The Murder Room by P. D. James

First published: 2003

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Detective and mystery

Time of plot: October and November, 2003

Locale: Hampstead Heath, near London

Principal characters

• Adam Dalgliesh, a commander, New Scotland Yard
• Kate Miskin, detective inspector
• Piers Tarrant, detective inspector
• Marcus Dupayne, staff member and trustee of the Dupayne Museum
• Caroline Dupayne, girls’ school principal and museum trustee
• Neville Dupayne, psychologist and museum trustee
• James Calder-Hale, museum curator
• Muriel Godby, museum receptionist
• Tally Clutton, museum custodian
• Ryan Archer, a part-time museum general laborer
• Mrs. Faraday, part-time museum gardener
• Celia Mellock, a murder victim

The Story:

Scotland Yard commander Adam Dalgliesh meets an old friend, and the two visit the Dupayne Museum. The Dupayne is a private museum that focuses on Great Britain in the years between World War I and II, and its most famous collection is the Murder Room, which contains memorabilia related to some of the most famous murder cases of the period. As he leaves, Dalgliesh notes that he is glad to have visited, but that he has no interest in returning.

The three adult children of museum founder Max Dupayne serve as trustees and hold the future of the museum in their hands. Neville Dupayne, the eldest, is a psychologist, Caroline Dupayne works as the assistant principal at a girls’ school, and Marcus Dupayne is a freshly retired civil servant. Because of low revenues and a soon-to-expire lease, the museum is at a crisis point. Caroline, who lives in a luxurious apartment located in the mansion that houses the museum, and Marcus, who wants to be more involved with the administration of the museum during his retirement, want things to continue as they have. Neville, who, of the three siblings is the least directly involved with the museum, and whose daughter needs money, makes clear his intention to vote for closure. The three meet, and although Caroline and Marcus attempt to influence Neville, the older brother stands firm.

Museum staff members include curator James Calder-Hale, who is dying of cancer. He sees the museum and the work he has done to create and sustain it as his legacy. Custodian Tally Clutton, after years of surviving in unhappy circumstances, is content for the first time in her life with her work and her cottage on the museum grounds. Muriel Godby, an officious receptionist who previously worked for Caroline at the school, comes from a dysfunctional family, has suffered a difficult life, and is loyal to Caroline. All of these museum employees have a vested interest in the continued existence of the facility.

Tally, returning to the museum grounds on a Friday evening, is struck by a car. The motorist stops to check on her, but leaves quickly after making a familiar comment, later recognized by all as the same comment Alfred Arthur Rouse, one of the murderers highlighted in the museum, said to a witness as he fled the scene of his crime. Tally is able to recover enough from the accident to continue down the road, until she finds Neville’s car ablaze, in the museum garage. Neville had burned to death inside his car.

Dalgliesh, now heading the special investigation squad, is asked to take the case, owing to its “sensitive nature.” It turns out that the curator, Calder-Hale, is a sometimes agent of MI5, the British intelligence service. A suitably vague explanation of the case is concocted to appease the local police. Dalgliesh then contacts his two top detectives, Kate Miskin and Piers Tarrant. Miskin and Tarrant happen to be dining together, discussing their possible futures with the Metropolitan Police. The trio arrives at the scene and begins the investigation. They speak to Marcus and Caroline that evening, along with Tally and Muriel, and Dalgliesh quickly recognizes the complicated situation he faces. Among their initial discoveries are that Neville had been having an affair with Angela Faraday, his secretary, who also happens to be the daughter-in-law of the gardener at the museum. Ryan Archer, the unreliable general laborer who works a the museum part-time, has disappeared, and a disgruntled patron, whose grandfather’s treasured painting had been lost to Max Dupayne, is tentatively identified as the driver who hit Tally. Dalgliesh and his team begin piecing together the facts and weaving together the strands of Marcus’s, Caroline’s, and Neville’s recent encounters.

During the investigative tour of the Murder Room, a cell phone begins ringing. The sound seems to be coming from a trunk, which is part of a display. In the trunk where murder victim Violette Kaye had been found decades earlier, another body is discovered. The victim is soon identified as Celia Mellock, who had attended Caroline’s school for a short time. Later, Celia’s belongings are uncovered in the donations bin at a thrift shop. Interviews with her mother and stepfather, who had flown to London from Bermuda to meet with the police, are less than satisfactory.

