P. D. James

Disenchanted with his job in the force, Commander Adam Dalgliesh accepts an invitation to visit a friend, a chaplain at a private nursing home, only to discover that his host has died suddenly.  Book 5 of series.

When Venetia Aldridge Q C defends a young man accused of the brutal murder of his aunt, the case sets in motion a chain of events as terrifying as they are unpredictable.  Book 10 of series.

In 2021 infertility has spread like a plague, and no babies have been born for a quarter of a century anywhere in the inhabited world. The middle aged try to sustain normality under the rule of the Warden of England. Theo Faron, Oxford historian, meets a group challenging the regime, and he is drawn into unimaginable horrors. Some explicit sexual content.

When a wealthy student is found dead at an isolated theological college, his father demands an investigation by Scotland Yard. Commander Dalgliesh volunteers and finds himself embroiled in the most puzzling and horrific case of his career.  Book 11 of series.

The scientists who work at Hoggatt's laboratory are experts in violent death. Now the brutal murder of one of their own brings Adam Dalgliesh hurrying from Scotland Yard to the bleak fens of East Anglia, where a murderer is waiting to strike again.  Book 6 of series.

Commander Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard is taking respite from publicity in a converted windmill on the Norfolk coast where he is tying up his aunt’s estate. But he cannot easily escape murder - a psychopathic strangler known as the Whistler is terrorizing the Norfolk countryside.  Book 9 of series.

An island off the coast of Cornwall, which has become a retreat for high-powered executives, is the setting for a grotesque murder. Dalgliesh is requested to solve the crime with the utmost discretion.  Book 13 of series.

Four perfectly formed stories, ideal reading for the darkest days of the year. While P D James delights in the secrets that lurk beneath the surface at family gatherings, her Christmas stories also provide tantalizing puzzles to keep the reader guessing.

Dalgliesh and his team are called in to invetigate the death of the trustee of a private museum. The museum is dedicated to life between 1919 and 1939, and in one room are exhibits from notorious murder cases. The modern killer is uncannily echoing the cases on display in The Murder Room.  Book 12 of series.

Seven BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations of P.D. James’ acclaimed mysteries, plus P.D. James In Her Own Words.

This collection includes:

Cover Her Face: P.D. James' debut novel, introducing her famous detective Adam Dalgliesh.

A Taste for Death: Dalgliesh investigates when two bodies are found murdered at a London church.

Devices and Desires: Dalgliesh hunts a serial killer in desolate Norfolk. 

A Certain Justice: Dalgliesh probes the murder of a brilliant criminal lawyer.

The Private Patient: Dalgliesh investigates a high-profile murder at an exclusive cosmetic surgery clinic.

An Unsuitable Job For A Woman: An eminent scientist hires private detective Cordelia Gray to discover why his son committed suicide.

The Skull Beneath the Skin: With her life in danger, actress Clarissa Lisle turns to private detective Cordelia Gray.

When Rhoda Gradwyn booked into a private clinic in Dorset, she had every prospect of a successful operation, but she was never to leave Cheverell Manor alive. Dalgliesh and his team, called in to investigate her death, and later a second murder, are confronted with problems even more complicated than the question of innocence or guilt.  Book 14 of series.

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. When another student dies equally mysteriously, it is up to Adam Dalgliesh to unmask a killer who has decided to prescribe murder as the cure for all ills.  Book 4 of series.

The dark motive of revenge is revealed at the heart of each of these tales. Bullying schoolmasters receive their comeuppance, unhappy marriages and childhoods are avenged and, from the safety of his nursing home, an octogenarian exerts exquisite retribution.

Talking about the craft of detective writing literature, P.D. James examines the challenges, achievements and potential of a genre which has fascinated her for nearly fifty years as a novelist.

The bodies were discovered at 8.45 on the morning of Wednesday 18 September by Miss Emily Wharton, a 65 year old spinster of the parish and Darren Wilkes, a 10 year old waif of no particular parish, her unlikely companion. Adam Dalgliesh finds himself confronted with the most confused and convoluted case of his career.  Book 7 of series.

Through the pages of a diary kept from August 1997 for a year, PD James describes her daily life, her literary life and also revisits episodes from her past.

Cordelia Gray is twenty-two and 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.