Sometimes the passing of an author triggers our first read to her novels. I read “Cover her face’ by P.D. James who lived her last day in November this year, at age 94. She was an English crime writer and was well known for her series of detective novels starring police commander and poet Adam Dalgliesh. P.D. James has three books on the top 100 crime novels of all time.
‘Cover her face’ is the debut of her crime novel and its character Adam Dalgliesh in 1962. It details the investigations by detective A
dam Dalgliesh into the death of a young, sly and secretive maid, surrounded by a family which has reasons to want her gone. Sally Jupp is an unmarried mother, recently accepted into Eleanor Maxie’s household as a maid. She used her ways to seduce a romantic relationship with Eleanor’s son Stephen, and has earned herself haters more than friends. In the morning after she announced that Stephen has proposed to her, she was discovered dead on her bed with bruises from a strangler’s fingers forever on her throat. It is up to chief inspector Adam Dalgliesh to uncover the life of Sally Jupp, and who that murderer is.
Some crime novels have intertwined and sophisticated plot which invites the intelligent readersto join the detective work, such as the novel ‘Devotion of Suspect X’. Some are more like the plot follows the characters, such as ‘The cuckoo’s calling by Robert Galbraith’. ‘Cover her face’ belongs more to the latter category, it has a good plot, though the murderer could also be anybody’s guess and it is up to the author, or the detective Adam, to walk us through, at the end, how it plays out.
D. James, bring alive the characters, and offers a vivid landscape of the crime scene. There is so much to like about the writing style of P.D. James and its characters.
The story started with this poetic introduction
“Exactly three months before the killing at Martingale Mrs. Maxie gave a dinner party. Years later, when the trial was a half-forgotten scandal and the headlines were yellowing on the newspaper lining of cupboard drawers, Eleanor Maxie looked back on that spring evening as the opening scene of tragedy.’ And what follows is her skillful portrait of her family, their friends and the community around. The crime surfaces at the end of chapter 3, after much anticipation, followed by the debut of Chief Inspector Adam from Scotland Yard. 
Adam started the investigation with 1-on-1 meetings with each character. His intelligence and experience is beyond doubts, there is little coverage on Adam as a person, yet when his thought ‘I have no son. My own child and his mother died three hours after he was born’ tells a lot when he was posed the question ‘Would you wish for such a marriage for your son?’ by Eleanor Maxie. And as the story ends, ‘he knew with sudden and heart-lifting certainty that they (Eleanor’s daughter and him) would meet again. And when that happened, the right words would be found’. It leaves a lot to uncover about the character in the novels to follow.
ntain; and more often to improve. Easier to say than declaring a pure lack of talent, I have never got close to that time commitment, and expectedly, my skills are very far from where I want it to be. Human could be strange species, sometimes, we just want to keep pounding on things that we are not very good at.
and fans around the world for all the tournaments. Peers support him to win the “Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award” for a record 10 years; Fans support him to win the “Fans’ favorite Award” for a record and consecutive 12 years; and many places he plays, he receives “home court advantage” through the support and cheering of the spectators. There are often so much things to learn from– how he plays, how he faces adversities, how he faces the press, how he manages losses and wins. All can give inspirations to other facets of lives, if we so choose.
to a new company is no easy task, yet the experience is often among the memorable moments in our career. It feels like an exciting traveler to a foreign country of different culture and a different language. Like a traveler, there are many things that the initial impression could define the remaining journey. It may be uncomfortable, it may be surprising; yet, it is rejuvenating.
few classics, I prefer reading original novel to translated novel. Why would one want to depend on the quality of translation? Sometimes, the translated version feels like something amiss. This book “Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his years of pilgrimage” by Haruki Murakami (村上春樹) recounts a remarkable story of Tsukuru, that shines from the original Japanese version to the English translation. And how often is a book related to such a beautiful musical piece of the “Years of Pilgrimage” by Franz Liszt?
e far.
interviewers. If again you run into unprepared interviewers or ask so general the questions, it is hard not to question that they are likely to recommend candidates with similar profiles as themselves. Unprepared interviewers are either overloaded or hiring is not their priority. Neither seems to represent the position well. And how likely would these companies embrace diversity in their core values?
e to solve.
houghts of the author along with what he thinks and feels for running It is a book where the author wants to share what running means for him as a person.
peat the process again and again to train willpower.
ion is accepted, the discussion of last day would be the final piece of puzzle. How do we settle any gaps? Guiding the discussion towards “what needs to be done?” would be a lot easier than answering “when would you leave?” It is simply a matter of writing up the areas of responsibilities and how long the transition could take if a warm body is available.
ain. A small number of phone interviews, ends up with onsite interviews, and even that often end up not going anywhere, other than another experience. In an even smaller subset, there is a call from the recruiter informing “you get it”. Like a tennis tournament, there is only one person getting the trophy; the early rounds are resumes, cover letters, email, maybe phone interviews; and the latter rounds are equated to on-site interviews. Disappointing as it may be, losing in early rounds is less damaging than losing a close final. .
ollege of the top choice. The heart would beat at a rate in par with where the position and the company rank among the wish list. The excitement is followed by a challenge to focus on the present. The mind, wonder towards the new world, presents an uneasy barrier to stay in the present. Not just that, it draws a different orbit for all future meetings and future due dates at work, with many of those futures you would no longer make happen. Along the way, there are questions and doubts too – “would there be change in the decision?”; “what would the terms of offer be?”; “what is the decision criteria to accept, negotiate or deny?”; “would the new position warrant a change”; “what are the adjustment and adaptations required?”. Until the final decision is needed, it is not always obvious on how much we fear or embrace a change in landscape.
nother human being. There is relationship with a country, with a company or with an organization. Whatever it is, it takes some courage to get out of a long-term one.
half dream comes true may turn out to be different from the imagination. There is something missing in reality, a different reason on different days. It is like a bird in a tree-hopping mode, before sensing the right place worth to settle down again. I receive a good advice to write a new description of a dream job, which I believe applies to all job seekers.
oliviatamccue 