P D James - Author

Sleep No More Six Murderous Tales

The acknowledged 'Queen of Crime', P. D. James, was a past master of the short story, weaving together motifs of the Golden Age of crime-writing with deep psychological insight to create gripping, suspenseful tales. The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories contained four of these perfectly formed stories, and this companion volume contains a further six, published here together for the first time. As the six murderous tales unfold, the dark motive of revenge is revealed at the heart of each. Bullying schoolmasters receive their comeuppance, unhappy marriages and childhoods are avenged, a murder in the small hours of Christmas Day puts an end to the vicious new lord of the manor, and, from the safety of his nursing home, an octogenarian exerts exquisite retribution. The punishments inflicted on the guilty are fittingly severe, but here they are meted out by the unseen forces of natural justice rather than the institutions of the law. Once again, P. D. James shows her expert control of the short-story form, conjuring motives and scenarios with complete conviction, and each with a satisfying twist in the tail.

Death Comes to Pemberley

Two great literary minds-master of suspense P.D. James and literary icon Jane Austen-come together in Death Comes to Pemberley, a bestselling historical crime fiction tribute to Pride and Prejudice. Conjuring the world of Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and combining the trappings of Regency British society with a classic murder mystery, James creates a delightful mash-up that will intrigue any Janeite. The year is 1803, and Darcy and Elizabeth have been married for six years. There are now two handsome and healthy sons in the nursery, Elizabeth's beloved sister Jane and her husband Bingley live nearby and the orderly world of Pemberley seems unassailable. But all this is threatened when, on the eve of the annual autumn ball, the guests are preparing to retire for the night when a chaise appears, rocking down the path from Pemberley's wild woodland. As it pulls up, Lydia Wickham - Elizabeth's younger, unreliable sister - stumbles out screaming that her husband, George Wickham, has been murdered. Inspired by a lifelong passion for the work of Jane Austen, P.D. James masterfully recreates the world of Pride and Prejudice. Combining Austen's wit and the social commentary of Downton Abbey with her own signature excitement and suspense, James has crafted a brilliant crime story. Death Comes to Pemberley is a distinguished work of fiction, from one of the best-loved, most- read writers of our time, and was adapted as a miniseries by the BBC in 2013, starring Matthew Rhys, Anna Maxwell Martin, and Matthew Goode.

A Certain Justice

Venetia Aldridge QC is a distinguished barrister. When she agrees to defend Garry Ashe, accused of the brutal murder of his aunt, it is one more opportunity to triumph in her career as a criminal lawyer. But just four weeks later, Miss Aldridge is found dead in her chambers. Commander Adam Dalgleish, called in to investigate, finds motives for murder among the clients she has defended, her colleagues, her family - even her lover. As Dalgleish and his team narrow the field of suspects, a second brutal murder draws them into greater complexities of intrigue and evil.

The Private Patient

When the notorious investigative journalist, Rhoda Gradwyn, books into Mr Chandler-Powell's private clinic in Dorset for the removal of a disfiguring scar, she has every prospect of a successful operation and the beginning of a new life. But she was never to leave Cheverell Manor alive. Dalgliesh and his team are called in to investigate the murder, and later a second death, which raises far more complicated problems than merely the question of innocence or guilt . . .

Nem nonek valo

P. D. James a bator, de sebezheto fiatal nyomozonot, Cordelia Grayt egy rendkivul veszelyes kirakosban mutatja be, amely egy percre sem engedi lankadni az olvaso figyelmet."e; (The New York Times) A cambridge-i egyetemrol utolso eveben kimarado, jokepu Mark Callender neveltetesehez meltatlan modon halt meg: felakasztva talaltak ra, a szajan halvany ruzsnyommal. Gazdag apja nem nyugszik bele a hivatalos velemenybe, amely szerint ongyilkossagot kovetett el, es felfogadja a kezdo magandetektivet, Cordelia Grayt, hogy deritse ki, mi kergette a fiat az onpusztitasba. Amikor azonban Cordelia osszerakja a minduntalan megdobbenest kelto es igencsak buzlo ugy mozaikjait, nem Mark inditekaira, hanem reg eltemetett szennyes titkok es szegyenletes bunok hosszan kigyozo sorara bukkan, es egyre erosebbe valik a gyanuja, hogy gyilkossag tortent. Az 1970-es evekben irodott, de maig sem veszitett atuto erejebol."e; - VOGUE Lebilincselo, szepirodalmi igenyessegu bunugyi regeny..."e; - CHICAGO SUN-TIMES [P. D. James] a klasszikus krimi legnagyobb kortars iroja."e; - THE SUNDAY TIMES (UK)

The Children of Men

The year is 2021. No child has been born for twenty-five years. The human race faces extinction. Under the despotic rule of Xan Lyppiat, the Warden of England, the old are despairing and the young cruel. Theo Faren, a cousin of the Warden, lives a solitary life in this ominous atmosphere. That is, until a chance encounter with a young woman leads him into contact with a group of dissenters. Suddenly his life is changed irrevocably as he faces agonising choices which could affect the future of mankind.

Sleep No More

No one gets inside the head of the murdereror makes it a more thrilling readthan the late, great P. D. James. Fast on the heels of her latest best seller: a new, fiendishly entertaining gathering of previously uncollected stories, from the author of Death Comes to Pemberley and The Private Patient. It's not always a question of "e;whodunit?"e; Sometimes there's more mystery in the why or how. And although we usually know the unhealthy fates of both victim and perpetrator, what of those clever few who plan and carry out the perfect crime? The ones who aren't brought down even though they're found out? And what about those who do the finding out who witness a murder or who identify the murderer but keep the information to themselves? These are some of the mysteries that we follow through those six stories as we are drawn into the thinking, the memories, the emotional machinations, the rationalizations, the dreams and desires behind murderous cause and effect.This selection 2017 by the Estate of P.D. James. ';The Yo-Yo' written 1996; revised as ';Hearing Ghote' in The Verdict of Us All, ed. Peter Lovesey copyright P. D. James 2006. ';The Victim' first published in Winter's Crimes 5, ed. Virginia Whitaker copyright P. D. James 1973. ';The Murder of Santa Claus' first published in Great Detectives, ed. D. W. McCullough copyright P. D. James 1984. ';The Girl Who Loved Graveyards' first published in Winter's Crimes 15, ed. George Hardinge copyright P. D. James 1983. ';A Very Desirable Residence' first published in Winter's Crimes 8, ed. Hilary Watson copyright P. D. James 1976. ';Mr Millcroft's Birthday' first published as ';The Man Who Was 80' in The Man Who copyright P. D. James 1992; revised as ';Mr Maybrick's Birthday' copyright 2005. Foreword copyright 2017 by Peter Kemp.

