Not a single sympathetic character. ( )

I've always had mixed feelings about P.D. James, and this book will certainly be the last of hers I read for some time. I find her novels well-crafted, engrossing, and memorable, but I'm not sure that I actually enjoy them.

Innocent Blood is populated by a cast of characters who exist in a miasma of dysfunctional amorality. James depicts their inner lives with detached, sociological precision, writing with subtle compassion, yet rarely permitting us to identify with them. The novel could as easily be titled "Original Sin" - there's a heavy-handed pessimism about human nature and the ability of individuals to be genuinely self-aware or altruistic.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that Innocent Blood reads like a morality play. Fair enough for a crime novel, but not my cup of tea. Here the worldview of the author looms so large, and the story feels so artificially bleak, that it's hard for me to assess whether James' story has anything genuine to say about the human experience. ( )

Basically, what we have is a book that was way longer than it should have been that tried very hard to be what P D James's other books are, but without Adam Dalgliesh. Unfortunately, it falls very short of all those goals. What we have in a nutshell, is a story about an adopted child, Philippa, who has just turned 18 and learns the shocking truth of her real parents' identity. She is determined to find and reclaim her natural mother. First clue that nothing is going to turn out to be good in any way. In addition, we have a mild-mannered man who vows revenge on the woman who killed his only child. None of the characters are sympathetic or even remotely likeable. Not the grocer, not the neighbor where Philippa learned the first piece of the puzzle, nor the hapless murder victim herself. It's also a rather tired portrayal of the class system which includes the expected swipes at the Conservatives. To sum it up it's a bitter observation on society with a little intrigue thrown in. Personally, I found it rather depressing. ( )

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Not a mystery, really, but rather a suspense story involving a man seeking to avenge the long-ago death of his only child. And that’s the secondary story: the main story is all about a young adopted woman who decides that she wants to know the story of her birth parents.

One illusion after another is smashed as the daughter resolutely pursues her past. This is a sad, indeed tragic book. There are no real winners here, and only the merest hint of a happier future for one of the characters. James writes it well, but there are some excessive descriptive passages that add little to the story.

A hard read, not for the depressed. ( )

found the small find hard to read at times. story was slow to get going but overall an enjoyable read.

This book rated two stars for me. In my rating system, that means that I didn't care for it, but others might. Obviously, reading other reviews, people do care for it. It's possible that I may have enjoyed it more when I was younger. I was more forgiving of darkness and character flaws then. Now when I read I want something with at least a glimmer of light. When I was about half way through, I skipped to the last three chapters to see if it was worth continuing and for me there were no surprises and the main character hadn't changed a bit, so that confirmed my suspicion that I need not waste any more time with it.

The main character is arrogant, high-handed, juvenile, ignorant and thoroughly unpleasant. I might have worked to finish this if the end proved that she could grow and change, but all the unpleasantness she discovered in life only confirmed her character.

I have enjoyed some of James' other writings, but this has put me off for a good long time. I suppose I can say this for her; she set the mood well, but it was such a foul mood I couldn't stay in it. ( )

This is a long a detailed book, but I still read it in two days. James steps out of her police and detective series constraints here for a stand-alone story, not really a mystery, but more an elaborate journey toward a resolution for characters who started out unlikable, but grew on me as the story progressed. Crimes, legal and otherwise, direct this book, from bad marriages, betrayals, an adoption with odd motive into a dysfunctional family, to horrific historical crimes, acts of revenge and reunion. Phillipa Palfrey finds a mother, loses a family, begins to develop a feeling for other people as she attempts to find out who she really is. Excellent. ( )

I like her straight mysteries well enough, but this is a psychological suspense novel in the manner of Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell) which means I like it a lot. ( )

Another great book by PD James; she writes about life more than about crime! Highly recommended. ( )

Philippa Palfrey has just turned 18 and is eager to learn about her past life. But then she learns that she is the daughter of a rapist and a muderer. At the same time, the father of the daughter that her mother killed wants revenge. This is the start of slow, drawn-out tale that could only end in death and disappointment. On the way we are treated to the daily grind and struggle of life in London in the 1970s. At times, I could forget that a murder had occurred as I followed Philippa and her mother. But then there was the torturous search by the man intent on revenge - a man who couldn’t forget. How could it end? The twist at the end was surprising, but I also felt that it was too neat. In my opinion, the writing is excellent, as it should be for a successful crime writer, but I thought that the ending resulted in a less than perfect story. I gave it 4 stars out of 5. ( )

Not the mystery that one might expect from P D James. An interesting character study and a wonderfully twisty plot. I really enjoyed this audiobook. Terrific narrator. ( )

Story ok, but Tediously long winded ( )

If you are a PD James fan, I should say up front that ‘Innocent Blood’ is very different from the Adam Dalgliesh detective series. It is a psychological thriller, a slow-building mystery which starts with little steps then, as the odd details start to make sense, the tension builds. It is the story of a young woman who knows she is adopted, who exercises her right to know the names of her birth parents, and finds something she never in a million years expected.
Philippa Palfrey is 18, about to go up to Cambridge, until she decides to find out the truth of her adoption. Her birth father is dead, her mother though is still alive. Philippa’s adoptive father warns caution, tells her to do her research and think carefully before contacting her mother but Philippa, driven by the need to know who she is and where she came from, goes ahead anyway. With the arrogance and naivety of youth, she embarks on a complicated path full of moral dilemma, tragedy and loss.
It is a novel of family blood and relationships, violence, redemption, revenge and acceptance. Is there a threat, real or imagined, and where/who does that threat come from? As the story progresses, that threat advances and retreats, reforming in another shape. Is Philippa right, or should she have listened to Maurice’s warnings?
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/ ( )

