In a marvellous, thrilling re-creation of the world of Pride and Prejudice, P.D. James fuses the work of Jane Austen with her own great talent for writing crime fiction.The year is 1803, and Darcy and Elizabeth have been married for six years. There are now two handsome, healthy sons in the Pemberley nursery, Elizabeth's beloved sister Jane and her husband, Bingley, live within seventeen miles, the ordered and secure life of Pemberley seems unassailable, and Elizabeth's ha...

Sally Jupp was a sly and sensuous young woman who used her body and her brains to make her way up the social ladder. Now she lies across her bed with dark bruises from a strangler’s fingers forever marring her lily-white throat.Someone has decided that the wages of sin should be death... And it's up to Chief Inspector Adam Dalgliesh to find out who that someone is.

As the acknowledged "Queen of Crime," P. D. James was frequently commissioned by newspapers and magazines to write a special short story for Christmas--and here, together, are four of the best.P. D. James's understanding of human nature illuminates each of these stories, making them ideal reading for the darkest days of the year. Each treats the reader to her masterfully atmospheric storytelling, a mystery to be solved, and enjoyable puzzles to keep the reader guessing. With wry hu...

Meet Cordelia Gray: twenty-two, tough, intelligent and now sole inheritor of the Pryde Detective Agency. Her first assignment finds her hired by Sir Ronald Callender to investigate the death of his son Mark, a young Cambridge student found hanged in mysterious circumstances. Cordelia is required to delve into the hidden secrets of the Callender family and soon realizes it is not a case of suicide, and that the truth is entirely more sinister.PD James is the bestselling author of

The year is 2021. No child has been born for twenty-five years. The human race faces extinction.Under the despotic rule of Xan Lyppiat, the Warden of England, the old are despairing and the young cruel. Theo Faren, a cousin of the Warden, lives a solitary life in this ominous atmosphere. That is, until a chance encounter with a young woman leads him into contact with a group of dissenters. Suddenly his life is changed irrevocably as he faces agonising choices which...

A collectible gift for all P. D. James fans to stand alongside her bestselling The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories: six previously uncollected stories from the beloved "Queen of Crime"—swift, cunning murder mysteries from throughout her extraordinary career.Put your feet up and enjoy a good read! Longtime P. D. James fans will devour these short tales of criminality and deception, each one a pleasure, evocative and engrossing. Including several stories ...

"I wasn't in any particular hurry to kill him. What was important was to make sure that the deed was done without suspicion settling on me."Follow the long-beloved Queen of Crime, P. D. James, as she takes us into the mind of a man who has waited decades to enact his patient, ingenious revenge on a school bully. A small, dark treat, The Part-Time Job is published in this special ebook edition in celebration of what would have been...

Handsome Cambridge dropout Mark Callender died hanging by the neck with a faint trace of lipstick on his upper lip. When the official verdict is suicide, his wealthy father hires fledgling private investigator Cordelia Gray to find out what led him to self-destruction. What she discovers instead is a twisting trail of secrets and sins — and the strong scent of murder.

On the surface, the Steen Psychiatric Clinic has always been one of the most eminent institutions in London. But when its administrative head is found with a chisel in her heart, and a weird wooden phallic symbol in her arms, the terrifying truth begins to emerge.In the midst of an explosive mixture of psychiatry, sex, and drugs, the unenviable task of analyzing the clues falls to Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh -- clues that lead him to a diabolically cunning killer bent on proving ...

Eighteen-year-old Philippa Palfrey, adopted as a child, believes herself to be the motherless, illegitimate daughter of an aristocratic father. When she exercises her right to find out the truth, she is shocked to discover her birth mother is very much alive—and about to be released from prison. Philippa soon enters a new and terrifying world, and comes to realize that she is not the only one interested in her parents' whereabouts.

Fading star Clarissa Lisle plans a spectacular comeback in a private performance of Webster’s bloodcurdling tragedy The Duchess of Malfi, to be staged in an island castle owned by the eccentric collector Ambrose Gorringe. When she begins to receive poison-pen letters—bearing death threats couched in Shakespearean quotations—her husband hires young private detective Cordelia Gray to ensure her safety.But before the curtain rises, one of the party will fall victim to a murde...

P. D. James examines the genre of detective fiction from top to bottom, beginning with the mystery plots at the hearts of such novels as Great Expectations and Jane Eyre, and bringing us firmly into the present with such writers as Amanda Cross and Henning Mankell. Along the way she writes about Arthur Conan Doyle, Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, Edgar Allan Poe, Wilkie Collins, and Josephine Tey, among many others. She traces the facts of their lives into and out of their work; clarif...