When Cordelia Gray’s boss at the Pryde Detective Agency dies, he leaves her the business… and an unregistered gun. And so begins An Unsuitable Job for a Woman by PD James, with a female private detective who is a long way away from Adam Dalgliesh, James’s famous creation, but who has been trained by an ex-copper who worked for Dalgliesh. And so the tentacles of ‘the Super’ stretch to Cambridge where Cordelia Gray undertakes her first case. She is not a female private detective in the busybodying, gossiping style of Miss Marple or Agatha Raisin, but a liberated, independent woman who is financially motivated to make a success of her business. Employed by a Cambridge scientist, Sir Ronald Callender, to discover why his son Mark dropped out of university and committed suicide soon after, Cordelia takes up lodging in the rundown gardener’s cottage where Mark died. So much is unclear. Mark left a stew uncooked and a garden fork stuck in half-dug earth. His friends feign friendliness to Cordelia but dance around her questions. Sir Ronald’s assistant/housekeeper is superior and unhelpful. The Marklands, who employed Mark in his last few weeks, are shadows on the edge of the story. Something is evidently not right and Cordelia is soon convinced Mark was murdered. But how can it be proved?
This is a satisfying read with plenty of twists, mysteries and unexplained behaviour. The Seventies college setting in Cambridge – student parties, punting on the Cam – felt authentic. And I did not guess the ending.
Disappointingly, PD James only wrote two Cordelia Gray novels, this in 1972 and The Skull Beneath the Skin ten years later.

Here’s my review of the second Cordelia Gray mystery:-
THE SKULL BENEATH THE SKIN #2CORDELIAGRAY

Read my reviews of the Adam Dalgliesh mysteries:-
COVER HER FACE [#1 ADAM DALGLIESH]
A MIND TO MURDER [#2 ADAM DALGLIESH]
UNNATURAL CAUSES [#3 ADAM DALGLIESH]
SHROUD FOR A NIGHTINGALE [#4 ADAM DALGLIESH]
THE BLACK TOWER [#5 ADAM DALGLIESH]
DEATH OF AN EXPERT WITNESS [#6 ADAM DALGLIESH]
A TASTE FOR DEATH [#7 ADAM DALGLIESH]
DEVICES AND DESIRES [#8 ADAM DALGLIESH]
ORIGINAL SIN [#9 ADAM DALGLIESH] … read the first paragraph HERE
A CERTAIN JUSTICE [#10 ADAM DALGLIESH]
DEATH IN HOLY ORDERS [#11 ADAM DALGLIESH]
THE MURDER ROOM [#12 ADAM DALGLIESH] … read the first paragraph HERE
THE LIGHTHOUSE [#13 ADAM DALGLIESH]
THE PRIVATE PATIENT [#14 ADAM DALGLIESH]

And two other books by PD James:-
INNOCENT BLOOD
TIME TO BE IN EARNEST

If you like this, try:-
‘Dead Simple’ by Peter James
‘Hiding The Past’ by Nathan Dylan Goodwin #1MortonFarrier
‘I Refuse’ by Per Petterson

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview AN UNSUITABLE JOB FOR A WOMAN by PD James via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2nN