Murder gets sloppy

PAPERBACK REVIEW: THE MURDER ROOM by PD James (Faber, £12.99)

The twelfth instalment of Baroness James's cosily horrid Inspector Dalgliesh series unfolds in a dusty Hampstead museum devoted to grisly interwar killings. Dalgliesh is a fan, but when the museum's owner conks out, all three of his children must agree for the collection to continue. Greedy Neville makes a fuss. Then he's found in a blazing car.

Now 83, James hasn't lost her flair for a crisp bit of dialogue or a good bludgeoning. But her characters seem increasingly out of time, forever making milky drinks before bed and remembering to disinfect the flowerpots.

Dalgliesh's burgeoning relationship with the lovely Emma, for instance, is quite suffocatingly slow and soppy. Four dates in, and James still won't allow them even a peck on the cheek - "for these sweet intimacies they needed solitude". Sometimes, she can be a real killjoy.