The Skull Beneath the Skin

 In this blog post, I reviewed PD James’s the Skull Beneath the Skin, the second installment in the Cordelia Gray mystery series. (I finished reading this book in mid-September last year.) This mystery has all the fixings of a locked-room mystery set in an island.  For Cordelia Grey, this was her first installment as a female private eye, when Clarissa Lile’s husband asks her to protect her from vile death threats and other mishappenings on the sunlit island of Courcy, Scotland. But it was anything but a simple assignment for Cordelia. She met the people who were closest to her, and discovered shocking secrets about her, up until when she discovered Clarissa was dead in her room. That’s when the local police were brought in, when more shocking twists and turns to the end would leave you guessing whodunit literally.

This compelling mystery will leave you in suspense from the first page to the last. I instantly cared about Cordelia, and how she would handle this most complex case, when danger all but surrounded her. I didn’t like Clarissa at all, but I  felt bad for her stepson Simon. I liked the far-off island of Courcy  set in the United Kingdom, which suited it as the best for the location and the settings. The theme of the story is that secrets always have a way of coming out of the dark.

I rated this intriguing mystery four stars, because it was a bit dark in nature.  If you love locked-room dark mysteries with non-stopping suspense, red herrings, surprising twists and turns, and a good book to hook you, The Skull Beneath the Skin should be read this year.  This book is recommended for fans of Knives Out, Britbox Mysteries, and Agatha Christie.

The Murder Room

This is another fantastic Adam Dagliesh mystery by PD James. In this novel set in England, there's the Dupayne Museum which has a Murder Room--a room which showcased actual unsolved murders in that room from England's past, which an attached history to it. It's owned and managed by two brothers and a sister, who are fighting for it's closure or staying open. Suddenly, there's a copycat killer who have killed somebody outside of the room, and later, inside the room. It's up to Adam Dagliesh and his team to figure out who's the killer before someone else is next. When there's a third victim, they start to add up the pieces, one by one, to find out who's the killer. Plus, Adam's relationship with Emma is tested, when they're at a crossroads. A fantastic read.

An Island of Secrets

If you like great mysteries set in Britain, you'll enjoy The Lighthouse by PD James. This deals with a mystery on a fictional island, and ends up with secrets and past history, all dealing with the island and the general. Throw it the SARS epidemic and another murder to spice up the plot. This is my second book I've read in the series, though out of order. Sink your teeth into this juicy mystery.