Sleep no more: six murderous tales

Book Cover
Average Rating
Publisher
Varies, see individual formats and editions
Publication Date
2017.
Language
English

Description

No one gets inside the head of the murderer—or makes it a more thrilling read—than the late, great P. D. James. Fast on the heels of her latest best seller: a new, fiendishly entertaining gathering of previously uncollected stories, from the author of Death Comes to Pemberley and The Private Patient.It's not always a question of "whodunit?" Sometimes there's more mystery in the why or how. And although we usually know the unhealthy fates of both victim and perpetrator, what of those clever few who plan and carry out the perfect crime? The ones who aren't brought down even though they're found out? And what about those who do the finding out who witness a murder or who identify the murderer but keep the information to themselves? These are some of the mysteries that we follow through those six stories as we are drawn into the thinking, the memories, the emotional machinations, the rationalizations, the dreams and desires behind murderous cause and effect.

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Contributors
James, P. D
James, P. D. Author
Kemp, Peter Author of introduction, etc
Weyman, Dan narrator., nrt
Weyman, Daniel Narrator
ISBN
9780525520733
9780525588207
9780525520740
9780525588177
UPC
9780525588177

Table of Contents

From the Book - First United States edition.

The yo-yo
The victim
The murder of Santa Claus
The girl who loved graveyards
A very desirable residence
Mr. Millcroft's birthday.

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Author Notes

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Similar Titles From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for titles you might like if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
These books have the genres "mysteries" and "short stories"; and the subjects "murder investigation," "murder," and "detectives."
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Two days gone - Silvis, Randall
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Similar Authors From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for other authors you might want to read if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
Both Louise Penny and P.D. James write character-driven police procedural mysteries that explore moral ambiguity and the psychological causes and effects of crime. Their stories create a strong sense of place while the mystery's solution is slowly revealed. -- Merle Jacob
Ruth Rendell, like P. D. James, is a writer fascinated with the psychology of her characters and their many motivations for becoming involved in murder. The beautifully written, atmospheric stories engage readers from the opening page, immersing them in both the British settings and the investigative procedure. -- Katherine Johnson
Dorothy L. Sayers is known for her stylish prose and traditionally plotted detective stories. Sayers' books starring the clever and ever sophisticated Lord Peter Wimsey are a good choice for those who treasure P.D. James' classically constructed mysteries, beautifully evoked settings, and elegant writing. -- Dawn Towery
British women writers P.D. James and Val McDermid masterfully combine the specifics of forensic science with brisk plots and excellent, detailed characterization. -- Shauna Griffin
James and Walters are captivated by the psychology of crime, and share powerful literary writing styles and fascination with good and evil. Both create dark, brooding tales in which nothing is what it first seemed, and explore social. James is a bit less edgy and dark than Walters. -- Katherine Johnson
Both authors write literary mysteries that feature cerebral policemen who have troubled personal lives. These quiet, introspective men use their insights and understanding of human nature to solve crimes. The stories are multilayered and character driven. These slower paced mysteries often take place in closed societies or groups. -- Merle Jacob
P. D. James and Deborah Crombie write layered British mysteries featuring three-dimensional characters, cleverly constructed traditional plots, and detailed settings. James is typically more darkly focused on the psychology of the characters than Crombie, and Dalgliesh does not develop personal relationships with his team members, unlike Crombie's Kincaid and James. -- Katherine Johnson
George and James write classically constructed novels of detection that blend the traditional mystery with occasionally darker, but more realistic, characteristics of contemporary crime novels. Both authors include social issues and explore the psychological nuances of their characters, neatly combine several different plotlines, and create a strong sense of place. -- Katherine Johnson
Both authors feature Scotland Yard detectives with an interest in the arts, usually setting their mysteries against the backdrop of a specialized occupation. They employ a strong sense of place, serious but not grim atmosphere, steady pace, literary tone, and strong secondary characters. -- Katherine Johnson
Readers looking for a reflective, poetic police superintendent will find P. D. James' Adam Dalgliesh titles a good match for Martha Grimes' Jury series. While often darker and lacking the broad humor of village life, the Dalgliesh novels raise many of the same moral conflicts and issues of personal life and its relationship to police work as the Jury books. -- Katherine Johnson
These authors' works have the appeal factors intricately plotted, and they have the genre "police procedurals"; and the subjects "murder investigation," "police," and "murder."
These authors' works have the appeal factors strong sense of place and leisurely paced, and they have the genre "police procedurals"; and the subjects "police" and "detectives."

