaths in a week than most of us witness in a lifetime are, I realize, part of the genre. But in this case it seems a bit more heavy-handed than James' usual adroit handling of such exposition. Still, this was a fine read and a compelling plot, as such things go.