On a whim, Tally takes a trip into London, feeling the need to get away for the day. She wanders into the public gallery at the House of Lords and recognizes Lord Martlesham as the man at the museum on the night of Neville’s murder. She reports this to Dalgliesh, who now has another angle to investigate.

Lord Martlesham agrees to discuss matters with police, and it is revealed that he had known Celia and had arranged to meet her at the museum the night she was murdered. He says that she did not appear and that he could not reach her by phone. He admits they were involved in a sexual relationship, but adds that he had tried to break things off with her. Dalgliesh presses further, and Martlesham admits that they were to meet in Caroline’s flat, not the parking lot of the museum. Dalgliesh’s hunch about Caroline having something to hide is confirmed: She runs a private, exclusive sex club through her apartment. A subsequent interview with Caroline reveals details about the club, but not a strong connection to the murders.

That night, Tally is attacked and left for dead. The scene had been made to look like yet another true crime case highlighted in the museum. Luckily for Tally, Dalgliesh and Miskin had been on their way to interview her when she was attacked; her wounds were not fatal. Also, a motorcyclist had been hit by the car driven by the fleeing murderer.

Dalgliesh soon finds out that Caroline had earlier told her receptionist, Muriel, to look for other work. Muriel, extremely loyal to Caroline and in stable circumstances for the first time in her life, wanted to kill Neville—the lone sibling in favor of closing the museum. With Neville dead, she reasoned, the museum could continue on. She then killed Celia because she had witnessed the murder. Muriel then became convinced that Tally had realized the truth as well, and had attempted to kill her, too, to protect the museum and, thus, her job.

Bibliography

Breen, Jon L. “Murder Most British: P. D. James Strikes Again.” Weekly Standard, November 29, 2003. Discusses The Murder Room, noting that a museum devoted to Great Britain between the world wars is an appropriate setting for one of James’s novels, as James is the strongest contemporary link to England’s detective fiction of that era.

Kotker, Joan G. “P. D. James’s Adam Dalgliesh Series.” In In the Beginning: First Novels in Mystery Series, edited by Mary Jean DeMarr. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1995. Although this chapter predates The Murder Room, Kotker’s analysis of the first Dalgliesh series novel, Cover Her Face, remains important. Describes the evolution of the series from 1962 to the 1990’s.

Kresge-Cingal, Daphne. “Intertextuality in the Detective Fiction of P. D. James: Literary Game or Strategic Choice?” Clues 22, no. 2 (2001): 141-152. This article explores connections between James and Agatha Christie, although it does not include specific information on The Murder Room. Also discusses intertextuality in general in the mystery genre.

O’Conner, Patricia T. “Grisly Pictures from an Institution.” The New York Times Book Review, December 7, 2003. This well-written review of The Murder Room also provides a succinct outline of many aspects of James’s work and the characteristics of her writing style.

Rowland, Susan. “The Horror of Modernity and the Utopian Sublime: Gothic Villainy in P. D. James and Ruth Rendell.” In The Devil Himself: Villainy in Detective Fiction and Film, edited by Stacy Gillis and Phillippa Gates. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2002. Rowland focuses on several novels in the Dalgliesh series through the lens of the gothic. Good background on James, but without discussion of The Murder Room.

Sizemore, Christine Wick. A Female Vision of the City: London in the Novels of Five British Women. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1989. Many critics and scholars note the importance of setting in James’s work, and one of the chapters in this monograph provides analysis of James’s depictions of London. Sizemore also offers a good overview of James’s works and themes.

Upson, Nicola. “Behind the Scenes at the Museum.” New Statesman 28 (July, 2003): 38-39. This insightful review focuses on James’s concern with social issues of the past and present, praising The Murder Room as a “thoughtful exploration of human motivation, not just for murder but for simple acts of love and hate and faith.”

Vanacker, Sabine. “The Family Plot in Recent Novels by P. D. James and Reginald Hill.” Critical Survey 20, no. 1 (2008): 17-28. A critical essay that analyzes James and Reginald Hill as exemplars of increased complexity and scope in the genre, using Tzvetan Todorov’s 1977 work on mystery plot structure as a theoretical base. Explores the narrative structure of the novel while arguing that the work is driven by James’s use of the plot device that Vanacker calls the family melodrama.