This is not a true mystery book, more a suspense novel with excellent character elaboration. Everything about this book is a bit weird, dark, almost Victorian: the scenery, the plot, and most of all the characters. They are so realistic, depicted with all their negative sides and flaws, and here I mean not just their ugly looks, but despicable behaviour and relationships, as well. I like books which are not conventional, which have their own value and style. The only thing that I found a bit disappointing is too much time dedicated to the first part of the book and too little to the final and ultimate ending. But, nevertheless, I found this book really good and definitely worth reading. ( )

Dark.

Adoptee finds mother a murdress; okay.

Adopted as a child into a privileged family, Philippa Palfrey fantasizes that she is the daughter of an aristocrat and a parlor maid. The terrifying truth about her parents and a long-ago murder is only the first in a series of shocking betrayals. Philippa quickly learns that those who delve into the secrets of the past must be on guard when long-buried horrors begin to stir.

The late Baroness for once dispensing with the usual apparatus of the detective story and taking her time to explore the repercussions of a terrible crime on the lives of the people involved, many years later. Interesting, and there are some very nice bits of description and character analysis, but the pacing didn't feel quite right (dawdling unconscionably in some spots, then rushing through implausible transitions elsewhere). I also got the impression that James had changed her mind at some point about which decade we were supposed to be in: the London street where a lot of the action in the "present day" (i.e. late 1970s) story is supposed to be set often sounds much more like something out of the immediate post-War period, twenty years earlier.

I haven't looked it up, but my guess would be that James must have had this lying in a drawer unfinished for a long time, and only reworked it for publication when her detective stories started to become a success. ( )

Reread. Psychological mystery about a young woman, adopted, who traces her parents and finds that they murdered a child. Her mother is about to released from prison and she suggests they rent an apartment together for the months before she goes to Cambridge. There is more going on that she doesn’t know.

This is a great, suspenseful thriller but I have to say that the emotions of many of the characters are really weird and don't make a lot of sense. The ending, emotion-wise, was a mess that strained credulity, and I'm not talking about the sex. I didn't notice this the first time I read it. Because of this I gave it 3 stars, down from 5 midway through.

Oh yeah there is a carefully knitted, meaningfully given sweater that is destroyed in a fit of anger which bothered me more than the child murder. ( )

Very tedious read. None of the characters were particularly likable. Not really a mystery per se. Just not a very engaging read. I'd much prefer going back to Adam Dagleish. ( )

Philippa takes advantage of her right to find her birth parents the minute she turns 18. The story she has been told her whole life about her mother being a maid in a great manor house and her father being a gentleman is found to be completely untrue. The horrifying truth sets her on a collision course with human nature and sets her up to learn more about life in one summer than she has learned in 18 years. PD James’ descriptions are so masterful that I can see and hear and feel the settings of her books, which is one of the things I like about her writing. ( )

This is one of PD James's best books, although for some reason it is not held in the same high esteem as her other detective-led novels. It concerns the search by an adopted daughter for her mother, and her mother turns out to be a convicted murderer.

There's an intensity and urgency to the writing here that, however well stylised and characterised her other books, is sometimes lacking in her other work. I think this is to do with the fact that the device used to bring the protagonists together is less contrived, less artificial than in some of the Dalgliesh books. The tension and drama, the narrative drive emanates from the characters in a more realistic way. This could be called a 'straight' novel (along with her other, sometimes less-well-regarded, Children of Men), but it has all the hallmarks of James at her best - tight plotting, believable characters and a commentary on broader issues such as loss, pain and parent-child relationships. Make sure you read this.

© Koplowitz 2012 ( )

More of a suspense novel than a mystery, full of sad revelations of deception, misunderstandings and loss of love. Not all is as it seems when the adopted daughter of a public intellectual and his mousey wife discovers that her birth mother is a notorious murderess about to be released on license. The father of the murdered child is set on revenge and Philippa is set on discovering her identity.

I see this as James' attempt to write "Literature." Her murder mysteries always have an intense bent towards the psychological analyses of her characters, which has always made for better writing than the average mystery novel, where the focus is on getting the clues revealed slowly enough that the reader can take a shot at figuring out the culprit.

In this novel, we don't step entirely away from the murder theme, but we're introduced quite soon in the book to the prospective murderer, so there's no mystery involved. We watch as he carefully makes his plan, mapping out each step, and we follow the victim as she goes about her day oblivious to her danger. But the emphasis is certainly on the relationships between the characters, and their ambiguous and complex motives for their actions. It's all very literary.

Probably why I didn't care for it much. Bring back Dalgliesh. ( )

Wonderful mystery/suspense, especially because there is no detective! Phillipa, an adopted upper middle class girl, upon turning 18, applies to discover her birth parents. Her father and mother - the Ductons -were a notorious rapist and murderess couple, and her mother is about to be released after serving her mandatory prison time. The father of the victim has planned his retirement so as to be able to seek revenge on Mrs. Ducton. There are interesting twists and turns throughout. Truly enjoyable. ( )