The best one of the series so far. I would recommend people read this one first and then if they like it read the rest in order. Each book is self contained and can be read out of order but there is slight character development of Dalgliesh that is a perk if read in order and also given that the first book was written in 1962 and the last (14th) in 2008 it's interesting to see the cultural and technology changes.

Convoluted who-dun-it, but James' detailed British descriptions and references were trademark. Occasionally I wished for more brevity, but more often I could appreciate the richness of visual or sensual detail provided by the author and the intellectual complexity of the plot compared to many contemporary mystery novels. I see why P.D. James has the reputation she does and will read more by her.

First read this on publication in 1986, having read all the preceding Adam Dalgleish series avidly. I stopped after this one! A superb writer, with great descriptive powers and psychological insight into her wide range of characters, the increasingly morbid descriptions of murders, etc, became distasteful, as if she felt the need to match her more gruesome competitors. Also, beneath her insights lies a nasty contempt for the lives of those without sufficient class/breeding, and this seems not just to be a realistic view given to particular characters, but her own basic view of humanity. A shame.

The past is indeed another country.

A very good mystery.

But the author goes again and again into some sort of psychological analysis of each and every word, look and gesture of each character over and over again. Seemed excessive and made the book too long.

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He had felt for the first time an adult and almost overwhelming sense of the sadness at the heart of life.

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Reading this in order with a book group and this is certainly the best of PDJ's work for me to date. While she still hangs the skeleton of her plot on a police murder investigation, the real meat of the book explores the inner souls of her characters, especially with regard to disillusion, spiritual malaise and complicated forms of guilt.

There are some irritations: an excessive attention to descriptions of houses, interiors and precisely what can be seen out of every window adds a frequently unnecessary ponderousness to the writing, as does James' insistence that all her characters read only 'literature' (Elizabeth Bowen, Trollope, and Shakespeare are all name-checked, and characters correct each other on obscure quotations from Austen). They also only listen to classical music and recognise a concerto immediately as soon as they hear a chord, and hang original art on their walls which visitors also appreciate at first glance...

That cultural snobbishness aside, this has moved on significantly from the first books which looked back nostalgically at the classic Golden Age crime: now the 'great house' is riddled with unease and corruption - and there's no return to any safety or stability by the end.

I read one of PDJ, it could be this one.

PD James is one of my favorite fiction authors. Her ability to craft a mystery is remarkable. Establishing setting and characters is fundamental to the genre of narrative and she does it intentionally and as well as anyone. I have even incorporated some of James's comments on writing into my hermeneutics lectures. Good novel, great novelist.

A long and well plotted murder mystery, I like the Dalgliesh series a little more with each book. If only she would have included a character list-so hard to keep track of everyone!

I started my adventure with P.D. James loving her books, before getting pushed away by the plodding plots and extreme misanthropy. In this book, fortunately, both issues aren't that bad. We have a great cast of characters here and the central mystery is also very good. The misanthropy and cynicism didn't disappear but are dialed down a bit, though it's still distracting, especially as every single character is equally bitter and cynical. It doesn't matter if you're a 80-year old matriarch who is daughter of an earl, a communist revolutionary, a jaded police veteran, a young police rookie or a damn 8-year old kid, you spend most of your time thinking about how humanity sucks. No, sorry, there are two exceptions - one is a priest, the other an idiot.

Also, does P.D. James always use such overly-complicated vocabulary? Or 30 words where 3 would suffice?

Despite these flaws I really wanted to give this book four starts as it is by far one of my favourite books by this author... but the dragging, uninspired ending kinda ruined that for me. Still, I enjoyed the story and might come back to more books by this author.

As always, PD James crafts her characters with such richness and psychological depth, that the story line almost becomes irrelevant.