Shroud for a Nightingale
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season302 pages, about 6 hours: about the length of a typical book on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbA teaching demonstration at a nursing school goes fatally wrong as the book begins.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesDorothy L. Sayers and Jane Austen are the influences a crime blog names for James’s social detail and character.
The case for it
on Matron Taylor
“is one of those hyper-competent, compassionate leaders on whom the staff routinely leans”
a book blog on the pacing
“all the time in the world to establish her plot, her people and her locale”
Newgate Callendar · The New York Times, 1972 on the hospital politics
“she captured the political intrigues and petty point-scoring faultlessly”
four stars · a book blog on the characters
“it is mainly the well-drawn relationships between the characters”
a book blog
The case against
on the length
“at 300 pages of fairly small type seemed a bit too long”
a book blog on Dalgliesh’s poetry
“the poetry-writing was always a silly diversion”
a book blog on her style
“Some readers might find her style, which includes much description of characters and settings, slow-paced”
a book blog on the characters’ speech
“far too affected and literary in their speech, almost absurdly upper class in their behaviour”
a book blog
