Death in Holy Orders: An Adam Dalgliesh Mystery: 11

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Others present include only a few of the students, the Fathers, the resident help, a visiting lecturer, Emma Lavenham, and a researcher, Clive Stannard.

Though one can enjoy the author's sharp-eyed portrayal of domestic interiors, which goes hand in hand with an acute dissection of character and personality, and cannot but appreciate the uninhibited manner in which she sets about her pet aversions -- the two most prominent are the modernisation of the Church of England and the Macpherson Report -- the book is far less satisfying as a detective story." - T.J. Binyon, Evening Standard In spite of a good tale, and vivid characters, I couldn't get beyond, (nor should anyone) the defense of child abuse, ("it was only fondling") and the vilification of someone who "dug up" more victims. The fact that the story is so well done makes it worse, in that it carries some legitimacy to the idea of abuse being minimal. The subtext of abuse was not primary to the story, but it was definitely central - you couldn't miss it. No one would permit an defense of racism or rape or any other illegal and immoral activities.The end result is a sombre, serious novel about guilt, remorse, responsibility and death. (...) She believes that, just as the strict sonnet form can contain great poetry, a traditional detective novel can bear the weight of a serious moral theme. I think so, too, and found this one absorbing and provocative. But it's not light entertainment." - Jessica Mann, New Statesman It is ruled an accidental death, but the possibility of suicide -- and, of course, of murder -- can not be excluded.

Despite that, everyone except the 'baddie' who is murdered loves him, including Dalgleish himself and his new love interest so James makes it very clear that we as readers are supposed to side with them: as one character says 'He pleaded guilty to misbehaviour with two young boys. He didn't rape them, he didn't seduce them, he didn't physically hurt them' - so in James' world and that of the book, a bit of covert fondling and illegal touching of young boys is perfectly fine - he might not have 'physically' hurt them, but any psychological trauma from being assaulted by their priest is airily waved away. Among the issues of concern is what will happen to the college after its closing: the will of the founder, Miss Agnes Arbuthnot, anticipates the possibility, leaving the property to be divided between "any direct descendants of her father, provided such descendants were legitimate in English law and communicant members of the Church of England". I can’t help but think of Matthew Arnold’s Dover Beach. In that poem the sea of faith is a withdrawing roar revealing the shingles of the world, a metaphor for loss of faith in the modern world. Here the sea is the world eroding the foundations on which St Anselm’s sits, with it’s demise, and thus that of “clever faith”, inevitable.It would be interesting if James deliberately chose the name St. Anselm’s to reflect Anselm’s ontological argument for the existence of God. This argument was successfully undermined by Kant in his Critique of Pure Reason, and it’s formal errors are revealed by modern predicate logic. (As a Christian myself I think there are other arguments that are sound ...) Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival. There is, in fact, an Arbuthnot resident at St. Anselm's -- Raphael, a student there, and the last of the Arbuthnots -- but unfortunately he is a bastard child, left by his mother at St. Anselm's doorstep as an infant.