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Dec 05, 2009GailRoger rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
**spoiler alert** I was distracted by some stylistic and plot choices in the latter half of the book, which is not a good sign. It's quite clear that PD James, now in her late eighties, is wrapping up Adam Dalgliesh's story, marrying him off and re-pairing Kate Miskin with Piers. But that's not what bothered me. I was quite put off with the rather too obvious placement of the traditional red herring, complete with Miskin's baffling sympathetic tears on hearing the fellow's story. It seemed out of character for her, and besides, I failed to discern what had moved her so. I was also sidetracked by some rather bizarre phrasings James chose to put in the mouths of her posh characters. It's one thing to have erudite dialogue; it's quite another for that dialogue to sound odd, over-formal and clunky. Still, a less-than-perfect PD James novel is better than most of the dreck out there, and alas, we may not be getting much more.