Sleep No More Six Murderous Tales

The acknowledged 'Queen of Crime', P. D. James, was a past master of the short story, weaving together motifs of the Golden Age of crime-writing with deep psychological insight to create gripping, suspenseful tales. The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories contained four of these perfectly formed stories, and this companion volume contains a further six, published here together for the first time. As the six murderous tales unfold, the dark motive of revenge is revealed at the heart of each. Bullying schoolmasters receive their comeuppance, unhappy marriages and childhoods are avenged, a murder in the small hours of Christmas Day puts an end to the vicious new lord of the manor, and, from the safety of his nursing home, an octogenarian exerts exquisite retribution. The punishments inflicted on the guilty are fittingly severe, but here they are meted out by the unseen forces of natural justice rather than the institutions of the law. Once again, P. D. James shows her expert control of the short-story form, conjuring motives and scenarios with complete conviction, and each with a satisfying twist in the tail.

Sleep No More Six Murderous Tales

The acknowledged 'Queen of Crime', P. D. James, was a past master of the short story, weaving together motifs of the Golden Age of crime-writing with deep psychological insight to create gripping, suspenseful tales. The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories contained four of these perfectly formed stories, and this companion volume contains a further six, published here together for the first time. As the six murderous tales unfold, the dark motive of revenge is revealed at the heart of each. Bullying schoolmasters receive their comeuppance, unhappy marriages and childhoods are avenged, a murder in the small hours of Christmas Day puts an end to the vicious new lord of the manor, and, from the safety of his nursing home, an octogenarian exerts exquisite retribution. The punishments inflicted on the guilty are fittingly severe, but here they are meted out by the unseen forces of natural justice rather than the institutions of the law. Once again, P. D. James shows her expert control of the short-story form, conjuring motives and scenarios with complete conviction, and each with a satisfying twist in the tail.

The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories

P. D. James was frequently commissioned by newspapers and magazines to write a short story for Christmas, and four of the best have been drawn from the archives and published here together for the first time. From the title story about a strained country-house Christmas party, to another about an illicit affair that ends in murder, plus two cases for detective Adam Dalgliesh, these are masterfully atmospheric stories by the acknowledged 'Queen of Crime'.

Sleep No More

The acknowledged 'Queen of Crime', P. D. James, was a past master of the short story, weaving together motifs of the Golden Age of crime-writing with deep psychological insight to create gripping, suspenseful tales. The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories contained four of these perfectly formed stories, and this companion volume contains a further six, published here together for the first time.As the six murderous tales unfold, the dark motive of revenge is revealed at the heart of each. Bullying schoolmasters receive their comeuppance, unhappy marriages and childhoods are avenged, a murder in the small hours of Christmas Day puts an end to the vicious new lord of the manor, and, from the safety of his nursing home, an octogenarian exerts exquisite retribution.The punishments inflicted on the guilty are fittingly severe, but here they are meted out by the unseen forces of natural justice rather than the institutions of the law. Once again, P. D. James shows her expert control of the short-story form, conjuring motives and scenarios with complete conviction, and each with a satisfying twist in the tail.

Devices and Desires

When Adam Dalgliesh visits Larksoken, a remote headland community on the Norfolk coast in the shadow of a nuclear power station, he expects to be engaged only in the sad business of tying up his aunt's estate. But the peace of Larksoken is illusory. Someone is terrorising the neighbourhood, and Dalgliesh finds himself drawn into the lives of the isolated headlanders in an attempt to uncover what sinister forces are at work.

Mistletoe Murder

Four previously uncollected stories from one of the great mystery writers of our time--swift, cunning murder mysteries (two of which feature the young Adam Dalgliesh) that together, to borrow the author's own word, add up to a delightful "e;entertainment."e; The newly appointed Sgt. Dalgliesh is drawn into a case that is "e;pure Agatha Christie."e; . . . A "e;pedantic, respectable, censorious"e; clerk's secret taste for pornography is only the first reason he finds for not coming forward as a witness to a murder . . . A best-selling crime novelist describes the crime she herself was involved in fifty years earlier . . . Dalgliesh's godfather implores him to reinvestigate a notorious murder that might ease the godfather's mind about an inheritance, but which will reveal a truth that even the supremely upstanding Adam Dalgliesh will keep to himself. Each of these stories is as playful as it is ingeniously plotted, the author's sly humor as evident as her hallmark narrative elegance and shrewd understanding of some of the most complex--not to say the most damning--aspects of human nature. A treat for P. D. James's legions of fans and anyone who enjoys the pleasures of a masterfully wrought whodunit.From the Hardcover edition.

The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories

As the acknowledged 'Queen of Crime', P. D. James was frequently commissioned by newspapers and magazines to write a special short story for Christmas. Four of the best of these have been drawn from the archives and published here. P. D. James' prose illuminates each of these perfectly formed stories, making them ideal reading for the darkest days of the year. While she delights in the secrets that lurk beneath the surface at family gatherings, her Christmas stories also provide tantalizing puzzles to keep the reader guessing. P. D. James embraces the challenge of the short-story form, and ingeniously weaves the strands of plot, setting, characterisation and surprise to create a satisfying whole within only a few thousand words.

