P. D. James

Four Christmas short stories, two featuring poet-detective Adam Dalgliesh, that deal with some of the most unsettling aspects of human nature. Previously published in newspapers and magazines, they are collected here for the first time.

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...

P.D. James--one of the most widely admired writers of detective fiction at work today--gives us a personal, lively exploration of the human appetite for mystery and mayhem, and of those writers who have satisfied it. She examines the genre from top to bottom, beginning with the mysteries at the hearts of such novels as Charles Dickens's Bleak House, and bringing us into the present with such writers as Colin Dexter and Sara Paretsky. She compares...

"When the son of Alred Treeves has met an untimely death, Sir Alred calls on Dalgliesh to investigate. No sooner does he arrive at the theological college on the East Anglican coast than he finds himself drawn into a maze of violent mystery."

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 and his team are called on to solve a sensitive...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In this gripping crime thriller a renowned plastic surgeon's private clinic becomes the chilling backdrop for murder. • Part of the bestselling mystery series that inspired Dalgliesh on Acorn TV
"[James is] a master. . . . Nothing is as it first appears." —The Boston Globe
Cheverell Manor is a beautiful old house in Dorset, which its owner,...

Scotland Yard's Adam Dalgliesh leaves London to vacation in Norfolk and becomes enmeshed in the hunt for the perpetrator of a series of murders of young women, which continues even after the murderer's capture.

Private investigator Cordelia Gray inherits the Pryde Detective Agency in London and solves mysteries after her boss's suicide in this compelling ebook collection that includes An Unsuitable Job for a Woman and The Skull Beneath the Skin.

In the quiet Little Vestry of St. Matthew's Church, the body of a government minister listed next to a neighborhood derelict; both with their throats slit. Scotland Yard Commander Adam Dalgliesh is challenged with the investigation of a crime that appears to have endless motives. As he explores the sinister web spun around a half-burnt diary and a violet-eyed widow who is pregnant and full of malice, can Dalgliesh fill the gap of logic that joined...

In this riveting true crime account, acclaimed author P. D. James, the "Queen of the English mystery novel" (Newsweek) joins forces with historian T. A. Critchley to re-create the Radcliffe Highway murders, a series of vicious crimes committed in 1811. With the atmosphere and pacing of her best novels, James reveals the rudimentary police system of Regency London coping with a major murder investigation -- and crimes that rank up there with Jack the...