#BlogTour: Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales by P.D James @portassoph @FaberBooks

Today I’m on the Blog Tour for Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales by “The Queen of Crime” P.D James.  Sleep no more is out on the 5th October in Hardback and E book and is being released as a companion to another Short Stories collection The Mistletoe Murders and other stories.

Book Blurb:

The acknowledged ‘Queen of Crime’, P. D. James, was a past master of the short story, weaving together motifs of the Golden Age of crime-writing with deep psychological insight to create gripping, suspenseful tales.

As the six murderous tales unfold, the dark motive of revenge is revealed at the heart of each. Bullying schoolmasters receive their comeuppance, unhappy marriages and childhoods are avenged, a murder in the small hours of Christmas Day puts an end to the vicious new lord of the manor, and, from the safety of his nursing home, an octogenarian exerts exquisite retribution.

The punishments inflicted on the guilty are fittingly severe, but here they are meted out by the unseen forces of natural justice rather than the institutions of the law. Once again, P. D. James shows her expert control of the short-story form, conjuring motives and scenarios with complete conviction, and each with a satisfying twist in the tail.

My Review:

I haven’t read an awful lot of short stories but when i was given the opportunity to review PD James’s new book I jumped at the chance.

Sleep No More is a collection of 6 short stories each involving a murder and each describing the deviousness of the characters as they plot out the perfect murder.  Some of the methods used and the planning of the murder is extraordinarily clever and was a bit of an eye opener to read about.

The stories included a large variety of characters that I had mixed feelings for.  Whilst i felt very sorry for the jilted husband in “The Victim” and the little girl in “The Girl Who Loved Graveyards” I hated the schoolboy in “The Yoyo” as i found him very obnoxious and full of himself.  I think this character is quite real though as I have encountered a few public school children like this.  These being short stories there wasn’t a lot of time for the reader to get to know the characters which i felt was a shame as i would like to have spent a bit more time with some of the characters, discovering more about them and what makes them tick.

All the stories appear to be set in the past and have quite a lot of historical detail in them at times that helps the reader imagine the setting for the stories.  In one the life of a public school in 1930 is well described and in another the stigma of divorce is mentioned giving the reader a glimpse into the life and problems of the characters.  These details were very interesting and helped me to image the characters and story better in my mind.

In my personal opinion the stories get betters as the book goes along.  I definitely enjoyed the later stories more than the earlier ones.  This isn’t to stay that the earlier stories were bad just that the later ones were more my style of story and had a little more going on in them.

PD James in the author of many full length novels and short story collections.  I have read quite a few of her books in the past and will definitely be reading more in the future.

Thank you to Sophie Portas and Faber & Faber for my copy of this book and for inviting me onto the blog tour.

About The Author:

P. D. James (1920-2014) was born in Oxford and educated at Cambridge High School for Girls. From 1949 to 1968 she worked in the National Health Service and subsequently in the Home Office, first in the Police Department and later in the Criminal Policy Department. All that experience was used in her novels. She was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Royal Society of Arts and served as a Governor of the BBC, a member of the Arts Council, where she was Chairman of the Literary Advisory Panel, on the Board of the British Council and as a magistrate in Middlesex and London. She was an Honorary Bencher of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple. She won awards for crime writing in Britain, America, Italy and Scandinavia, including the Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster Award and The National Arts Club Medal of Honor for Literature (US). She received honorary degrees from seven British universities, was awarded an OBE in 1983 and was created a life peer in 1991. In 1997 she was elected President of the Society of Authors, stepping down from the post in August 2013.

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