The Murder Room - Chapter 1

Dalgliesh is finishing work when he bumps into Conrad Ackroyd. Conrad talks about the articles he is writing about murder and it being a "symbol of its age". The converse about the Dupayne museum and the Murder Room. Then they travel to the museum.

"The visit was fortuitous, the descion implusive and he was later to look back on that afternoon as one of life's bizarre coincidences" Introduces notion of fate involved in the investigation

"I've caught you, regard it as fate". Reinforces the implication of fate

"Take the papers home to his Thames side flat and work in peace" - implies Dalgliesh is a private man, an outsider. Which suggests that he has a more sympathetic aproach to justice and his job.

"All the motives for murder are covered by four Ls: Love, Lust, Lucre and Loating ... The most dangerous is love" (Conrad)

The museum was "not easy to find"

"Dalgliesh said "Hardly an invitation don't they want visitors"

"Max Dupayne ... was fascinated - one might say obsessed - by the interwar years"

"Marcus Dupayne ... may well see the museum as a challenge"

The entrance to the museum has a long "narrow" road with lots of turns. The museum appears "suddenly before them"

Gothic syle entrance - "spindly trees, their leaves faded to yellow added to the dimness of the road"

"The restraint and complete symmetry of the builidng gave the house a slightly forbidding air, more institutional than domestic."

Dalgliesh - "Too much symmetry makes me uneasy"

The architect copied the design of the house. The house is symmetical, giving a sense of control, however, the fact that it's design was copied implies that what is seen is not the reality.

This chap ends stating that only Neville uses the garage to "house his E type jag"