A Taste for Death: The classic locked-room murder mystery from the 'Queen of English crime' (Guardian)

by P.D. James

THE MULTIMILLION-COPY BESTSELLING ADAM DALGLIESH SERIES FROM THE 'QUEEN OF ENGLISH CRIME' (Guardian)


'A legend.' VAL MCDERMID

'P. D. James took the classic crime novel and turned up the dial.' MICK HERRON

'One of the best mysteries I have had the pleasure to read.' 5* reader review

PERFECT FOR FANS OF VAL MCDERMID, RUTH RENDELL AND ELLY GRIFFITHS
__________________________________________________________________________________
No one joins the murder squad who hasn't a taste for death.


Two men lie in a welter of blood in the vestry of St Matthew's Church, Paddington. Their throats have been brutally slashed. One is Sir Paul Berowne, a recently-resigned government minister; the other is a homeless man known only as a local alcoholic.


Their deaths will be the first case for Commander Dalgliesh's new team, who have been tasked with investigating crimes of particular sensitivity. But as the Berowne family's veneer of prosperous gentility begins to crack and Dalgliesh uncovers more about the dead men, he struggles to keep his customary objectivity.


Can he get to the bottom of the ugly and dangerous secrets swirling this case in time to prevent yet another death?
__________________________________________________________________________________


'A cunningly compulsive work . . . with a breathless, bravura finale of heart-pounding suspense.' Sunday Times


'Splendidly suspenseful . . . a triumph and a treat.' Guardian


'It's oh so compelling. Enjoy.' Sunday Telegraph

**Now a major Channel 5 series**
__________________________________________________________________________________

READERS LOVE THE ADAM DALGLEISH


'Adam Dalgleish is one of the best characters in modern detective fiction.' 5* reader review


'If you are not already an Adam Dalgliesh fan, I urge you to become one . . . James can describe a scene or delineate a character with precision and depth, like no other writer I have read . . . I usually stay up all night to read a P. D. James novel once I start one.' 5* reader review


'I would never give less than 5 stars to any P. D. James book. She is one of a kind, always constant, always wonderful writing, always great characters, and always a good mystery that you cannot put down.' 5* reader review


'P.D. James writes mysteries for ordinary people. Her characters are relatable and her hero is dynamic. But don't expect cell phones or computers. Her stories are strictly old school, which is what I love about them.' 5* reader review


'Crime writing at its very best!' 5* reader review

PRAISE FOR P. D.


'P.

659 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 20, 2008

About the author

P. D. James, byname of Phyllis Dorothy James White, Baroness James of Holland Park, (born August 3, 1920, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England—died November 27, 2014, Oxford), British mystery novelist best known for her fictional detective Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard.

The daughter of a middle-grade civil servant, James grew up in the university town of Cambridge. Her formal education, however, ended at age 16 because of lack of funds, and she was thereafter self-educated. In 1941 she married Ernest C.B. White, a medical student and future physician, who returned home from wartime service mentally deranged and spent much of the rest of his life in psychiatric hospitals. To support her family (which included two children), she took work in hospital administration and, after her husband’s death in 1964, became a civil servant in the criminal section of the Department of Home Affairs. Her first mystery novel, Cover Her Face (1962), introduced Dalgliesh and was followed by six more mysteries before she retired from government service in 1979 to devote full time to writing.

Dalgliesh, James’s master detective who rises from chief inspector in the first novel to chief superintendent and then to commander, is a serious, introspective person, moralistic yet realistic. The novels in which he appears are peopled by fully rounded characters, who are civilized, genteel, and motivated. The public resonance created by James’s singular characterization and deployment of classic mystery devices led to most of the novels featuring Dalgliesh being filmed for television. James, who earned the sobriquet “Queen of Crime,” penned 14 Dalgliesh novels, with the last, The Private Patient, appearing in 2008.

James also wrote An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1972) and The Skull Beneath the Skin (1982), which centre on Cordelia Gray, a young private detective. The first of these novels was the basis for both a television movie and a short-lived series. James expanded beyond the mystery genre in The Children of Men (1992; film 2006), which explores a dystopian world in which the human race has become infertile. Her final work, Death Comes to Pemberley (2011)—a sequel to Pride and Prejudice (1813)—amplifies the class and relationship tensions between Jane Austen’s characters by situating them in the midst of a murder investigation. James’s nonfiction works include The Maul and the Pear Tree (1971), a telling of the Ratcliffe Highway murders of 1811 written with historian T.A. Critchley, and the insightful Talking About Detective Fiction (2009). Her memoir, Time to Be in Earnest, was published in 2000. She was made OBE in 1983 and was named a life peer in 1991.