All of James' novels are notably literate and intelligent, several cuts above the standard in detective fiction, though none of the early ones transgresses the usual boundaries of the genre. In light of this trend in her writing, James' new novel , The Children of Men , may not be as much of a departure as a first glance suggests. There is no Dalgleish here, no search for a murderer, and in the everyday sense of the word no mystery-though the story is quite suspenseful and could plausibly be called a thriller. Moreover, the setting, as we will see, is quite unlike anything else James has done. Of all James' novels, The Children of Men is probably the most pointed in its social criticism, certainly the deepest in its theological reflection.
Some themes seem underdeveloped, the motives of some characters unclear.
The setting of The Children of Men will be the biggest surprise for P. D. James readers. Though the place is England, as usual, the time is the year 2021. And in that year England is a very different country, and the world a very different world, than we might reasonably expect. New uses have been found for school buildings, playground equipment has been dismantled, the grounds themselves turned into gardens. But the title is more complex and significant than that.