‘Now is the winter of our discontent’ said the Bard, but for me its a time for reading dis content or dat content. I do a lot of reading in January during all the cold and snow. And there is hardly anything more fun than curling up in my reading chair and reading a good winter mystery novel, whilst listening to Sting’s new Winter CD.  Its an all British all the time experience. While there are many many wonderful writers in America, including good mystery writers, pride of place for quality writing of mystery novels must go to several wonderful British writers— I am thinking of  P.D. James,  Ellis Peters, Lindsey Davis, C.J. Sansom, and Paul (aka P.C.) Doherty, to mention a few. These folks can really write, and for pure lyrical prose, James has few peers and no superiors. 

This post is about recent ‘winter season’ novels by two of these marvelous writers– Doherty and James.  P.D. James is towards the end of her long and wonderful writing career and in Adam Dagleish she has created one of the great detective characters since Sherlock Holmes. Dagleish works for the Yard (i.e. Scotland) and his specialty is murder investigations  but there is a richness and complexity to his character seldom seen in such novels.  He is a noteworthy poet, and he is something of a theologian and ethicist, in part due to his background, raised in the church. 

James is excellent at creating atmosphere in a novel, as in spooky, or ominous, or anxiety producing or finger nail biting, and her most recent offering  The Resident Patient does not disappoint.  The tale revolves around a woman who is an investigative journalist who goes in for a scar removal to a clinic in a manor in Dorset and is strangled in her bed shortly after the surgery.  Inquiring minds want to know whose the guilty party, and equally importantly why?   James is excellent at building suspense and leading you down blind alleys and rabbit trails, so that the ending is usually surprising.   This one ends with both the crime solved, and Dagleish finally, finally marrying his sweetheart Emma.

Paul Doherty specializes in medieval sleuthing, although he is so prolific he also has series of novels about ancient Egypt and Constantine among other subjects.  His prose is more workmanlike than James, but he definitely knows how to write a cracking good historical novel.  In his Hugh Corbett series of novels he focuses on the late middle ages (early 1300s) in Edwardian England.  Religion is definitely intertwined with politics in these novels, specifically Christianity and royal politics.  Doherty is following in the footsteps of the late lamented Ellis Peters, (whose real name was Edith Pargeter) and he now has some competition from C.J. Sansom who is writing in the same genre and ilk but focusing on the reign of Henry VIII.   

In the Magician’s Death we get a very interesting glimpse of international politics and posturing between England and France, all the while trying to uncover the mystery of Friar Roger Bacon’s discovery of gunpowder.  Along the way a lot of maids in waiting go missing and turn up dead, and Corbett finds himself sequestered in a castle on the south coast of England in the winter trying to help Edward win the war of technology– ancient style.     I have just begun the sequel to that novel called Nightshade   set during the season of Epiphany so perfect for reading in January.  Here Corbett is once more sleuthing in the south of England trying to save Edward’s bacon, or in this case his treasury which got pilfered at Westminster!  That is indeed a historical fact and  Doherty is a history teacher in Middlesborough England and he really knows his stuff.  I have now completed this novel and it is the best of hs bunch, with unexpected twists and turns right to the end of the novel. For me the most interesting part about Doherty’s novels, besides the thrill of the chase and solving mysteries, is seeing what Christian faith in its Western form looked like in a much earlier age.  Its revealing in several senses of that word.  Sir Hugh Corbett, the King’s Man, is indeed a Christian, and a Christian who loves to sing, loves his family, loathes to be away from them, and loathes a good deal of the work he must do for the King as the King’s detective. If you like Sherlock Holmes at all, you will enjoy these novels set in Medieval Christian England. 

One of the great problems in the computer and internet age is that in fact too many people settle for second rate reading, if they read at all,  settle for things they can find for free whilst surfing the net.  There are of course many good out of print books that can be found on the net, but not many good ones published recently, for obvious reasons. 

So even if you are not an omnivorous or inveterate reader like yours truly,  you would enjoy one of the three novels mentioned in this little post.  To a real extent, your own style is a reflection of what you read, so if you want to improve your writing— read those who write well.   And if you want to improve your understanding of human wickedness or even just history, you could do much worse than read these sorts of enjoyable novels.  Finally, if you want to read some classic P.D. James where she too focuses on things Christian, read either her Original Sin, or Death in Holy Orders. In all these novels you will find “life and death upon one tether, and running beautiful together.”