An Unsuitable Job for a Woman

In detective fiction private eyes are traditionally loners who follow their own code. They are usually terse, withdrawn men with tragic backstories and an air of dissolution. In making her protagonist a pretty young woman, P.D. James subverts some of the genre’s tropes while still writing a traditional detective story.

Cordelia is presented as a sympathetic figure though not a tragic one. Bernie is the character to be pitied, the kind of person who leaves behind “thick woolen combinations [underwear] felted with machine washing and stained brown about the crotch” (28). He was fired from “the only job he had ever wanted to do” (30), though he had been too proud to tell Cordelia he’d been kicked off the force. When Cordelia learns about it after his death, she blames Adam Dalgliesh, Bernie’s former supervisor, for the resultant unhappiness of Bernie’s life. In demonstration of her resiliency, she sees Bernie’s suicide as a reason she must keep the agency open. Determination is one of her defining characteristics.

James won renown for her Dalgliesh novels before publishing An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, and by connecting him to Cordelia she is endowing her with some of Dalgliesh’s legitimacy, both as a character and in the eyes of readers, who might have been skeptical that a woman could make a convincing private eye. Dalgliesh is present throughout the novel as Cordelia often recalls advice he gave to Bernie, who passed it on to her. Dalgliesh’s advice will keep Cordelia from being caught by Dalgliesh himself later in the novel, and it is notable for more often reflecting a criminal mind than that of a police officer.

In addition to the subversion of gender roles and expectations, James explores the nature of relationships between parents and children. Cordelia’s mother died when she was born, but from a “childhood of deprivation [Cordelia] evolved a philosophy of compensation” (25), creating an image of a mother who loves her and encourages her. Sir Ronald, on the other hand, appears initially sympathetic because of his desire to understand his son’s suicide, but Sir Ronald murdered his son in a particularly depraved and violent fashion. Cordelia is not a blood relation to Bernie, but she knows he offered her partnership in the agency “not as a good conduct prize but an accolade of trust” (34). By contrast, Cordelia’s actual father was an inconsistent and untrustworthy figure who thwarted her hopes for higher education by insisting she become his traveling secretary—not a good conduct prize at all.

Chapter 1 introduces key plot elements, beginning with the illegal gun Bernie bequeaths to Cordelia—this gun is what Miss Leaming will use to kill Sir Ronald. She also seeds traits and other clues that will later become relevant, including Sir Ronald’s penchant for “absentmindedly” (41) and “apparently without thinking” (47) putting small objects into his pocket. Miss Leaming protests looking into Mark’s motive for suicide by saying, “We knew nothing about him, nothing! So why wait until he’s dead and then start finding out?” (44). This outburst seems odd until much later in the book, when we learn Miss Leaming was not only his mother but the one who found Mark hanged, dressed in women’s underwear, and wearing lipstick. She cleaned and redressed his body to protect his reputation; Sir Ronald’s desire for an investigation threatens to reveal something about Mark she doesn’t want anyone to know.

The “Bellinger bonus” is an example of foreshadowing. Sir Ronald came to the Pryde Agency on the recommendation of John Bellinger, who once hired detectives to track down the source of “an outbreak of obscene letters” (37). Bernie quickly discovered that the culprit was Bellinger’s personal secretary, another clue to readers that appearances can be deceiving.

Chapter 1 also touches on a classic theme of detective fiction: the distinction between people who are honest and principled and those who appear that way but are deceitful and immoral. Bernie describes his suicide as “the easy way out” (16), and despite his status as an unsuccessful reject from the police force who barely scraped by, he emerges from the book as a man of principle. Sir Ronald, a man of statue and good repute, is revealed to be a truly heinous villain. Their deaths begin and end the novel. Bernie’s is a true suicide and could be considered honorable; Sir Ronald’s suicide is faked to cover up his criminal actions. James is interested in the many ways appearances can deceive and revisits this theme throughout the novel.