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With "discernment, depth, and craftsmanship," wrote the Chicago Daily News, A Mind to Murder "is a superbly satisfying mystery."
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The mystery, like the characters, is pretty straightforward too. James fairly well leads you down the path of whom to suspect, but throws in a couple inconsistencies to keep you guessing. Ultimately those inconsistencies are explained and the ending is given the obligatory twist. The story could have done with a few less characters: Keeping track of who's who and to whom they're doing what got muddy a couple times. Still, James does a good job of isolating the few key characters and if you keep steadily marching forward it's not too hard to keep up.
There is a charming naivete about this story. A modern author would have to have some of the LSD (medicinal purposes only) get mixed in with Dalgliesh's tea, and the electroshock therapy room and creaking dumbwaiter would have to be put to equally sinister purposes as well. While there is a lot of sexual activity going on at the clinic, nothing prurient takes place within the pages of the book; there's one morning-after scene and James does bring herself to write the word "thigh" a couple times, but that's about as smutty as it gets.
At this point in her writing career, James hasn't quite found her voice yet. Nevertheless, she's able to craft an above-average mystery with well-developed male and female characters. Having read some of her more-complicated novels before reading this, I wasn't put off by the simplicity of it. I don't know if the reverse would hold true: If you read this before books like "A Taste for Death" or "Skull Beneath the Skin," you might find her later work overwhelming. Regardless, this stands on its own as a good mystery by a great mystery writer.
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