Published Reviews

Booklist Review

Here's a treat for fans of the late P. D. James' crime fiction: a collection of six short stories, polished gems that spotlight her skills at plotting, building realistic characters, and conveying the subtlest hints of subtext through dialogue. Here are stories about a man who remembers becoming complicit in a killing 60 years earlier; another man who plots the murder of his ex-wife's new husband, with shocking consequences; a crime-fiction writer who played a role in the murder of his uncle; a girl who learns the truth about the deaths of her father and grandmother; a man who apparently tried to murder his wife; and a man who confesses, perhaps only in jest, to killing his own brother. Every one of these stories is first-rate, and every one of them is vintage James. A must-read for fans of one of the most influential crime-fiction authors of the twentieth century.--Pitt, David Copyright 2017 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
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Publisher's Weekly Review

The selections in this solid second posthumous collection from MWA Grand Master James (after 2016's The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories) explore variations of the theme of looking back on past violent incidents. In "The Yo-Yo," a yo-yo that a septuagenarian played with as a child sparks memories of a murder that occurred while he was in prep school; the tale ends with an ironic twist. In "The Murder of Santa Claus," the recollections of writer Charles Mickledore-the creator of an aristocratic sleuth dismissed by critics as "a pallid copy of Peter Wimsey"-about a long-ago murder case alternate with those of elderly Det. Insp. John Pottinger. James pokes fun at herself when Mickledore remarks, "I'm no H.R.F. Keating, no Dick Francis, not even a P.D. James." The standout is "The Victim," in which the cuckolded first husband of Princess Ilsa Mancelli, who was a film and TV star before marrying into royalty, plots revenge. James (1920-2014) was just as gifted an author of short stories as she was a novelist. Agent: Carol Heaton, Greene & Heaton Ltd. (U.K.). (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
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Library Journal Review

In this posthumously published compilation (after The Mistletoe Murders and Other Stories), the clues sometimes lead the reader astray, and the innocent may actually be guilty. In "The Yo-Yo," an old man looks back at a childhood Christmas holiday that challenged his sense of right and wrong and forever changed his life. "The Victim" describes a mild-mannered teacher in love with a beautiful yet mistreated woman. "The Murder of Santa Claus" is a locked-room mystery turned on its head by the "honesty" of a child. James ventures lightly into the realm of horror with "The Girl Who Loved Graveyards," as the main character, obsessed with caring for the dead, revisits her childhood home. A bully is the focus of "A Very Desirable Residence," although, the identity of the culprit may surprise you. Finally, an elderly man makes sure that he will be relocated from his depressing retirement home by his ungrateful children in "Mr. Millcroft's Birthday." Verdict Fans of classic British mysteries will enjoy this slim collection of well-crafted tales, each with its own twist.-Terry Lucas, Shelter Island P.L., NY © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Kirkus Book Review

