HOW CAN I WANGLE AN invitation to Combe Island, off the Cornish coast and run by an obscure trust offering solitude and solicitude to over-stretched men and women in high authority, where P. D. James’s latest excursion into the darker reaches of human psychology is set? Even practised writers give themselves away in their subject matter and it is hard not to wonder if this potential paradise is not a reflection of the author’s own secret desires.

One of the guests, and a key character, is Nathan Oliver, a writer whose work provokes parallels with Henry James although, as a native of the island, it is the rule of birth that allows his regular visits.

But what a thoroughgoing bastard Oliver turns out to be. Not only does he want to turf Emily Holcombe, only survivor of the island’s original family, out of her cottage, but he also holds his daughter Miranda (shades of The Tempest?) so powerfully under his thumb that she cannot tell him that she and his faithful copy-editor are having a torrid affair.

Only the day before Oliver is found hanging at the end of a rope, from the lighthouse, he had caught this pair in flagrante delicto. And Dr Mark Yelland, the research scientist taking a break from animal rights protesters and a failing marriage, has reason to hate Oliver too, since he has been the basis of a scurrilous portrait in the latest novel. So is it murder or is it suicide? We need Commander Adam Dalgliesh to decide.

The explanation as to why Dalgliesh heads the investigation rather than the local Cornish team is a little stretched. It is intimated that the Prime Minister may be about to enjoy the island’s facilities. But we couldn’t give a hoot about the protocol because we are so relieved to be reunited with Dalgliesh. He brings with him Detective Inspector Kate Miskin, reserved but not unpassionate, and Detective Sergeant Francis Benton-Smith, an Anglo-Pakistani whose wealthy origins make him a nice foil for the working-class Kate.

Inevitably, we are really interested in the inner lives of the detectives. Oliver behaves so vilely that we are glad to see him go and are not much surprised to discover who has done him in or why. Good riddance, I say. I never believed in those comparisons with the other James. There are other literary references, as the title leads us to expect. A high level of literacy among her characters, and readers, is a hallmark of a P. D. James novel, but it’s the love life that intrigues us.

Will Kate going to get it on with Francis, with whom she has — necessary prelude to most erotic encounters — a predictably spiky relationship, or will she revert to her former colleague, the slippery-sounding Piers? And what will be the outcome of Dalgliesh’s own romance with the elusive Emma, to whom he has proposed, but only by letter. Dammit, he’s shy. He needs encouragement. Is this murder nuisance going to get in the way of poetic happiness? Read The Lighthouse and find out.

Where to see...

P. D. JAMES
DATE Wednesday October 12
PLACE Everyman Theatre
TIME 6.30pm
TICKETS £8: 01242 227979

www.cheltenhamfestivals.org.uk

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