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman Faber Modern Classics

Meet Cordelia Gray: twenty-two, tough, intelligent and now sole inheritor of the Pryde Detective Agency. Her first assignment finds her hired by Sir Ronald Callender to investigate the death of his son Mark, a young Cambridge student found hanged in mysterious circumstances. Cordelia is required to delve into the hidden secrets of the Callender family and soon realizes it is not a case of suicide, and that the truth is entirely more sinister. PD James is the bestselling author of Death Comes To Pemberley, Children of Men and The Murder Room. Her first Cordelia Gray novel An Unsuitable Job For a Woman is a brilliant work of crime fiction packed with secrets and suspense. This novel has been adapted for television twice, the second adaptation in 1997 starred Helen Baxendale as Cordelia Gray.

Time to Be in Earnest

In this intriguing and very personal book, part diary, part memoir, P. D. James considers the twelve months of her life between her 77th and 78th birthdays, and looks back on her earlier life. With all her familiar skills as a writer she recalls what it was like to be a schoolgirl in the 1920s and 1930s in Cambridge, and then giving birth to her second daughter during the worst of the Doodlebug bombardment in London during the war. It follows her work, starting out as an administrator in the National Health Service, then on to the Home Office in the forensic and criminal justice departments. She later served as a Governor of the BBC, an influential member of the British Council, the Arts Council and the Society of Authors, and eventually entering the House of Lords. Along the way, this diary and personal memoir deals with her burgeoning reputation as a novelist, starting with Cover Her Face in 1962, and with the craft of the classical detective story. She also details the writing of one of her most intriguing and carefully researched books, A Certain Justice. This wonderful memoir will enthral aficionados of detective fiction, and will also appeal to anyone who lived through those turbulent years of the twentieth century.

The Lighthouse

Combe Island off the Cornish coast has a bloodstained history of piracy and cruelty but now, privately owned, it offers respite to over-stressed men and women in positions of high authority who require privacy and guaranteed security. But the peace of Combe is violated when one of the distinguished visitors is bizarrely murdered. Adam Dalgliesh is called in to solve the mystery quickly and discreetly, but at a difficult time for him and his depleted team. Dalgliesh is uncertain about his future with Emma Lavenham, the woman he loves, Detective Inspector Kate Miskin has her own emotional problems and the ambitious Anglo-Indian Sergeant Francis Benton-Smith is worried about working under Kate. Hardly have the team begun to unravel the complicated motives of the suspects that there is a second brutal killing and the whole investigation is jeopardised when Dalgliesh is faced with a danger more insidious and as potentially fatal as murder. This eagerly awaited successor to The Murder Room displays the qualities which aficionados have come to expect of P D James: sensitive characterisation, an exciting and superbly structured plot and vivid evocation of place. The Lighthouse is a subtle and powerful work of contemporary fiction.

The Murder Room

Commander Adam Dalgliesh is already acquainted with the Dupayne Museum in Hampstead, and with its sinister murder room celebrating notorious crimes committed in the interwar years, when he is called to investigate the killing of one of the trustees. He soon discovers that the victim was seeking to close the museum against the wishes of both staff and fellow trustees. Everyone, it seems, has something to gain from the crime. When it becomes clear that the killer is prepared to kill again, inspired by the real-life crimes from the murder room, Dalgliesh knows that to solve this case he has to get into the mind of a ruthless killer. The investigation is complicated for Dalgliesh by his love for Emma Lavenham, but their relationship, at a sensitive stage for them both, is continually frustrated by the demands of his job. As step by step he moves closer to the murderer, is the investigation taking him further away from commitment to the woman he loves? Award-winning P.D. James (author of Death Comes to Pemberley, The Murder Room and A Certain Justice) plots a thrilling work of crime fiction packed with intrigue and suspense. In 2004, this novel was adapted for BBC television and starred Martin Shaw as Adam Dalgliesh and Janie Dee as Emma Lavenham.

Death in Holy Orders

When the body of a theology student is found on a desolate stretch of coast in East Anglia, his wealthy father demands that Scotland Yard should re-examine the verdict of accidental death. Commander Adam Dalgliesh agrees to pay a visit to the young man's theological college, St Anselm's, a place he knew as a boy, expecting no more than a nostalgic return to old haunts and a straightforward examination of the evidence. Instead he finds himself embroiled in intrigue, secrets and mystery as the college is torn apart by a sacrilegious and horrifying murder . . . Award-winning P.D. James (author of Death Comes to Pemberley and Children of Men) masterfully explores an isolated and beleaguered community coping with the evil and disruption of murder. In 2003, this novel was adapted for BBC television and starred Martin Shaw, Hugh Fraser and Robert Hardy. Set on the wild coast of East Anglia, this number one bestseller is the fourteenth Adam Dalgliesh novel and a thrilling work of crime fiction possessing all of the qualities which distinguish P. D. James as a novelist.

Death Comes to Pemberley

The world is classic Jane Austen. The mystery is vintage P.D. James. The year is 1803, and Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet have been married for six years. There are now two handsome and healthy sons in the nursery, Elizabeth's beloved sister Jane and her husband Bingley live nearby and the orderly world of Pemberley seems unassailable. But all this is threatened when, on the eve of the annual autumn ball, the guests are preparing to retire for the night when a chaise appears, rocking down the path from Pemberley's wild woodland. As it pulls up, Lydia Wickham - Elizabeth Bennet's younger, unreliable sister - stumbles out screaming that her husband has been murdered. Two great literary minds - master of suspense P.D. James and literary icon Jane Austen - come together in Death Comes to Pemberley, a bestselling historical crime fiction tribute to Pride and Prejudice. Conjuring the world of Elizabeth Bennet and Mark Darcy and combining the trappings of Regency British society with a classic murder mystery, P.D. James creates a delightful mash-up that will intrigue any Janeite. From the bestselling author of The Murder Room, Children of Men and A Certain Justice, comes a wonderful mixture of the nation's greatest romance and best-loved crime fiction. In 2013, this novel was adapted as a miniseries by the BBC, starring Matthew Rhys as Darcy, Anna Maxwell Martin as Elizabeth Bennet and Jenna Coleman as Lydia Wickham.

