Tras la muerte violenta de un forense mientras trabaja. Adam Dalgliesh debe hurgar en la intimidad de los científicos vinculados a la víctima por sus tareas, problemas e incluso celos profesionales. Todos son especialistas en el comportamiento de la muerte y en desenmascarar a un criminal con un microscopio o un tubo de ensayo. En este caso, sin embargo, el asesino podría hallarse en el mismo laboratorio.

Laboratory Lust
Review of the Sphere Books paperback (1978 orig./1986 reprint) of the Faber & Faber hardcover original (1977)

I used to think that we can have almost anything we want from life, that it's just a question of organization. But now I'm beginning to think that we have to make a choice more often than we'd like. The important thing is to make sure that it's our choice, no one else's, and that we make it honestly. But one thing I'm sure of is that it's never a good thing to make a decision when you're not absolutely well. - Adam Dalgliesh gives advice during Death of an Expert Witness

Detective Commander* Adam Dalgliesh and his assistant DS John Massingham, both of Scotland Yard CID, are called out to investigate the death of Dr. Edwin Lorrimer at the East Anglia Forensics Laboratory. Lorrimer was chief of the biological department of the laboratory and did not get along well with his colleagues. He was also recently overlooked for promotion to the position of Head of the Laboratory with the hiring of an outsider, Dr. Howarth.

The tight security procedures at the laboratory would seem to indicate that the murderer had to be someone with inside knowledge of its workings. Due to the way Lorrimer belittled or resented his colleagues, there are no shortage of suspects. It also becomes evident that the murderer had to have a special set of skills in order to exit the laboratory after the crime. This was probably the most significant clue (it was only mentioned briefly in passing) to the solution which begins to be clear when witnesses are able to narrow down the time frame of the crime. But then there is yet another murder.

See book cover at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d0/DeathOfAnExpertWitness.jpg
Front cover of the original Faber & Faber hardcover edition (1977). Image sourced from Wikipedia.

I read Death of an Expert Witness as part of my continuing 2022 binge re-read of the P.D. James' Adam Dalgliesh and Cordelia Gray novels, which I am enjoying immensely. James is truely at the height of the Silver Age of Crime authors and puts most modern mystery writers to shame with her extensive character backgrounds and plots often set in confined communities where an atmosphere of paranoia and foreboding reign, until the cool, often detached detection of Dalgliesh is able to arrive at a clarifying solution.

Trivia and Links
* In Book 1, Adam Dalgliesh was a Detective Chief Inspector, in Books 2 to 4 he is a Detective Superintendent and in Books 5 to 14 he is a Detective Commander.

Death of an Expert Witness was adapted for television in 1983 as part of the long running Dalgliesh TV-series for Anglia Television/ITV (1983-1998) starring actor Roy Marsden as Commander Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard. You can watch the 7 episodes of the 1983 adaptation starting with Episode 1 on YouTube here. The adaptation is reasonably faithful to the novel.

The new Acorn TV-series reboot Dalgliesh (2021-?) starring Bertie Carver as Adam Dalgliesh has not yet filmed an adaptation of Death of an Expert Witness. It has not yet been announced which books are being adapted for Season 2 (as of early August 2022). Season 1 adapted Books 4, 5 & 7. ( )

Adam Dalgliesh is sent to a small town outside of Cambridge to investigate the murder of a forensic biologist, Dr Edwin Lorrimer. Brenda Pridmore, clerical officer receptionist, finds the body. Henry Kerrison is the forensic pathologist with two children, Maxim Howarth is the director of the forensic sciences laboratory with half-sister Domenica Schofield, Paul Middlemass is the principal scientific officer document examiner, Angela Foley is the secretary to Maxim Howarth and Dr. Lorrimer's cousin and supposed heir. Stella Mawson is Angela's partner and Lorimmer's former wife. ( )

England, ca 1975
En ung kvinde findes stranguleret. Kriminalkommissær Adam Dalgliesh bliver sat på sagen.

???

Bogen er opdelt i fem afsnit. ( )

I registered this book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14754246

Murder in a laboratory.

Dr. Lorrimer was not loved. When he was found dead in the laboratory where he managed a section there weren't any mourners. There were many who wanted him gone.

But figuring out which of them had done the deed was no simple task. As it often is with P.D. James, the plot is complex and involves a fair number of persons, whom we get to know rather well. As does Adam Dalgliesh, who needs to find out which of them killed Lorrimer.

We get to track Lorrimer's relations with others in his lab, with persons on the outside, with those who are affected by his actions from a distance. PBS liked this one so much it became a small series on MYSTERY. ( )