In PD James’ The Victim, the first husband of a celebrity relates how he got away with killing her second husband after she dumped him to begin her climb up the ladder of wealth and power.
And I’m not sure what the point of the story was? It’s exactly what it says on the tin: a deranged chap kills his ex-wife’s new husband out of jealousy/spite and gets away with it. Because the story and the narrator’s motivations are so straightforward, there’s no depth to the tale, let alone any tension as we already know the outcome and he doesn’t seem to encounter a real obstacle at any point.
The story isn’t very interesting, the characters are flat and unremarkable, the ending is anticlimactic, and there are no layers to any of it. I think James may have been trying to make the celebrity wife into a Lady Macbeth-type but it’s not at all convincing.
Her writing is high quality but PD James’ storytelling hasn’t made me want to read any more of her work. The Victim is a dull treatment of a potentially compelling premise.
And I’m not sure what the point of the story was? It’s exactly what it says on the tin: a deranged chap kills his ex-wife’s new husband out of jealousy/spite and gets away with it. Because the story and the narrator’s motivations are so straightforward, there’s no depth to the tale, let alone any tension as we already know the outcome and he doesn’t seem to encounter a real obstacle at any point.
The story isn’t very interesting, the characters are flat and unremarkable, the ending is anticlimactic, and there are no layers to any of it. I think James may have been trying to make the celebrity wife into a Lady Macbeth-type but it’s not at all convincing.
Her writing is high quality but PD James’ storytelling hasn’t made me want to read any more of her work. The Victim is a dull treatment of a potentially compelling premise.
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