Certain Justice

It begins, dramatically enough, with a trial for murder. The distinguished criminal lawyer Venetia Aldridge is defending Garry Ashe on charges of having brutally killed his aunt. For Aldridge the trial is mainly a test of her courtroom skills, one more opportunity to succeed--and she does. But now murder is in the air. The next victim will be Aldridge herself, stabbed to death at her desk in her Chambers in the Middle Temple, a bloodstained wig on her head. Enter Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his team, whose struggle to investigate and understand the shocking events cannot halt the spiral into more horrors, more murders...A Certain Justice is P.D. James at her strongest.In her first foray into the strange closed world of the Law Courts and the London legal community, she has created a fascinating tale of interwoven passion and terror. As each character leaps into unforgettable life, as each scene draws us forward into new complexities of plot, she proves yet again that no other writer can match her skill in combining the excitement of the classic detective story with the richness of a fine novel. In its subtle portrayal of morality and human behavior, A Certain Justice will stand alongside Devices and Desires and A Taste for Death as one of P.D. James's most important, accomplished and entertaining works.

Original Sin

Adam Dalgliesh takes on a baffling murder in the rarefied world of London book publishing in this masterful mystery from one of our finest novelists.Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his team are confronted with a puzzle of impenetrable complexity. A murder has taken place in the offices of the Peverell Press, a venerable London publishing house located in a dramatic mock-Venetian palace on the Thames. The victim is Gerard Etienne, the brilliant but ruthless new managing director, who had vowed to restore the firm's fortunes. Etienne was clearly a man with enemiesa discarded mistress, a rejected and humiliated author, and rebellious colleagues, one of who apparently killed herself a short time earlier. Yet Etienne's death, which occurred under bizarre circumstances, is for Dalgliesh only the beginning of the mystery, as he desperately pursues the search for a killer prepared to strike and strike again.

Death Comes to Pemberley

A rare meeting of literary genius: P. D. James, long among the most admired mystery writers of our time, draws the characters of Jane Austen's beloved novel Pride and Prejudice into a tale of murder and emotional mayhem. It is 1803, six years since Elizabeth and Darcy embarked on their life together at Pemberley, Darcy's magnificent estate.Their peaceful, orderly world seems almost unassailable.Elizabeth has found her footing as the chatelaine of the great house.They have two fine sons, Fitzwilliam and Charles.Elizabeth's sister Jane and her husband, Bingley, live nearby; her father visits often; there is optimistic talk about the prospects of marriage for Darcy's sister Georgiana.And preparations are under way for their much-anticipated annual autumn ball. Then, on the eve of the ball, the patrician idyll is shattered.A coach careens up the drive carrying Lydia, Elizabeth's disgraced sister, who with her husband, the very dubious Wickham, has been banned from Pemberley.She stumbles out of the carriage, hysterical, shrieking that Wickham has been murdered.With shocking suddenness, Pemberley is plunged into a frightening mystery. Inspired by a lifelong passion for Austen, P. D. James masterfully re-creates the world of Pride and Prejudice, electrifying it with the excitement and suspense of a brilliantly crafted crime story, as only she can write it.

Talking about Detective Fiction

From the birth of crime writing with Wilkie Collins and Dostoevsky, through Conan Doyle to the golden age of crime, with the rise of Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh and Margery Allingham, P. D. James brings a lifetime of reading and writing crime fiction to bear on this personal history of the genre. There are chapters on great American crime writers - the likes of Patricia Highsmith, Raymond Chandler and Dashiel Hammett. James also discusses many of her favourite famous detectives, from Sherlock Holmes to Philip Marlowe. P.D. James, the bestselling author of Death Comes to Pemberley, Children of Men and The Murder Room, presents a brief history of detective fiction and explores the literary techniques behind history's best crime writing.

The Children of Men

Cover Her Face

From P.D. James, one of the masters of British crime fiction, comes the debut novel that introduced Scotland Yard detective Adam Dalgliesh. Set in the peaceful English countryside, Cover Her Face is a classic murder mystery. St Cedd's Church fete has been held in the grounds of Martingale manor house for generations. As if organising stalls, as well as presiding over luncheon, the bishop and the tea tent, were not enough for Mrs Eleanor Maxie on that mellow July afternoon, she also has to contend with the news of her son's sudden engagement to the new parlour maid, Sally Jupp. On the following morning Martingale and the village are shocked by the discovery of Sally's body. Investigating the violent death at the manor house, Detective Chief Inspector Adam Dalgliesh becomes embroiled in the complicated passions beneath the calm surface of English country life. In Cover Her Face, award-winning P.D. James (author of Death Comes to Pemberley, The Murder Room and Children of Men) plots a complex story of family secrets and suspicion. Meet the dark and brooding Dalgliesh - a gentleman, a poet, and a gifted detective-and read the novel that launched P.D. James's career as the world's pre-eminent crime writer.

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman

Meet Cordelia Gray: twenty-two, tough, intelligent and now sole inheritor of the Pryde Detective Agency. Her first assignment finds her hired by Sir Ronald Callender to investigate the death of his son Mark, a young Cambridge student found hanged in mysterious circumstances. Cordelia is required to delve into the hidden secrets of the Callender family and soon realizes it is not a case of suicide, and that the truth is entirely more sinister. PD James is the bestselling author of Death Comes To Pemberley, Children of Men and The Murder Room. Her first Cordelia Gray novel An Unsuitable Job For a Woman is a brilliant work of crime fiction packed with secrets and suspense. This novel has been adapted for television twice, the second adaptation in 1997 starred Helen Baxendale as Cordelia Gray.

