A classic closed room whodunit, The Skull Beneath the Skin is the second of only two Cordelia Gray private detective mysteries by PD James. I wonder why she didn’t write more? Gray’s fledgling detective agency is relying on finding missing cats when Sir George Ralston arrives unannounced to request Gray ensure the safety of his actress wife, Clarissa Lisle, at her next performance. Lisle has been receiving threatening letters and worries about freezing on stage. Sir George seems unconvinced of Clarissa’s danger. ‘The job I’m offering is a mixture of functions. You’d be part bodyguard, part private secretary, part investigator and part – well, nursemaid.’ Which sounds unpromising but the job pays well. So Cordelia leaves for Courcy Island, location of an amateur private performance of The Duchess of Malfi in which Lisle will play the starring role. As with all James’ novels, there is a delicious laying of pragmatic fact about those in attendance mixed with literary references and poetry.
Of course, Clarissa Lisle is murdered. The police arrive and Cordelia finds herself one of the suspects. There is the usual ragbag of potential murderers. The cuckolded husband; the dying former lover; the pampered stepson; the unsuccessful sister; the silent and sullen dresser; the efficient butler and his wife; the boatman and handyman; and the host of the event, arts patron and novelist Ambrose Gorringe. The setting is beautiful with hidden horror. Courcy Island, set off the Dorset coast, was the scene of nastiness and death during World War Two. Gorringe takes great delight in showing his newly-arrived guests around the island and displaying its dark past.
James writes such dense yet enlightening paragraphs that kindle curiosity. For example, at the end of chapter four, ‘He was discovering that even hatred died a little at the end. But it still lasted longer than desire, longer even than love. Walking slowly in the sunshine and thinking of the weekend ahead, he smiled at the realization that what was most alive in him now was the capacity for mischief.’  James, as always early in her novels, sets the scene with much hinting, veiling of the truth and making her own mischief.

Here’s my review of the first Cordelia Gray mystery:-
AN UNSUITABLE JOB FOR A WOMAN #1CORDELIAGRAY

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:-
‘The Doll Funeral’ by Kate Hamer
‘Due Diligence’ by DJ Harrison
‘Good Me Bad Me’ by Ali Land

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE SKULL BENEATH THE SKIN by PD James https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3n8 via @SandraDanby

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