Ease Reading-Find Your Next Favorite Book

Hot Search

Adam Dalgliesh #13

The Lighthouse

p.d. james

... Show More
Combe Island off the Cornish coast offers respite to over-stressed high authorities who require privacy and security. But demanding author Nathan Oliver is found strangled and hanging from the renovated lighthouse. Investigator Adam Dagliesh, his inspector Kate Miskin, and sergeant Francis Benton are all pre-occupied with their personal and love lives. The first victim was thoroughly disliked by visitors and residents for valid reasons, but the second, a recovered alcoholic priest, was admired by the skeleton staff. Suspects include Oliver's daughter Miranda, editor Dennis, animal researcher Dr Yelland, recently orphaned Dan, aged Emily, boatman Jago, sickly Dr Speidel, physician Dr Stavely and his unfaithful wife Jo, administrator Maycroft, housekeeper Mrs Plunkett, cook Mrs Burbridge, rebellious teen Millie. Past murders are uncovered and SARS threatens the island.

383 pages, Paperback

First published November 22,2005
Series
Adam Dalgliesh
Places
combe (an imaginary offshore island) cornwall england, 

This edition

Format
383 pages, Paperback
Published
October 10, 2006 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
ISBN
9780307275738
ASIN
0307275736
Language
English
Characters More characters
  • Adam Dalgliesh

    Adam Dalgliesh

    Adam Dalgliesh (pronounced "dal-gleash") is a fictional character who has been the protagonist of fourteen mystery novels by P. D. James; the first being Jamess 1962 novel Cover Her Face. He also appears in the two novels featuring James other...

  • Kate Miskin

    Kate Miskin

    ...

More editions

About the author

Profile Image for p.d. james

p.d. james

... Show More
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.

Readers also enjoyed

Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 99 votes)
5 stars
33(33%)
4 stars
31(31%)
3 stars
35(35%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
99 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
alternangon
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
Commander Dalgliesh, Insp. Miskin and Sgt Benton-Smith have a tricky case of murder on a remote island off the coast of Cornwall. Nathan Oliver was a well known author and had been found strangled and hanging over the edge of a lighthouse. There is a catalogue of complex relationship among the quests and permanent residents and a number of apparently connected leads from events in the past.

The expected delightful description does help to disguise the somewhat thin plot. The perpetrator seemed quit obvious but in the end the actual deduction was rather abrupt. The perpetrator rather played into the teams hands. Nevertheless a good read.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
-ludic_
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
P.D. James has written another superb Adam Dalgliesh detective novel. This one is set on a small island off the coast of Cornwall that caters to the rich and famous, and provides them the kind of security that prevents them from being overwhelmed by the public. Alas, it doesn't prevent two murders from happening. A tight little thriller which includes a nice role for Inspector Miskin and even brings in a SARS quarantine as just another factor that has to be overcome.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Roronoa_Zoro_Fan
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
A nearby island for the rich and idle, and then as famous rude novelist is found dead. The while island is suspect! AD is sent with his team.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
HiFish
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
After spending all of last year reading non fictional accounts on Indian history I decided to start this year by reading fiction and my choice was “The Lighthouse” by the Grand Dame of English fiction ‘P. D. James”. Besides Sue Grafton, Marian Keyes and Val McDermid, P D James tops my list of the best women fictional writers of her time. As usual her books are set in the English countryside, and her mastery over the English language is precise and spot on. The plot is set on a very remote 'Combe Island', which is a private holiday retreat for only the elite. Things are set into motion when a famous but hated writer “Nathan Oliver” is found dead hanging from the top of the lighthouse on the island. To maintain absolute secrecy the top brass requests for the investigative skills of the famous detective “Adam Dalgliesh” and his team to visit the island to solve a puzzling murder. The story is engaging and grips you right from the start with each investigator getting some space beside Dalgeliesh for a change. It is an out and out murder mystery with twists and turns, emotions running high with fabulous use of imagery while describing the island. A perfect read for P D James fans.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Sketchy54
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
Quotable:
An hour with the children of their friends had reinforced their view that motherhood was a life sentence for which, thankfully, they were psychologically unsuited. They admitted to selfishness without compunction and if they later regretted it, they didn’t inflict their pain on him.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
lilimian
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
I loved the Adam Dalgliesh books many years ago, and I very much enjoyed the Jane Austen fanfic novel P.D. James wrote recently, so I took this out of the library. I was really disappointed. It takes place in the 21st century, but it feels so archaic. They are living lives that just don't happen anymore and make references to "during the war" meaning World War II, as if the UK had not been in wars since then. In fact, a lot of the characters sound as if they are either living in the mid-twentieth century, or as if nothing of note had happened since then Plus, the characters all seem like types, without depth. There's endless descriptions of physical attributes of people and things, which aren't particularly engaging.

The mystery itself is also of a kind of old-fashioned and hard to believe character. The murder victim is in circumstances where very few people had access to him - in this case he's vacationing on a very small island, with only a few visitors and residents and no one coming to and from the mainland - and they all have reasons to want him dead. And then, of course, a second murder happens before they can solve the first. And Dalgliesh solves it just by thinking about it, not by actual detective work.

2.5 stars. I wonder whether my tastes have changed or James has gone downhill. Either is possible.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
somefuckingloser
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
The perfect type of murder mystery in a secluded location with a limited number of suspects, another in the Adam Dalgliesh series that slowly builds the tension that concludes with a strong final section.

As famous novelist Nathan Oliver is found hung on the secluded Combe Island of the coast of Cornwall, it seems like a clear case of suicide.
But the famous writer had no reason to commit suicide and on closer inspection it appears that foul play as at hand.
It’s down to Dalgliesh and he’s team to investigate the death.

A highly enjoyable mystery that gets better and better as the team delves further into the investigation.
James has created both interesting side characters and a perfect atmospheric setting.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Savvoy
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
3 & a half stars.

I Googled PD James when I was nearly finished this novel & found she was 84 when it was published. 84! I promise that this isn't going to be the start of rugby analogies in my reviews (I hate rugby) but this is like Colin Meads getting on the field for the current All Blacks & playing a creditable game. No longer at his legendary best, but not being laughed off the field.

But I feel that age & past glories can't be allowed for in reviews & this was one slow moving book. I liked the discussions of the complex relationships between Dalgleish & his staff, but not Kate debating whether to use a cell phone or a landline to ring Emma!

& a pet peeve of mine is when characters carry on with their day to day actions or are really rude while being interviewed by police. For example this interaction between Kate & a suspect;

Kate said, “Good morning. We'd like a word.”
“Then make it brief.” He added, “No offence but I'm busy.”

I can understand TV programmes (“The Bill & “Without a Trace” come to mind) having characters carrying on with their day to day activities, as watching talking heads would get boring after a while – just don't see the need for it in a book.

A thrilling finale to the book, so I have bumped the rating up half a star.

0 0 Reply
Leave a Review
You must be logged in to rate and post a review. Register an account to get started.