The Skull Beneath the Skin

From P.D. James, one of the masters of British crime fiction comes the second novel to feature the famous female detective Cordelia Gray of the Pryde Detective Agency. Set on the sinister Courcy Island, The Skull Beneath the Skin is a thrilling murder mystery. Clarissa Lisle hopes to make a spectacular comeback in a production of The Duchess of Malfi, to be played in Ambrose Gorringe's sinister castle at Courcy Island. Cordelia is there to ensure her safety following the appearance of a number of poison-pen letters. But it soon becomes clear that all are in danger. Trapped within the walls of the Gothic castle, the treacherous past of the island re-emerges, and everyone seems to have a motive for sending Clarissa 'down, down to hell'. Marking the return of the private detective Cordelia Gray, The Skull beneath the Skin is the sequel to An Unsuitable Job for a Woman. P.D. James is Britain's pre-eminent crime writer and the author of many bestselling titles including Death Comes To Pemberley, Children of Men and Death in Holy Orders.

Innocent Blood

Philippa Palfrey, adopted as a child, believes herself to be the motherless, illegitimate daughter of an aristocratic father. At eighteen she exercises her right to find out the truth. What she discovers will change her life forever. Philippa embarks on a thrilling investigation, enters a new and terrifying world and soon comes to realize that she is not the only one interested in her parents' whereabouts. From the bestselling author of Death Comes to Pemberley, Children of Men and Death in Holy Orders, Innocent Blood is both a mystery and a thriller, a superb novel that explores the themes of self-identity, blood ties, guilt and revenge. P.D. James has been influential as a crime writer for many years and her writing is often compared to the work of authors such as Val Mcdermid, Ian Rankin and Peter Robinson. 'A fascinating psychological study of blood ties, guilt and revenge' Sunday Telegraph

Death of an Expert Witness

From P.D. James, one of the masters of British crime fiction, comes the seventh Adam Dalgliesh novel, set against the bleak fens of East Anglia. Death of An Expert Witness is a classic work of detective fiction packed with forensic detail, intrigue and suspense. When a young girl is found murdered in a field, the scientific examination of the exhibits is just a routine job for the staff of Hoggatt's forensic science laboratory. But nothing could have prepared them for the brutal death of one of their own. When the senior biologist is found dead in his laboratory Commander Dalgliesh is called to the bleak fens of East Anglia, where the murderer is lying in wait to strike again. With a wealth of potential suspects and cautious forensic scientists quick to pass on the blame, Dalgliesh becomes embroiled in the complicated passions that lie hidden beneath the calm surface of the laboratory. From PD James, the bestselling author of Death Comes To Pemberley, Children of Men and Death in Holy Orders, comes an atmospheric and thrilling work of detective fiction set in a forensic laboratory on the bleak fens of East Anglia. This novel was adapted into an ITV television series in 1983 and starred Roy Marsden, Geoffrey Palmer and Ray Brooks.

Shroud for a Nightingale

The young women of Nightingale House are there to learn to nurse and comfort the suffering. But when one of the students plays patient in a demonstration of nursing skills, she is horribly, brutally killed. Amongst the blackmail, lies and hastily kept secrets of the Nightingale nursing school, another student dies equally mysteriously and it is up to Adam Dalgliesh to unmask a killer who has decided to prescribe murder as the cure for all ills. In Shroud for a Nightingale, award-winning P.D. James (author of Death Comes to Pemberley, Original Sin and Children of Men) plots a complex story of secrets, blackmail and suspicion. The novel was adapted for television in 1984, with Roy Marsden as Adam Dalgliesh and Joss Ackland as the surgeon, Stephen Courtney-Briggs.

Unnatural Causes

Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh had been looking forward to a quiet holiday at his aunt's cottage on Monksmere Head, one of the furthest-flung spots on the remote Suffolk coast. With nothing to do other than enjoy long wind-swept walks, tea in front of the crackling wood fire and hot buttered toast, Dalgliesh was relishing the thought of a well-earned break. However, all hope of peace is soon shattered by murder. The mutilated body of a local crime writer, Maurice Seaton, floats ashore in a drifting dinghy to drag Adam Dalgliesh into a new and macabre investigation. Set on the remote Suffolk coast, this is a thrilling work of crime fiction possessing all of the qualities which distinguish P.D. James as a novelist. Award-winning P.D. James (author of Death Comes to Pemberley, A Certain Justice and Children of Men) plots a complex story of murder, mystery and suspicion. The novel was adapted into a hit film in 1993, starring Roy Marsden, Simon Chandler and Kenneth Colley.

Devices and Desires

When Commander Adam Dalgliesh visits Larksoken, a remote headland community on the Norfolk coast in the shadow of a nuclear power station, he expects to be engaged only in the sad business of tying up his aunt's estate. But the peace of Larksoken is illusory. A serial killer known as the Whistler is terrorising the neighbourhood and Dalgliesh is drawn into the lives of the headlanders when it quickly becomes apparent that the Whistler isn't the only murderer at work under the sinister shadow of the power station. In Devices and Desires, award-winning P.D. James (author of Death Comes to Pemberley, The Murder Room and Children of Men) plots a chilling investigation into the motives of a cold-hearted serial killer. This novel was adapted for BBC television in 1984 and starred Roy Marsden as the inspector protagonist Adam Dalgliesh.

The Black Tower

Award-winning P.D. James, one of the masters of crime fiction, takes her best-known detective to the Dorset coast in this murder mystery. Awakening on his sick bed to a deepening sense of his own mortality, Dalgliesh fights with his illness and finds himself embroiled in a thrilling murder investigation packed with lies, suspicion and deceit. Commander Dalgliesh is recuperating from a life-threatening illness when he receives a call for advice from an elderly friend who works as a chaplain in a home for the disabled on the Dorset coast. Dalgliesh arrives to discover that Father Baddeley has recently and mysteriously died, as has one of the patients at Toynton Grange. Evidently the home is not quite the caring community it purports to be. Dalgliesh is determined to discover the truth of his friend's death, but further fatalities follow and his own life is in danger as he unmasks the evil at the heart of Toynton Grange. From the bestselling author of Death Comes to Pemberley, Children of Men and The Murder Room, comes the fifth novel in the Adam Dalgliesh series, a thrilling work of crime fiction that explores the mysterious and intense emotions responsible for the unique crime of murder, with authority and sensitivity. Set on the Dorset coast, The Black Tower possesses all of the qualities which distinguish P.D. James as a novelist. This novel won the Silver Dagger award for crime fiction and was adapted into a television program in 1985 starring actors such as Roy Marsden, Pauline Collins and Martin Jarvis.

Talking about Detective Fiction

To judge by the worldwide success of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie's Poirot, it is not only the Anglo-Saxons who have an appetite for mystery and mayhem. Talking about the craft of detective writing and sharing her personal thoughts and observations on one of the most popular and enduring forms of literature, P.D. James examines the challenges, achievements and potential of a genre which has fascinated her for more than fifty years as a novelist. From the tenant of 221b Baker Street to the Village Priest from Cubhole in Essex, from the Golden Age of detective writing between the wars to the achievements of the present and a glimpse at the future, P.D. James explores the metamorphosis of a genre which has gripped and entertained the popular imagination like no other type of novel. Written by the author widely regarded as the queen of the detective novel, this book is sure to appeal to all aficionados of crime fiction.

Original Sin

The Peverell Press, a two-hundred-year-old publishing firm housed in a dramatic mock-Venetian palace on the Thames, is certainly ripe for change. But the proposals of its ruthlessly ambitious new managing director, Gerard Etienne, have made him dangerous enemies - a discarded mistress, a neglected and humiliated author, and rebellious colleagues and staff. When Gerard's body is discovered bizarrely desecrated, there is no shortage of suspects and Adam Dalgliesh and his team are confronted with a puzzle of extraordinary complexity and a murderer who is prepared to strike again. P.D. James, the bestselling author of Death Comes to Pemberley, Children of Men and Death in Holy Orders, once again explores the mysterious, strong and intense emotions responsible for the unique crime of murder, with authority and sensitivity. Original Sin is set in the literary world of London and possesses all of the qualities which distinguish P.D. James as a novelist. P.D. James has been influential as a crime writer for many years and her writing is often compared to the work of authors such as Val Mcdermid, Ian Rankin and Peter Robinson. 'An elegantly written, splendidly atmospheric and immensely satisfying mystery.' Sunday Telegraph

A Taste for Death

Two men lie in a welter of blood in the vestry of St Matthew's Church, Paddington, their throats brutally slashed. One is Sir Paul Berowne, a baronet and recently-resigned Minister of the Crown, the other an alcoholic vagrant. Dalgliesh and his team, set up to investigate crimes of particular sensitivity, are faced with a case of extraordinary complexity as they discover the Berowne family's veneer of prosperous gentility conceals ugly and dangerous family secrets. P.D. James, the bestselling author of Death Comes to Pemberley, Children of Men and The Murder Room, explores the mysterious and intense emotions responsible for the unique crime of murder, with authority and sensitivity. A Taste For Death, won the Silver Dagger award for crime fiction and was adapted into a BBC television series starring Robert Marsden as the inspector protagonist Adam Dalgliesh.

A Mind to Murder

A piercing scream, shattering the evening calm, brings Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh hurrying from his literary party to the nearby Steen Psychiatric Clinic, where he discovers the body of a woman sprawled on the basement floor, a chisel thrust through her heart. As Dalgliesh probes beneath the apparently unruffled calm of the clinic, he discovers that many an intrigue lies hidden behind the Georgian terrace's unassuming facade. Professionally, he has never known the taste of failure. Now, for the first time, he feels unsure of his own mastery as he battles to unmask a cool killer who is proving to be his intellectual equal, and who is poised to strike again. A Mind To Murder is the second novel to feature Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh from the bestselling author of Death Comes To Pemberley, Death in Holy Orders and The Children of Men. In 1995 the novel was adapted into a hit film and starred Roy Marsden as the inspector protagonist.

A Certain Justice

From P.D. James, one of the masters of British crime fiction comes the tenth novel to feature commander Adam Dalgliesh. A Certain Justice is a chilling murder mystery packed with forensic detail, set in the treacherous legal world of London. Venetia Aldridge QC is a distinguished barrister. When she agrees to defend Garry Ashe, accused of the brutal murder of his aunt, it is one more opportunity to triumph in her distinguished career as a criminal lawyer. But just four weeks later, Miss Aldridge is found dead at her desk. Commander Adam Dalgliesh, called in to investigate, finds motives for murder among the clients Venetia has defended, her professional colleagues, her family - even her lover. As Dalgliesh narrows the field of suspects, a second brutal murder draws them into greater complexities of intrigue and evil. P.D. James, the bestselling author of Death Comes to Pemberley, Children of Men and Death In Holy Orders, once again explores the mysterious and intense emotions responsible for the unique crime of murder, with authority and sensitivity. A Certain Justice is set in the legal world of London and possesses all of the qualities which distinguish P.D. James as a novelist.

Children of Men

The human race has become infertile, and the last generation to be born is now adult. Civilization itself is crumbling as suicide and despair become commonplace. Oxford historian Theodore Faron, apathetic toward a future without a future, spends most of his time reminiscing. Then he is approached by Julian, a bright, attractive woman who wants him to help get her an audience with his cousin, the powerful Warden of England. She and her band of unlikely revolutionaries may just awaken his desire to live . . . and they may also hold the key to survival for the human race.Told with P. D. James's trademark suspense, insightful characterization, and riveting storytelling,The Children of Menis a story of a world with no children and no future.

Innocent Blood

P.D. James is the greatest living mystery writer.PeopleAdopted as a child into a privileged family, Philippa Palfrey fantasizes that she is the daughter of an aristocrat and a parlor maid. The terrifying truth about her parents and a long-ago murder is only the first in a series of shocking betrayals. Philippa quickly learns that those who delve into the secrets of the past must be on guard when long-buried horrors begin to stir.As a crime novel, wrote the London Times, Innocent Blood is the peak of the art. Flawlessly crafted . . . profoundly, masterfully moving, Cosmopolitan concurred.From the Compact Disc edition.

