‘Sleep No More’ a murderous delight
Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales (Knopf, 194 pp., a collection of short stories by the late British mystery writer P.D. James, is anything but a snooze.
Published posthumously, the collection mostly turns the classic murder mystery on its ear by not being so much a “whodunit” as a when, where and how’d they get away with it?
In the book’s forward, Peter Kemp writes that James’ greatest accomplishment as a writer of crime fiction was to “take the murder-mystery novel that had its heyday in the ‘Golden Age’ of the 1920s and 1930s and, by deepening it emotionally and complicating it morally and psychologically, give it a second golden age.”
James’ skills at complicating the genre are never more apparent than here, where not every victim is always worthy of our sympathy and not every murderer deserves our scorn.
In Sleep No More, James (who died in 2014) writes of the perfect crimes — ones where the perpetrator gets away with it. Granted, knowing who the culprit is from the start can present a puzzle for mystery fans. But James’ spin still makes for an entertaining read. She has a knack for creating a page-turning tale; who cares if you know who the guilty party is?
There is an unexpected delight as the reader moves from one story to the next, wondering not who may have gotten away with the next bold crime but how they did so, and brilliantly.
“The Murder of Santa Claus,” the longest and most classic story here, takes place on Christmas Eve at a Cots- wolds manor house during World War II. The author even gives herself a shoutout when describing the narrator, a mystery writer himself, as “no P.D. James.”
All manner of weapons are employed in these stories — a noose, poison, knives, revolvers, sleeping pills, a poker. Even a yo-yo makes a crucial appearance.
And all manner of people populate her stories, from young schoolboys and working men to the wealthy and residents of nursing homes.
Arriving just in time for the holidays, this small collection is indeed a gift.