Death in Holy Orders

by P.D. James

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375412557
• ISBN13: 9780375412554
• Release Date: April 2001
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.6" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Fine Novel, but not quite her best

This is a fine book equal in quality to most of her other novels, but not the best one IMHO. It has a great many suspects, as usual the characterization if very fine, I like Dalgleish a lot as a protagonist. The motive was not all that strong, perhaps, and there were a couple of flaws, but it's well worth the read--far better than most mysteries on the market. P.D. James is no doubt a fine mystery writer. If you like this one, try my favorite (but no Dalgleish) "Innocent Blood" or read "Cover Her Face" or "Death of an Expert Witness." The biggest problem with P. D. James is that she hasn't written more novels! My favorite quotes from this book: p. 274 Quoting Pascal: `Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.' p. 315 If we're on a wild-goose chase, at least they're flying in the right direction.

One of the best mysteries I've read recently

P.D. James is a masterful writer, and this pageturner is surely one of her best. The plot involves a series of deaths in a very small gated Anglo-Catholic seminary in an isolated area on a rugged coast -- there are a limited number of people to consider as the possible killer, and the fact that so many are priests or ordinands makes the situation more difficult. Given the number of people at the seminary at the time of the central murder, however, the list of suspects is quite long and at times difficult to keep track of. There are enough red herrings in this mystery to make a large fish stew. Adam Dalgliesh, the poet-detective, is staying at the seminary, poking around about the previous mysterious death of one of the students, when an unpopular official from the Church is murdered. There are candidates galore for the killer, and some of those candidates have secrets of their own that may or may not have anything to do with the murder. And do the deaths connect? It gets very complicated, so much so that I considered taking notes of the possible killers and their motives. James is great at developing characters and setting -- so much so that you felt like you were there.My only complaint is that the motive for the killing did not seem sufficient to me. I really can't say more without revealing too much. Otherwise, this is an excellent book.

A joy to be reunited with Adam Dalglish

P. D. James is, without doubt, the greatest living mystery writer today. Bar none. "Death In Holy Orders", her latest Adam Dalglish offering, merely cements this fact - as if it needed it.The body of a young ordinand is discovered, smothered by a collapse of sand, on the beach near St. Anselem's, a theological college on the lonely shores of East Anglia. Ironically, St. Anselem's was also a particularly important place in Dalglish's boyhood and, when he is called to investigate this shocking murder, his journey there represents in microcosm the disparity between the new England and the old, the former way of living butting heads with the new, a theme carried delicately throughout the book in many ways, including the characters and how they live and think. Subsequently, two more murders are committed - the last a most gruesome, shocking dispatching taking place in the chapel of all places - and Dalglish calls in Kate Miskin and company to assist him in finding the perpetrator.A new twist added here is the subtle romantic situation occurring in the background between Dalglish and one of the people staying at the college during the murders. The ending is more satisfying than "A Certain Justice" and I liked the fact that Ms. James alludes to Dalglish's feelings about the end of the matter written about in "Justice". He feels he failed, somehow, and these feelings make finding this latest killer an even more urgent matter - not only to stop him killing again, but to reassure Dalglish that justice does, indeed, come around more often than not.A wonderful novel from a terrific writer.

In the Characters' Heads ...

Nobody gets inside a character's head, lets you see through their eyes, experience their feelings, like P.D. James. You're right there, feeling the same horror a main character feels on discovering a body, understanding completely that feeling of needing to DO something, of bewilderment at seeing something that used to be a person you knew and now is lifeless meat.So many wonderful details! This too, is one of James' strengths. I really felt right there in an elite seminary on a disintegrating coastline pounded by weather. In fact, the book was so absorbing that I read it straight through, with barely a stop for sleep!A friend of mine, unfamiliar with James' other works, asked me a question you may also be asking yourself: "Can I start here, or do I need to read the others first?" My answer is, go right ahead and start here. It stands well on its own; recurring characters are introduced gracefully and with just enough backstory to bring a new reader up to speed while not boring a reader already familiar. James is part of the newer generation of British women mystery authors, along with writers like Ngaio Marsh -- more modern-feeling than Christie or Sayers, but if you like Sayers in particular, I think you'll like James.And if you're already been thru the previous ten AD mysteries? You'll love this one. It's definitely one of the best yet. I'm really really happy I bought it right when it came out, hardcover price notwithstanding.