Skull Beneath the Skin

P.D. James is the greatest living mystery writer.PeoplePrivate detective Cordelia Gray is invited to the sunlit island of Courcy to protect the vainly beautiful actress Clarissa Lisle from veiled threats on her life. Within the rose red walls of a fairy-tale castle, she finds the stage is set for death.Richly intricate and literate, Jamess second Cordelia Gray mystery shows James at the height of her storytelling powers San Francisco Chronicle From the Compact Disc edition.

Devices and Desires

National Bestseller.Featuring the famous Commander Adam Dalgliesh, Devices and Desires is a thrilling and insightfully crafted novel of fallible people caught in a net of secrets, ambitions, and schemes on a lonely stretch of Norfolk coastline. Commander Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard has just published a new book of poems and has taken a brief respite from publicity on the remote Larksoken headland on the Norfolk coast in a converted windmill left to him by his aunt. But he cannot so easily escape murder. A psychotic strangler of young women is at large in Norfolk, and getting nearer to Larksoken with every killing. And when Dalgliesh discovers the murdered body of the Acting Administrative Officer on the beach, he finds himself caught up in the passions and dangerous secrets of the headland community and in one of the most baffling murder cases of his career.

Taste for Death

A Taste for Death is a masterful mystery and a precise and elegant literary treat from one of the finest novelists writing today.In the little vestry of St. Matthews Church in London, two bodies lie side by side like butchered animalsone a government minister and the other a local derelict. Commander Adam Dalgliesh is head of a special squad at New Scotland Yard set up to investigate sensitive cases, and this gruesome double murder becomes one of the most complicated and demanding of his career, made more difficult by his familiarity with one of the victims.A first-rate detective novel, but it goes beyond that fine achievement to another realm. . . . An intricate, compassionate novel. The Boston GlobeHer best and most ambitious tale to date. . . . The reigning mistress of murder. . . . A craftsman with a poets vision, she not only detects evil but attempts to uncover the more elusiveand enduringenigmas of the human psyche that lead to it.TimeFrom the Compact Disc edition.

Black Tower

The fifth mystery in the acclaimed and bestselling Adam Dalgliesh series by the reigning mistress of murder(Time), P.D. James, is now available on CD.Just recovered from a grave illness, Commander Adam Dalgliesh is called to the bedside of an elderly priest. When Dalgliesh arrives, Father Baddeley is dead. Is it merely his own brush with mortality that causes Dalgliesh to sense the shadow of death about to fall once more? Splendid, macabreLondon Sunday TelegraphTHE BLACK TOWER is a masterpiece.London Sunday TimesFrom the Compact Disc edition.

Death of an Expert Witness

The sixth mystery in the acclaimed and bestselling Adam Dalgliesh series, which led Newsweek to crown P. D. James the new queen of crime.An evil-tempered forensic scientist is put to death, putting many of his colleagues out of misery. Dr. Lorrimer appeared to be the picture of a bloodless, coldly efficient scientist. Only when his brutally slain body is discovered and his secret past dissected does the image begin to change. Once again, Chief Inspector Adam Dalgliesh learns that there is more to human beings than meets the eyeand more to solving a murder than the obvious clues.A craftsman with a poet's vision...[P.D. James] not only detects evil but attempts to uncover the more elusiveand enduringenigmas of the human psyche that lead to it.TimeFrom the Compact Disc edition.

Shroud for a Nightingale

P.D. James is the greatest living mystery writer.PeopleThe young women of Nightingale House are there to learn to nurse and comfort the suffering. But when one of the students plays patient in a demonstration of nursing skills, she is horribly, brutally killed. Another student dies equally mysteriously, and it is up to Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard to unmask a killer who has decided to prescribe murder as the cure for all ills.The New York Times called Shroud for a Nightingale mystery at its best.From the Compact Disc edition.

Unsuitable Job for a Woman

P. D. James is the reigning mistress of murder. TimeHandsome Cambridge dropout Mark Callender died hanging by the neck with a faint trace of lipstick on his mouth. When the official verdict is suicide, his wealthy father hires fledgling private investigator Cordelia Gray to find out what led him to self-destruction. What she discovers instead is a twisting trail of secrets and sins, and the strong scent of murder.An Unsuitable Job for a Woman introduces P. D. Jamess courageous but vulnerable young detective, Cordelia Gray, in a top-rated puzzle of peril that holds you all the way (The New York Times).From the Compact Disc edition.

Unnatural Causes

Award-winning author P.D. James third mystery in her bestselling series featuring Scotland Yard investigator Adam Dalgliesh is now available on CD!Maurice Seton was a famous mystery writerbut no murder from his imagination could equal the ghastliness of his own death. When his grotesquely mutilated corpse is found in a drifting dinghy, ripples of horror spread among his bizarre neighbors: the cruel and cynical drama critic, the celebrated recluse, and the rakish young heir. It is up to Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh and his extraordinary aunt to discover the shocking truth about Seton's pastbefore the plot takes another murderous turn.P.D. James scores with understated humor, stately yet unpretentious prose, psychological insightsplus, above all, fundamental warmth and wisdom in every line she writes.Kirkus Reviews From the Compact Disc edition.

Mind to Murder

Award-winning author P.D. James' second mystery in her bestselling series featuring Scotland Yard investigator Adam Dalgliesh is now available on CD!When the administrative head of the Steen Psychiatric Clinic is found dead with a chisel in her heart, Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard is called in to investigate. Dalgliesh must analyze the deep-seated anxieties and thwarted desires of patients and staff alike to determine which of their unresolved conflicts resulted in murder. Widely acknowledged as the greatest contemporary writer of classic crime (The London Sunday Times), P. D. James received the Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster Award for long-term achievement in 1999.a superbly satisfying mystery.Chicago Daily NewsFrom the Compact Disc edition.

