Death in Holy Orders - (Adam Dalgliesh) by P D James (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A "superbly executed mystery" (The Philadelphia Inquirer) from the award-winning master of literary crime fiction.

"Within the setting of a great Victorian mansion set on crumbling cliffs--a large cast of variously unscrupulous men and women is brought together in a tangle of murder, mayhem, betrayal, incest, and generally bad behavior."--The New York Times Book Review

NOW IN DEVELOPMENT FOR SEASON THREE OF DALGLIESH

On the East Anglian seacoast, a small theological college hangs precariously on an eroding shoreline and faces an equally precarious future. When the body of a student is found buried in the sand, the boy's influential father demands that Scotland Yard investigate.

Enter Adam Dalgliesh, a detective who loves poetry, a man who has known both loss and discovery. Having spent many happy boyhood summers at the school, Dalgliesh is the perfect candidate to look for the truth in this remote, rarified community of the faithful--and the frightened. And when one death leads to another, Dalgliesh finds himself steeped in a world of good and evil, of stifled passions and hidden pasts, where someone has cause not just to commit one crime but to begin an unholy order of murder.

Review Quotes

"Masterful."--The Seattle Times

"Gracefully sculpted prose and [a] superbly executed mystery . . . Death in Holy Orders is among [James's] most remarkable and accomplished Dalgliesh novels."--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"An elegant work about hope, death, and the alternately redemptive and destructive nature of love."--The Miami Herald

"Absorbing . . . [James's] plotting and characterization [are] impeccable."--Orlando Sentinel

"P. D. James is in top form."--The Boston Globe

"For the reader who cherishes the classic whodunit in which a master detective matches wits with a clever killer and, through ingenious deduction, brings the villain to justice, the news here is good. For the reader who relishes a novel in which delving into the human psyche is more rewarding than solving the puzzle, well, the news here is also good. In other words, P. D. James is back, blending with her customary skill the old (traditional detective story) and the new (psychological thriller)."--The San Diego Union-Tribune

"Character, plot, and setting take equal part in the work of P. D. James, and never have they been in greater supply than in Death in Holy Orders. Here, within the setting of a great Victorian mansion set on crumbling cliffs--a large cast of variously unscrupulous men and women is brought together in a tangle of murder, mayhem, betrayal, incest, and generally bad behavior."--The New York Times Book Review

"A wonderful quality about James's mysteries is that the setting is as rich in character as the people."--USA Today

"Brilliant . . . a truly classy whodunit."--Texas Times Record News

"P. D. James is the Shakespeare of mystery writers. When scholars study the genre 200 years from now, they'll continue to marvel at her intricate language, plotting, and true-to-life characters. In short, she writes mysteries as literature. . . . As suspenseful as it is, Death in Holy Orders is equally as impressive for the almost God-like way Baroness James creates full-bodied characters. . . . This is another James for the ages."--The Grand Rapids Press

"James's characters--priests, students, incestuous lovers, nearly all with dark secrets to hide--are so deliciously sketched out."--Entertainment Weekly

"[Death in Holy Orders] showcases P. D. James at the height of her incomparable powers. . . . This is a superbly crafted, meticulously layered novel, and one can only hope that P. D. James will go on writing forever."--The Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Masterful . . . [A] superb whodunit, with [an] extraordinarily complex and nuanced plot and large cast of credible characters."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Magnificent . . . P. D. James is a great writer at the very top of her art. . . . Always a master of her form, in this brilliant novel she seems to transcend it as she reflects on everything from contemporary politics and religion to the uses of literature, and ultimately to the veiled mysteries of the human heart."--The Roanoke Times

About the Author

P.D. James is the author of sixteen previous books, most of which have been filmed for television. Before her retirement in 1979, she served in the forensics and criminal justice departments of Great Britain's Home Office, and she has been a magistrate and a governor of the BBC. The recipient of many prizes and honours, she was created Baroness James of Holland Park in 1991. In 2000 she celebrated her eightieth birthday and published her autobiography, Time to Be in Earnest.