Review: An Unsuitable Job For A Woman

An Unsuitable Job For A Woman by P.D. James
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An Unsuitable Job For a Woman, by P.D. James, provides a brilliant introduction to private detective Cordelia Gray. Cordelia's mentor and partner, a former cop (who seems to have been short on talent but long on decent advice and platitudes), leaves Cordelia his share of their struggling agency and his worldly possessions. On the day that he kills himself, a wealthy client comes calling with a job offer. Cordelia takes the case and sets out to investigate why the son of a famous scientist might have taken his own life.

Cordelia is a pretty interesting character, and the small hints James parcels out about her life are intriguing. She's clever and quick, and perhaps just the right amount of cynical. Her unusual past gives her a very different perspective than her contemporaries, but makes her a plucky and engaging protagonist.

While the plot does, at times, stretch suspension of disbelief a bit--the speed with which she forms a friendship with and is accepted by a group of students, for example, or the motivations of several of the antagonists, for another--it does move at a quick pace. James does an excellent job keeping Cordelia busy on the case. Cordelia is kind enough to keep the reader informed of her methods and observations, so that even casual readers shouldn't have much trouble following her conclusions and seeing how the case is unfolding.

Cordelia isn't quite as hard-boiled as Spade or Marlowe, but she's close, and, in a genre that can sometimes feel overloaded with testosterone and fists, she's a welcome addition to the stable of detectives.

A shifting plot that takes time to properly unfold, a plucky and thoroughly competent female lead, and a solid ending that feels tremendously satisfying make this highly recommended for fans of hard-boiled fiction looking for a change of pace.

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