50 pages • 1 hour read
P. D. JamesAn Unsuitable Job for a Woman
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1972A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary
Cordelia returns to her office and discovers a check for her expenses has come from Sir Ronald’s estate. She is contemplating what her future might hold when the telephone rings and she is summed to meet with Chief Superintendent Dalgliesh. The novel then skips forward, picking up 10 days later, when Cordelia is on her third visit to Dalgliesh.
The narrator recaps how the prior visits went, what Dalgliesh has been like, and how Cordelia has stuck to her story about Sir Ronald’s death. Dalgliesh clearly suspects her of not telling the full truth. He surprises her with deep knowledge of her investigation, having clearly traced her path. He horrifies her by accusing her of lying about Sir Ronald confiscating the gun. He has testimony from Miss Markland and the drunken stranger who accosted her, both of whom told Dalgliesh she claimed to have a gun during the time it was supposedly in Sir Ronald’s possession.
Cordelia is on the verge of confessing everything when they are interrupted by a message that announces Miss Leaming has died in a car accident. Dalgliesh tells Cordelia she can go—“there’s not much point in you staying” (246)—implying he has worked out that Miss Leaming killed Sir Ronald. Cordelia breaks down into “dramatic and uncontrollable crying” (247), behavior completely at odds with the calm cool she has demonstrated through the novel.
In her anger and grief, Cordelia lashes out at Dalgliesh for not coming to Bernie’s funeral. Dalgliesh is surprised to realize that Bernie was her partner and admits “this case might have ended rather differently if I [had]” (247). Cordelia is pleased by this admission of respect.
Dalgliesh goes to report to his superior officer and explains all he has seen and heard. The assistant commissioner points out there’s no way to prove these assertions, and Dalgliesh agrees. He speaks of Bernie with grudging admiration: “He wasn’t unintelligent, not totally without judgement, but everything, including ideas, came apart in his hands” (248). They agree not to pursue the inquiry further. Dalgliesh regrets not finding out what happened to Bernie but says, “I find it ironic and oddly satisfying that Pryde took his revenge” (230).
The novel concludes with Cordelia returning to her office to find a prospective client waiting on her doorstep.
Chapter 7 Analysis
The novel’s main conflict was addressed and resolved in Chapter 6. James surprises the reader by tacking on a final chapter in which she finally brings her more famous character, Dalgliesh, face-to-face with Cordelia. The chapter functions as a showdown, a battle of the wits, and though Cordelia prevails, Dalgliesh knows they both know the truth of what happened in Sir Ronald’s study. The problem is that Dalgliesh can’t prove it, and when Miss Leaming, Sir Ronald’s murderer, dies, Dalgliesh must admit there is no further reason to pursue the case.
The novel comes full circle in this chapter, with Dalgliesh realizing that it was his old comrade, Bernie Pryde, who trained up the young woman who is allowing someone to get away with murder. Dalgliesh takes a kind of perverse pride in this realization, underscoring the fine line that separates criminals from those who catch them.
Cordelia’s breakdown is her first real loss of control in the novel, and it comes just as she realizes she is getting away with her plan. Cordelia’s tears are unusual for a private detective, but James allows her to shed them, confronting the reader’s expectations that a successful detective must be a hardened, embittered man.
The client Cordelia finds on her doorstep hopes to discover whether his “lady friend […] is getting a bit on the side” (250), exactly the kind of job one might find unsuitable for a woman. This is James’s last winking acknowledgment that Cordelia both exemplifies and defies the tropes of the genre.
Related Titles
By P. D. James
