P D James is one of my favorite mystery authors, and this book substantiated the same. All elements of a cozy mystery are there - a closed room mystery, here portrayed by the death by hanging of a renouned but not very well liked author, while relaxing in a reclusive private island with limited access, accompanied by his secretary and daughter. There are barely a dozen or so people living in the island, and all fall under suspicion when murder is confirmed after autopsy. Adam Dalgleish and his closely knot group of detectives are called upon. Thereafter we follow the personal lives of suspects as well as detectives on the cozy island, with intricate descriptions of scenery and objects.
Absolutely enjoyed this one.

As always, I enjoyed reading a novel by PD James. The thing I like about all of the books in the Adam Dalgliesh series I've read so far is that I can sit and enjoy a mystery and not be subjected to an overabundance of forensics, graphic descriptions of the murder, or law enforcement officers who don't always follow the rules. While I also enjoy those types of books, PD James offers a break from the same old thing it seems a lot of other authors are writing.

vacation book #1 - review to come??? i promise i will come back to reviewing - i SWEAR!

Everyone liked it but me

My Book Club read this and everyone loved it -- they love PD James! -- but I hadn't read her before and was disappointed. She spent a lot of time writing about trudging over the island, going from cottage to cottage, describing the weather and the ocean, and going over the same conversations. I seem to be a lone wolf with my opinion, but there it is. If you like PD James, maybe you'll agree with my Book Club that this was one of her better novels.

I liked the guessing of who killed the nasty mean old man in the light house, and honestly, it was a shame they didn't take out his daughter as well. I hope her fiancee escapes her. She was well on her way to becoming her dad.

The backstories of the main characters were good too. I confess, I really don't understand Adam and Emma's relationship. I don't doubt they love each other, but they both sure struggle to express it and to be open with each other.

I'm sorry Adam and Kate aren't getting together, but I'm intrigued by the new twist with Piers. Given the island's prominence in international politics, I was half afraid Piers was using Kate to get a foothold on Combe.

I know I'm coming to the end of this series and I'm hoping it all ends well.

Listened to in audio format.

The Lighthouse is the 13th book in the Commander Dalgleish series.

I found this story hard to get into at first and had to rewind to the beginning and listen again.

A.D. and his team Kate Misken and Francis Benton-Smith go to a retreat called Coombe Island to investigate the death of author Nathan Oliver. Nathan was not a popular man and had many enemies on the Island including a priest called Adrian Boyd. Boyd was a recovering alcoholic until Oliver persuaded him try a drink so he could study the effects for a character he was writing about. Guest Dr Yelland was also angry with Oliver for writing a nasty character in his book Yelland believed was based on himself.

A.D. catches SARS from guest Dr Speidel and ends up in quarantine leaving Misken and Benton Smith to catch the killer. Fiancee Emma Lavenham is only in the background in this story until the final chapter.

The Lighthouse was not on par with The Murder Room or A certain justice but enjoyable non the less. Plenty of suspects to get your teeth into and dark secrets galore.

Combe Island, na costa da Cornualha, tem uma história sangrenta de pirataria e crueldade. Agora pertence a um respeitável fundo privado e serve de refúgio para personagens importantes em busca de sossego e segurança. Mas o passado parece assombrar a ilha quando um dos hóspedes aparece morto, vítima de um assassinato com características muito estranhas, que parecem apontar em direções contraditórias e confundem as investigações.

4* An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (Cordelia Gray, #1)
4* The Skull Beneath The Skin (Cordelia Gray, #2)
4* Innocent Blood
3* The Children of Men
TR Death in Pemberley

Adam Dalgliesh series:
4* Cover Her Face (Adam Dalgliesh, #1)
4* A Mind to Murder (Adam Dalgliesh, #2)
4* Unnatural Causes (Adam Dalgliesh, #3)
5* Shroud for a Nightingale (Adam Dalgliesh, #4)
5* The Black Tower (Adam Dalgliesh, #5)
5* Death of an Expert Witness (Adam Dalgliesh, #6)
5* A Taste for Death (Adam Dalgliesh, #7)
3* Devices and Desires (Adam Dalgliesh, #8)
5* A Certain Justice (Adam Dalgliesh, #10)
4* Death in Holy Orders (Adam Dalgliesh, #11)
4* The Murder Room (Adam Dalgliesh, #12)
3* The Lighthouse (Adam Dalgliesh, #13)
3* The Private Patient (Adam Dalgliesh, #14)
TR Original Sin (Adam Dalgliesh, #9)

Love PD James and obviously she's a great writer, but her books (even though nominally set in the present day) always seem very old-fashioned to me. I feel like you could have almost a PD James drinking game around everything that doesn't seem like it belongs in this century. Like...

Take a sip every time someone:

* Writes a letter
* Eats a home cooked meal (have two sips if it's made by an actual personal cook)
* Employs a maid, laundress, butler or other personal servant
* Talk about something that happened during WWII (two sips if it's something secret and dangerous that happened during WWII, three sips if this secret is the key to solving the mystery)

The eleventh and the penultimate book in the Adam Dalgleish series.

The fictitious lighthouse of the title is off the coast of Cornwall on Combe Island, a designated retreat for important people who need privacy and security. When a highly respected (if not much liked) author is found hanged from the lighthouse Commander Dalgleish and his team are called down from Scotland Yard to investigate.

The closed community is one of this author's customary ways of delivering the settings of her crimes. In this case the island is only accessible by boat or helicopter so the group of suspects is relatively small and contained. Each of the characters is introduced with some back story attached which makes the investigation more interesting and meaningful.

Having read a number of books in this series already I find myself invested in the characters, Dalgleish mostly of course but also Kate Miskin, Francis Benton and others. I find them to be comfortable, enjoyable, and relaxing reads and I will be sorry when I have read them all.

This is my first Adam Dalgliesh novel, and to be quite honest, I'm not sure I'll actively seek out others any time soon. PD James has written a number of truly outstanding short stories and the interesting if far-from-perfect novel, The Children of Men. The Lighthouse left me unimpressed and I would have given it a 2.5-star rating if that were possible. The setting is really the only strong point in this mystery, and even that could have been brought to life more evocatively. The first seventy-five or more pages of the novel were pointless and the narrative would have been much better served by jumping in later. Remaining vague so as to avoid spoilers, the discovery of a body pulled me back in for a while but I subsequently lost interest in the plot and most of the characters again. The final chapters redeemed The Lighthouse to some extent, except that the motive and identity of the culprit were far too obvious to me. Just about anyone cast onto the island could have cracked the case, and this fact left me unsatisfied. Armchair detectives want a challenge and a hero to admire.

I can only assume that the less-than-glowing reviews of The Lighthouse must mean that some readers are holding the great P.D. James to a higher standard than other crime writers. This may not be one of her best, but even a mediocre mystery by this creator of the unforgettable Adam Dalgleish is better than most others in print. Consider that she was eighty-four years old at the time of publication, and her efforts are even more remarkable. I found the reveal a wee bit rushed, and the villain not as finely portrayed as I would have wished, but it was still a very enjoyable read.

Rating Clarification: 3.5 Stars

Very engaging police procedural by P.D. James. The thing I most enjoyed about this one was the setting (an island off the Cornish coast) and the fact that it was a "locked-room" murder mystery. James has a very easy to read writing style that keeps the pages turning. I also like the fact that even though her books are part of a series, they can still be read as stand-alones by readers (like myself) who pick up a book out of series order.

Good series, good mysteries, good stuff all 'round.