Private Patient

Cheverell Manor is a lovely old house in deepest Dorset, now a private clinic belonging to the famous plastic surgeon George Chandler-Powell. When investigative journalist Rhoda Gradwyn arrived there one late autumn afternoon, scheduled to have a disfiguring and long-standing facial scar removed, she had every expectation of a successful operation and a pleasant week recuperating.Two days later she was dead, the victim of murder.To Commander Adam Dalgliesh, who with his team is called in to investigate the case, the mystery at first seems absolute. Few things about it make sense. Yet as the detectives begin probing the lives and backgrounds of those connected with the dead womanthe surgeon, members of the manor staff, close acquaintancessuspects multiply all too rapidly. New confusions arise, including strange historical overtones of madness and a lynching 350 years in the past. Then there is a second murder, and Dalgliesh finds himself confronted by issues even more challenging than innocence or guilt.P. D. James has gained an enviable reputation for creating detective stories of uncommon depth and intricacy, combined with the sort of humanity and perceptiveness found only in the finest novelists. The Private Patient ranks among her very best.

Cover Her Face

P. D. James is the greatest living mystery writer. PeopleHeadstrong and beautiful, the young housemaid Sally Jupp is put rudely in her place, strangled in her bed behind a bolted door. Coolly brilliant policeman Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard must find her killer among a houseful of suspects, most of whom had very good reason to wish her ill. Cover Her Face is P. D. Jamess electric debut novel, an ingeniously plotted mystery that immediately placed her among the masters of suspense.From the Compact Disc edition.

Murder Room

The Dupayne, a small private museum on the edge of London's Hampstead Heath devoted to the interwar years 1919-39, is in turmoil. The trustees--the three children of the museum founder, old Max Dupayne--are bitterly at odds over whether it should be closed. Then one of them is brutally murdered, and what seemed to be no more than a family dispute erupts into horror. For even as Commander Adam Dalgiesh and his team investigate the first killing, a second corpse is discovered. Clearly, someone at the Dupayne is prepared to kill, and kill again. The case is fraught with danger and complexity from the outset, not least because of the range of possible suspects--and victims. And still more sinister, the murders appear to echo the notorious crimes of th epast featured in one of the museum's most popular galleries, the Murder Room. For Dalgiesh, P.D. James's formidable detective, the search for the murderer poses an unexpected complication. After years of bachelorhood, he has embarked on a promising new relationship with Emma Lavenham--first introduced in Death in Holy Orders--which is at a critical stage. Yet his struggle to solve the Dupayne murders faces him with a frustrating dilemma: each new development distances him further from commitment to the woman he loves. The Murder Room is a story dark with the passions that lie at the heart of crime, a masterful work of psychological intricacy. It proves yet again that P.D. James fully deserves her place among the best of modern novelists.

Death in Holy Orders

The setting itself is elemental P. D. James: the bleak coast of East Anglia, where atop a sweep of low cliffs stands the small theological college of St. Anselms. On the shore not far away, smothered beneath a fall of sand, lies the body of one of the schools young ordinands. He is the son of Sir Alred Treves, a hugely successful and flamboyant businessman who is accustomed to getting what he wantsand in this case what he wants is Commander Adam Dalgliesh to investigate his sons death. Although there seems to be little to investigate, Dalgliesh agrees, largely out of nostal-gia for several happy summers he spent at St. Anselms as a boy. No sooner does he arrive, however, than the college is torn apart by a sacrilegious and horrifying murder, and Dalgliesh finds himself ineluctably drawn into the labyrinth of an intricate and violent mystery. Here P. D. James once more demonstrates her unrivalled skill in building a classic detective story into a fully realized novel, gripping as much for its psychological and emotional richness as for the originality and complexity of its plottingand, of course, for the horror and suspense at its heart. Filled with unforgettable characters, brilliant in its evocation of the East Anglian scene and the religious background against which the action takes place, Death in Holy Orders again offers proof, if proof were needed, that P. D. James is not only the reigning master of the crime novel but also, simply, one of the finest novelists writing today.From the Hardcover edition.

Lighthouse

A subtle and powerful work of contemporary fiction.Combe Island off the Cornish coast has a bloodstained history of piracy and cruelty but now, privately owned, it offers respite to over-stressed men and women in positions of high authority who require privacy and guaranteed security. But the peace of Combe is violated when one of the distinguished visitors is bizarrely murdered.Commander Adam Dalgliesh is called in to solve the mystery quickly and discreetly, but at a difficult time for him and his depleted team. Dalgliesh is uncertain about his future with Emma Lavenham, the woman he loves; Detective Inspector Kate Miskin has her own emotional problems; and the ambitious Sergeant Francis Benton-Smith is worried about working under Kate. Hardly has the team begun to unravel the complicated motives of the suspects than there is a second brutal killing, and the whole investigation is jeopardized when Dalgliesh is faced with a danger more insidious and as potentially fatal as murder.This eagerly awaited successor to the international bestseller The Murder Room displays all the qualities that lovers of P. D. Jamess novels the world over have come to expect: sensitive characterization, an exciting and superbly structured plot and vivid evocation of place.From the Hardcover edition.

Cover Her Face

Though Sally Jupp came from the village home for unmarried mothers, she seemed the ideal girl to help Mrs Maxie run a large Elizabethan manor house and look after her invalid husband. But the real Sally, pretty, ambitious and clever, was very different from the docile, repentant character she seemed to be. Murder shattered the tranquillity of her new home and Chief Detective Inspector Adam Dalgliesh arrived in the peace of a country Sunday to solve a case as mysterious as Sally herself. He soon discovers that there is no shortage of motives, and as he investigates, the complex secrets and powerful passions of village and family life come into play. This BBC Radio dramatisation stars Robin Ellis, with Hugh Thomas Grant and Sian Phillips. 2 CDs. 2 hrs.