Windows To The World

THE SKULL BENEATH THE SKIN

P. D. JAMES

Clarissa Lisle the actress is to play the leading role in a production of The Duchess of Malfi. The play is to be done in Victorian Dress and will take place on Courcy Island off the Dorset coast. The owner of the island whose name is Ambrose Gorringe has restored a small Victorian theater, which was first built by his great- grandfather. The performance is very important to Miss Lisle because she needs it to restore her confidence.

For the past several years every time she begins a performance she has been receiving notes that she interprets as death threats and this results in her drying up on stage and losing the part in which she is acting. On their own the notes merely mention death but put together as a pattern and combined with the fashion in which they are delivered shortly after beginning each new role it has ruined her career and frightened her badly.

Her third husband, Sir George Ralston decided to hire Private Detective Cordelia Gray to act as Miss Lisle’s secretary/companion while she is on Courcy Island to protect the actress as well as solve the case of the mysterious letters. He has given Cordelia all of the letters he has on hand. There are more than twenty of them. They are all written on different machines and they all have small drawings of either skulls or coffins on them. It appears that Miss Lisle had met Cordelia once and was impressed by her.

While on the island the members of the party will be staying at the castle owned by Ambrose Gorringe. Other members of the party include Tolly, Miss Lisle’s, dresser, Roma Lisle her cousin, Simon her stepson and a drama critic Ivo Whittingham. There are also two servants, the Butler names Munter who fancies himself a Jeeves, and his wife.

With the group coming over to the island on the first trip comes the mail and in the bag is the first letter:

  Call upon our dame aloud,                                                                                                   

And bid her quickly don her shroud!

By the time Cordelia is on the island for a few hours more letters are found and it is clear that the writer is one of this small group. As Cordelia becomes acquainted with her fellow houseguests she realizes that there are plenty of reasons for people to have dislike if not hatred for this actress and that it would take very little for those feelings to progress towards murder!

While we might wish it was Adam Dalgleish who comes when needed instead of Sgt. Gordon, it is still Cordelia's game in the end and the subtile twists and turns are no match for her. I just wish there were more cases with her in them.


This is the last os the P.D, James Books I had left on my shelf to read. This ended the quest I had to reread them all for a group read of  THE BLACK TOWER. Many questions came up such as which was my favorite read and what did I think of James as a whole and so forth. There are very few authors I read from beginning to end much less reread and she is one of the favorites. I don't have one that  stands out in my mind. I don't know that I will reread her again at this stage in my life but I am surely holding onto all her books.