An Unsuitable Job for a Woman

The private detective must follow a specific and unyielding moral code. These codes often include stipulations about money, which usually represents evil or corruption. In this novel money is an important theme: Sir Ronald kills for it, Mark dies for it, and Cordelia won’t take it and can’t be bought by it.

Rich characters are often portrayed as dissolute; their unencumbered wealth giving them license to behave however they see fit. Sir Ronald is a classic example: He grows up poor, working with his father as a gardener. He marries the daughter of the man who owns those gardens and, through a combination of her fortune and his own hard work, becomes a wealthy and respected scientist. But the money is never enough for him, and he does terrible things to ensure or obtain it. He has an affair with his secretary then convinces her and his wife to pass the baby off as Evelyn’s instead of Miss Leaming’s, to ensure Evelyn’s father’s estate will go to Evelyn and the boy, Mark. When Sir Ronald realizes that Mark’s discovery of this secret might expose him and cost him that fortune, Sir Ronald reacts out of fear and kills his own son. He convinces himself he had to kill Mark because he couldn’t risk the groundbreaking science being done in his lab, but he ultimately kills Mark for money.

In contrast to Sir Ronald, Mark grew up in privilege, free from want or worry thanks to the safety net of his mother’s fortune. He was studying at Cambridge University when he discovered his father’s secret. His mother hoped he would find out after his 21st birthday, presumably so that he would be old enough to decide what to do with the knowledge. Mark, being a young man of principle, decided to reject the money due to him when he turned 25 because he believed it was coming to him through trickery and deception. Consciously or not, he took the reverse of the path his father did, giving up his comfortable lifestyle to work as a gardener, for a pittance. This decision is partly why Sir Ronald does not trust his son not to expose him; Sir Ronald cannot imagine that someone who would choose the humble lifestyle he fought so hard to escape could be trusted to keep such a damning secret. He calls Mark a “self-righteous prig” (200), fully expecting his son to ruin his reputation.

Isabelle, another wealthy character, is less corrupted by her wealth than Sir Ronald but is still the least intelligent, least studious of Mark’s four friends. However, her passion for art redeems her in Cordelia’s eyes. Her chaperone, on the other hand, over-indulges in alcohol, and James paints an unsparing portrait of her as louche and disgusting. Isabelle wants to pay Cordelia to leave the case alone, prompting Sophie to say Cordelia “can’t” be bough. Her resistant to temptation, to corruption, is a defining feature of the private detective, and Cordelia fills the role well. She ends up taking nothing but expenses from Miss Leaming, refusing to profit from the case despite the amount of time and personal risk she assumed. Again, Cordelia’s adherence to her moral code is noble, even if it leaves her back where she started: penniless and alone.

Morality is another key theme of the novel, especially around who lives and who dies. Two murderers go unpunished in this book, at least unpunished by the criminal justice system. Mark’s justice comes when his biological mother murderers his father in retribution for his death; Sir Ronald’s justice comes when Miss Leaming is killed in a car accident just a few weeks after murdering him. The narrative’s moral arc promises that no one gets away with murder, at least not for long, but it does not require the court system to decide that.

There are many deaths in this book: It opens with Bernie’s suicide, then Mark is killed, then Chris Lunn, then finally Sir Ronald and Miss Leaming. Other characters grieve losses—Cordelia has just lost her father and, long ago, her mother. Sir Ronald lost his wife, and Mark his purported mother. Miss Markland lost a finance and a young son. If some of these deaths make sense—Bernie’s because he won’t face the indignity of cancer treatment, Sir Ronald’s because he murdered his son—others do not. Chris Lunn tried to murder Cordelia but failed, yet he dies in return. Miss Markland’s fiancé died in a war, which might be expected; her small child’s death by drowning in the well is not.

Death often represents punishment, and it is interesting to consider who “earns” their death and who is punished by another’s death. In the case of Miss Markland, the death of her child could be considered punishment for having him out of wedlock, a harsh and perhaps unfair outcome. Sir Ronald is punished for killing Mark with his own death; Miss Leaming’s death is less well earned. In the world of the detective novel, punishment can be harsh, and no one knows that better than the detective herself, especially as she is the only person left alive with that knowledge. (Dalgliesh knows, too, but cannot reveal that knowledge lest he face culpability from his superiors for being complicit in the cover up of a crime.)

Because Cordelia does not reveal her knowledge to Dalgliesh, though she is tempted, she makes herself the arbiter of justice, the person who decides when a crime has been committed. While Miss Leaming could not face a trial for Sir Ronald’s murder, knowing the whole truth of Mark’s life and death might have made a difference to his friends, even to his old nanny. In making the decision not to reveal this information, Cordelia sets herself up as the ultimate authority in matters of good and evil, right and wrong. She may be young and a woman, but she demonstrates the moral fortitude that is the hallmark of the private eye.