A Mind to Murder, by P.D. James

Retrieved from:
(0743219589), 1991 (originally published in 1963)
Suggested by: on The List
My Ratings: 8 Merit, 7 Interest, 8 Fun

This is one of James' early books and there are a couple of points at which the story is mildly dated, but the story holds up pretty well.

We find Inspector Dalgliesh at a publicity event for his recent publication of poems. He is called across the square in the midst of it: a psychiatric clinic has just been found to have a dead body in it. The main office assistant has been whacked on the head and then stabbed.

There are plenty of reasons for her to be killed: she wasn't very friendly, she played favorites among the doctors, she passed gossip. And when you work with mental patients and their staff, there are plenty of less rational reasons for mayhem. James concocts loads of red herrings as well as several really shady people that the reader would like to be murderers. Unfortunately, only one of them really is.

Good story, very Agatha-ey and locked-room-ish.