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Author P.D. James booklist (click here)

Book Review By Ramani Moses
Shroud for a Nightingale by P D James

As in all her other novels, James begins Shroud for a Nightingale by sketching out the setting – a district training school for nurses. Beneath is the mental setting – a walled-in, all-female atmosphere where sexual escapades and passions, however shrouded they may be, prevail. There is subservience of nurses to doctors, students to their teachers, of women to men.

The first murder is that of a student nurse during a demonstration. Even as the cause of the death is still a point of discussion and speculations on whether it was an accident, suicide, murder or a practical joke-gone-wrong, are doing the rounds, another student is murdered. It's time for Adam Dalgliesh, James' tall, sullen, perceptive hero, to investigate.


Plot & Themes
Tone of story - Dry-cynical
How difficult to spot villain? - Difficult, but some clues given
What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot? - 80%
Murder of certain profession?
Misc. Murder Plotlets - cooped up in spooky house
Kind of investigator
Any non-mystery subplot?
descript. of violence and chases - 0 %
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 70 %
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20 %
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 10 %
Crime Thriller Yes
Crime plotlets:
Murder Mystery (killer unknown) Yes

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status:
Age: - 40's-50's
Has special powers? Yes
Magical/mental powers of main character:
Ethnicity/Race

Main Adversary
Identity: - Female
Age: - 40's-50's
Profession/status:
Has special powers? Yes
Magical/mental powers of main antagonist:
The antagonists are: - nazis
How sensitive is this character?
Sense of humor - Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence - Very much smarter than other characters

Setting
Small town? Yes
Small town people: - hostile, like Gomer Pyle on steroids

Writing Style
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
Explicit sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - impregnation/reproduction
Unusual forms of death - poisoning
Unusual form of death? Yes
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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