What do you think?
Rate this book
Cordelia Gray #1 & 2
2 Cordelia Gray Mysteries: An Unsuitable Job for a Woman / The Skull Beneath the Skin
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.
- GenresMysteryMurder Mystery
682 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 23, 2015
634 people are currently reading
225 people want to read
About the author
P.D. James
240 books3,248 followersP. 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.
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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 19, 2025
Decent mysteries. Although set in the 1970s these books felt like they were taking place around 1900. I had to keep reminding myself what the time frame was.
June 3, 2021
This mystery is pretty dated now, being first published in 1972, but sometimes that's kind of fun. However I find P.D. James has a rather plodding writing style that I don't really enjoy. It's kind of like none of her characters really want to be in her books.
May 4, 2024
O. M. G. She is one of the best writers ever...full stop.
Loved every Book this woman has written. I just discovered these two books...read all her others minus her autobiography, years ago. I truly believe she is among the best writers I have ever read.
These books were complex, challenging, engages alk your senses and all your emotions....not slot of humor, but beautiful writing..almost poetic...maybe poetic...
Her vocabulary, her name dropping, her classical references..her assumption that all her readers will recognize every reference is terribly annoying! I have to look up sooo much as I read along that it becomes very disruptive. And I feel stupid that I do not just know all the references to people, places, and times she refers to....quotes and authors, plays and playwrights, poetry and poets, famous places and events....how could anyone know alk tat? Well, not me.
Each book is and education in itself.
The only saving grace is that I am smarter, A little, after completing each book!
The writing, the construction, the storyline the characters, in her writing are all so good, so well done, so illuminating... That it does not seem to matter that one feels less than smart at points .. One feels, I feel, that I have experienced something amazing when I successfully complete each book.
I Loved reading and finishing both these books and am happy I have taken this journey.
My husband may not be as glad, having listened to most of the stories in my inept monologues about both as I got into each of them and I feel he always learns as much from My reading as I do. Just saying.
Loved every Book this woman has written. I just discovered these two books...read all her others minus her autobiography, years ago. I truly believe she is among the best writers I have ever read.
These books were complex, challenging, engages alk your senses and all your emotions....not slot of humor, but beautiful writing..almost poetic...maybe poetic...
Her vocabulary, her name dropping, her classical references..her assumption that all her readers will recognize every reference is terribly annoying! I have to look up sooo much as I read along that it becomes very disruptive. And I feel stupid that I do not just know all the references to people, places, and times she refers to....quotes and authors, plays and playwrights, poetry and poets, famous places and events....how could anyone know alk tat? Well, not me.
Each book is and education in itself.
The only saving grace is that I am smarter, A little, after completing each book!
The writing, the construction, the storyline the characters, in her writing are all so good, so well done, so illuminating... That it does not seem to matter that one feels less than smart at points .. One feels, I feel, that I have experienced something amazing when I successfully complete each book.
I Loved reading and finishing both these books and am happy I have taken this journey.
My husband may not be as glad, having listened to most of the stories in my inept monologues about both as I got into each of them and I feel he always learns as much from My reading as I do. Just saying.
June 12, 2025
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman and The Skull Beneath the Skin.
Both books are written by P.D. James and both books feature Private Investigator
Cordelia Gray.
Cordelia Gray is an independent, intelligent, resourceful, young private investigator
who inherits Pryde’s Detective Agency from her mentor, Bernie Pryde after his suicide.
In An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, Cordelia works on a very complex murder suicide - her
first ‘case’ after inheriting the agency.
At the conclusion, Cordelia Gray meets Adam Dalgliesh and ‘appears’ in subsequent Adam Dalgliesh novels - The Black Tower and A Taste for Death.
In the Skull Beneath the Skin, Cordelia Gray travels to a reconstructed Victorian castle on (fictional) Courcy Island on the Dorset Coast. Her job/role is to protect actress Clarissa lisle as she makes a ‘comeback’ in the play, The Duchess of Malfi, to be staged on the island.
I liked the character of Cordelia Gray and the complex plots she was involved in.
P.D. James is an extraordinary author and a very personal favorite of mine. Any reading
or rereading of her books is a worthwhile reading experience.
These novels intrigued me because Ms. James stopped writing the novels featuring Cordelia Gray after viewing a tv adaptation of the mysteries. She disliked the productions so much that she resolved to cease writing about the character.
Both books are written by P.D. James and both books feature Private Investigator
Cordelia Gray.
Cordelia Gray is an independent, intelligent, resourceful, young private investigator
who inherits Pryde’s Detective Agency from her mentor, Bernie Pryde after his suicide.
In An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, Cordelia works on a very complex murder suicide - her
first ‘case’ after inheriting the agency.
At the conclusion, Cordelia Gray meets Adam Dalgliesh and ‘appears’ in subsequent Adam Dalgliesh novels - The Black Tower and A Taste for Death.
In the Skull Beneath the Skin, Cordelia Gray travels to a reconstructed Victorian castle on (fictional) Courcy Island on the Dorset Coast. Her job/role is to protect actress Clarissa lisle as she makes a ‘comeback’ in the play, The Duchess of Malfi, to be staged on the island.
I liked the character of Cordelia Gray and the complex plots she was involved in.
P.D. James is an extraordinary author and a very personal favorite of mine. Any reading
or rereading of her books is a worthwhile reading experience.
These novels intrigued me because Ms. James stopped writing the novels featuring Cordelia Gray after viewing a tv adaptation of the mysteries. She disliked the productions so much that she resolved to cease writing about the character.
November 2, 2024
The Skull Beneath the Skin is the second book in this series with the private eye, Cordelia Gray. She is hired to watch over an actress whose life has been threatened in several letters from an unknown person or persons.
Cordelia finds herself embroiled in multiple mysteries involving several people who are on an island to attend the play featuring the subject of her present job. There are many suspects who all appear to have a grudge against this woman.
I found this to be a long, drawn-out story that was tedious at times to complete. I don’t particularly enjoy James’ writing style or the use of many words that are no longer in use in today’s books.
Cordelia finds herself embroiled in multiple mysteries involving several people who are on an island to attend the play featuring the subject of her present job. There are many suspects who all appear to have a grudge against this woman.
I found this to be a long, drawn-out story that was tedious at times to complete. I don’t particularly enjoy James’ writing style or the use of many words that are no longer in use in today’s books.
June 22, 2025
Actually only read the first novel in this set, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman. While I like her writing style and the premise was intriguing, I found there were too many unnecessary and salacious details, and the denouement felt tediously long.
I may read The Skull Beneath the Skin at a later time, but since it's longer than the first one, I'm in no hurry.
I may read The Skull Beneath the Skin at a later time, but since it's longer than the first one, I'm in no hurry.
July 26, 2020
wonderful
September 20, 2020
Time of late 70's mystery. Enjoyed both stories even though the second is quite dark and everyone dies.
May 5, 2025
Good stories but...
These books are badly done for kindle and The Skull Beneath the Skin goes on and on and on. Too long
These books are badly done for kindle and The Skull Beneath the Skin goes on and on and on. Too long
November 21, 2019
Young women is training to become a private investigator by Bernie. Once a detective in of Scotland yard, Bernie gets Cancer and decides to kill him self leaving his office, secretary and equipment to Young Cordelia Gray. This scary adventure is her first case. Her survival instincts, swimming skills, and courage make her winnings PI. P. D. James’ first novel with a heroine.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews