The first thing that struck me about this book was its age. It was published just over 50 years ago and is set contemporaneously. It is of its time, but I felt not "past its sell by date". It is a classic murder mystery with a complex web of intrigue and multiple sub-plots. Just about every character seems to have a dark secret, so there are plenty of red herrings. I did not guess the perpetrator of the crime before the "big reveal" at the end [Dalgliesh brings everyone together for a theatrical summing up - just like Police do in real life :-)].
I enjoyed the book and found it easy enough to read. Wanting to know what happened kept me turning the pages. I am not sure that I am totally comfortable with the arbitrary viewpoint approach - we are somewhat randomly privy to the thoughts and perspectives of different characters at different times. It was also unfortunate that the Kindle edition of the book has quite a few OCR-related errors - "mat" instead of "that" was quite common. I suppose this is inevitable with older publications.
Ultimately, my enjoyment of the book may well drive me to read more of the author's work. She has a very good reputation, but I think she has been rather too venerated over the years. This is not great literature, but a good read.
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