Half a dozen more reprinted stories, originally published between 1973 and 2005, from the late doyenne of the formal English mystery in all its majesty.As in The Mistletoe Murder (2016), the brief, nondescript introduction, this time by Peter Kemp, gives no information about the dates or original publication venues of these wondrous tales. But fans hungry for scraps from James' table will revel in the stories themselves. Ironically, only "The Murder of Santa Claus," the longest of them, is a traditional whodunit, using a meticulously evoked country-house setting at Christmas 1939 to bring together an uncomfortable roster of guests and a venerable host who's first threatened and then killed shortly after he makes the midnight rounds as Father Christmas. The rest of them mostly explore the favorite subject of James' short fiction: how people no worse than you get or keep the power they crave by conniving in, carrying out, or concealing murders. The earliest of them, "The Victim," is the confession of a timid librarian who killed the man who stole his beautiful wife; it ends with a disquieting twist. "A Very Desirable Residence" matter-of-factly shows the pains a killer will take to secure the eponymous dwelling. "Mr. Millcroft's Birthday," first published as "The Man Who Was Eighty," uses another confession of murder to turn conniving family members against each other in a memorably heartless game of cat and mouse. "The Yo Yo," which recalls another Christmas visit cut short by murder, is notable for a telling change it makes from its earlier appearance as "Hearing Ghote": the narrator's highly questionable actions are no longer inspired by an H.R.F. Keating novel he's reading but by the more neutral-seeming Treasure Island. Best of all is "The Girl Who Loved Graveyards," which irradiates the story of an orphaned girl whose memories of her late father and grandmother have fed her unwholesome attachment to cemeteries with a sense of hyperliterate creepiness.Ceremonious, nasty, and very welcome indeed. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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Booklist Reviews

Here's a treat for fans of the late P. D. James' crime fiction: a collection of six short stories, polished gems that spotlight her skills at plotting, building realistic characters, and conveying the subtlest hints of subtext through dialogue. Here are stories about a man who remembers becoming complicit in a killing 60 years earlier; another man who plots the murder of his ex-wife's new husband, with shocking consequences; a crime-fiction writer who played a role in the murder of his uncle; a girl who learns the truth about the deaths of her father and grandmother; a man who apparently tried to murder his wife; and a man who confesses, perhaps only in jest, to killing his own brother. Every one of these stories is first-rate, and every one of them is vintage James. A must-read for fans of one of the most influential crime-fiction authors of the twentieth century. Copyright 2017 Booklist Reviews.

Copyright 2017 Booklist Reviews.
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Library Journal Reviews

In this posthumously published compilation (after The Mistletoe Murders and Other Stories), the clues sometimes lead the reader astray, and the innocent may actually be guilty. In "The Yo-Yo," an old man looks back at a childhood Christmas holiday that challenged his sense of right and wrong and forever changed his life. "The Victim" describes a mild-mannered teacher in love with a beautiful yet mistreated woman. "The Murder of Santa Claus" is a locked-room mystery turned on its head by the "honesty" of a child. James ventures lightly into the realm of horror with "The Girl Who Loved Graveyards," as the main character, obsessed with caring for the dead, revisits her childhood home. A bully is the focus of "A Very Desirable Residence," although, the identity of the culprit may surprise you. Finally, an elderly man makes sure that he will be relocated from his depressing retirement home by his ungrateful children in "Mr. Millcroft's Birthday." VERDICT Fans of classic British mysteries will enjoy this slim collection of well-crafted tales, each with its own twist.—Terry Lucas, Shelter Island P.L., NY

Copyright 2017 Library Journal.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal.
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Publishers Weekly Reviews

The selections in this solid second posthumous collection from MWA Grand Master James (after 2016's The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories) explore variations of the theme of looking back on past violent incidents. In "The Yo-Yo," a yo-yo that a septuagenarian played with as a child sparks memories of a murder that occurred while he was in prep school; the tale ends with an ironic twist. In "The Murder of Santa Claus," the recollections of writer Charles Mickledore—the creator of an aristocratic sleuth dismissed by critics as "a pallid copy of Peter Wimsey"—about a long-ago murder case alternate with those of elderly Det. Insp. John Pottinger. James pokes fun at herself when Mickledore remarks, "I'm no H.R.F. Keating, no Dick Francis, not even a P.D. James." The standout is "The Victim," in which the cuckolded first husband of Princess Ilsa Mancelli, who was a film and TV star before marrying into royalty, plots revenge. James (1920–2014) was just as gifted an author of short stories as she was a novelist. Agent: Carol Heaton, Greene & Heaton Ltd. (U.K.). (Nov.)

Copyright 2017 Publishers Weekly.

Copyright 2017 Publishers Weekly.
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