Not a single sympathetic character. ( )

I've always had mixed feelings about P.D. James, and this book will certainly be the last of hers I read for some time. I find her novels well-crafted, engrossing, and memorable, but I'm not sure that I actually enjoy them.

Innocent Blood is populated by a cast of characters who exist in a miasma of dysfunctional amorality. James depicts their inner lives with detached, sociological precision, writing with subtle compassion, yet rarely permitting us to identify with them. The novel could as easily be titled "Original Sin" - there's a heavy-handed pessimism about human nature and the ability of individuals to be genuinely self-aware or altruistic.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that Innocent Blood reads like a morality play. Fair enough for a crime novel, but not my cup of tea. Here the worldview of the author looms so large, and the story feels so artificially bleak, that it's hard for me to assess whether James' story has anything genuine to say about the human experience. ( )

Basically, what we have is a book that was way longer than it should have been that tried very hard to be what P D James's other books are, but without Adam Dalgliesh. Unfortunately, it falls very short of all those goals. What we have in a nutshell, is a story about an adopted child, Philippa, who has just turned 18 and learns the shocking truth of her real parents' identity. She is determined to find and reclaim her natural mother. First clue that nothing is going to turn out to be good in any way. In addition, we have a mild-mannered man who vows revenge on the woman who killed his only child. None of the characters are sympathetic or even remotely likeable. Not the grocer, not the neighbor where Philippa learned the first piece of the puzzle, nor the hapless murder victim herself. It's also a rather tired portrayal of the class system which includes the expected swipes at the Conservatives. To sum it up it's a bitter observation on society with a little intrigue thrown in. Personally, I found it rather depressing. ( )

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Not a mystery, really, but rather a suspense story involving a man seeking to avenge the long-ago death of his only child. And that’s the secondary story: the main story is all about a young adopted woman who decides that she wants to know the story of her birth parents.

One illusion after another is smashed as the daughter resolutely pursues her past. This is a sad, indeed tragic book. There are no real winners here, and only the merest hint of a happier future for one of the characters. James writes it well, but there are some excessive descriptive passages that add little to the story.

A hard read, not for the depressed. ( )