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Adam Dalgliesh

Follow Inspector Adam Dalgliesh, a poetry-loving detective, as he delves into intricate murder cases set against the backdrop of English society. This series masterfully blends the suspense of a police procedural with profound psychological insight, exploring the dark secrets lurking beneath the surface of polite life. Each installment offers meticulously crafted narratives, rich character studies, and atmospheric settings, making it a compelling read for enthusiasts of classic crime fiction.

Death of an Expert Witness
The black tower
Shroud for a nightingale
Unnatural Causes
A Mind to Murder
Cover Her Face

Recommended Reading Order

  1. 1

    Sally Jupp came from the village home for unmarried mothers and seemed ideal to help Mrs Maxie run a house and look after her invalid husband. But the real Sally was very different from the docile, repentant character she seemed to be. When a murder occurs, Chief Inspector Dalgliesh arrives.

    Cover Her Face
  2. 2

    A Mind to Murder

    • 224 pages
    • 8 hours of reading
    3.7(90)Add rating

    On the surface, the Steen Psychiatric Clinic is one of the most reputable institutions in Lindon. but when the administrative head is found dead with a chisel in her heart, that distinguished facade begins to crumble as the truth emerges. Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh pf Scotland Yard is called in to investigate and quickly find himself caught in a whirlwind of psychiatry, sex, drug and deceit. Now he must analyse the deep-seated anxieties and thwarted desires of patients and staff alike to determine which of their unresolved conflicts has resulted in murder and stop a cunning killer before the next blow.

    A Mind to Murder
  3. 3

    Unnatural Causes

    • 217 pages
    • 8 hours of reading
    3.9(13230)Add rating

    Maurice Seton was a famous mystery writer--but no murder from his imagination could equal the ghastliness of his own death. When his grotesquely mutilated corpse is found in a drifting dinghy, ripples of horror spread among his bizarre neighbours: the cruel and cynical drama critic, the celebrated recluse, the rakish young heir, the terrified woman waiting for her killer in a lonely house... It is up to Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh and his extraordinary aunt to discover the shocking truth about Seton's past--before the plot takes another murderous turn.

    Unnatural Causes
  4. 4

    Shroud for a nightingale

    • 336 pages
    • 12 hours of reading
    4.1(23433)Add rating

    The young women of Nightingale House are there to learn to nurse and comfort the suffering. But when one of the students plays patient in a demonstration of nursing skills, she is horribly, brutally killed. Another student dies equally mysteriously, and it is up to Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard to unmask a killer who has decided to prescribe murder as the cure for all ills. The New York Times called Shroud for a Nightingale "mystery at its best."

    Shroud for a nightingale
  5. 5

    The black tower

    • 384 pages
    • 14 hours of reading
    4.0(17521)Add rating

    Commander Adam Dalgliesh responds to an invitation to visit an old family friend, the chaplain at a private home for the disabled in Dorset. Only to discover on his arrival that his host has died

    The black tower
  6. 6

    Death of an Expert Witness

    • 352 pages
    • 13 hours of reading
    4.0(11555)Add rating

    An evil-tempered forensic scientist is put to death, putting many of his colleagues out of misery. Commander Adam Dalgliesh must exhume the secrets of Dr. Lorrimer's laboratory in order to lay bare the murderous motive hidden in one human heart.

    Death of an Expert Witness
  7. 7

    A taste for death

    • 528 pages
    • 19 hours of reading
    4.0(12957)Add rating

    Two bodies, their throats cut with brutal precision, lie in a waste of blood in the dingy vestry of St Matthew's Church, Paddington. One is an alcoholic tramp; the other, Sir Paul Berowne, a recently resigned Minister of the Crown. Dalgliesh arrives to begin his investigations.

    A taste for death
  8. 8

    Devices and Desires

    • 512 pages
    • 18 hours of reading
    3.8(87)Add rating

    Commander Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard is taking a brief respite from publicity on the Norfolk coast, in a converted windmill left him by his aunt. But he cannot easily escape murder - a psychopathic strangler is at large in Norfolk.

    Devices and Desires
  9. 9

    Set in a publishing firm housed in a mock-Venetian palace on the Thames. The chairman has died and the brilliant but ruthless Gerard Etienne has taken over. When his body is found dead, there is no shortage of suspects. Commander Dalgliesh and his team are confronted with an ingenious puzzle.

    Original sin
  10. 10

    A certain justice

    • 481 pages
    • 17 hours of reading
    3.6(163)Add rating

    Venetia Aldridge QC is a distinguished barrister. Four weeks after agreeing to defend Gerry Ashe, accused of the brutal murder of his aunt, Miss Aldridge is found dead. Adam Dalgliesh investigates, only to find that her many enemies include colleagues, criminals, family - and even her lover.

    A certain justice
  11. 11

    When the body of a theology student is found on a desolate stretch of East Anglian coast, his wealthy father demands that Scotland Yard should re-examine the verdict of accidental death. Commander Adam Dalgliesh agrees to visit the young man's theological college, St Anselm's - a place he knew as a boy - expecting a nostalgic return to old haunts and a straightforward examination of the evidence. Instead he finds himself embroiled in intrigue, conflict and dangerous secrets as the college is torn apart by a sacreligious and horrifying murder.

    Death in Holy Orders
  12. 12
  13. 13

    The lighthouse

    • 466 pages
    • 17 hours of reading
    3.8(14896)Add rating

    Combe Island off the Cornish coast has a bloodstained history of piracy and cruelty but now, privately owned, it offers respite to over-stressed men and women in positions of high authority who require privacy and guaranteed security. But the peace of Combe is violated when one of the distinguished visitors is bizarrely murdered.

    The lighthouse
  14. 14

    The private patient

    • 497 pages
    • 18 hours of reading
    3.8(14571)Add rating

    When the notorious investigative journalist, Rhoda Gradwyn, books into Mr Chandler-Powell's private clinic in Dorset for the removal of a disfiguring and long-standing scar, she has every prospect of a successful operation and the beginning of a new life. But the Manor holds a secret and deadly enemy.

    The private patient
  15. Der Mistelzweig-Mord

    Weihnachtliche Kriminalgeschichten

    3.8(22)Add rating

    Für alle Liebhaber klassischer Kriminal-Romane gibt es noch einmal Neues von P. D. James zu entdecken: vier Krimi-Kurzgeschichten, die im Laufe der Jahre für Weihnachts-Ausgaben verschiedener Zeitschriften und Magazine entstanden sind, drei davon hier erstmals auf Deutsch. Mit einem Geleitwort von Val McDermid. • »Der Mistelzweig-Mord«, die titelgebende Story, handelt von einer Weihnachtsfeier im Landhaus, die unter keinem guten Stern steht • In »A Very Commonplace Murder« geht es um eine illegale Affäre, die mit Mord endet • Und »The Boxdale Inheritance« und »The Twelve Clues of Christmas« sind neue Fälle für P. D. Jamesʼ Kult-Ermittler Commander Adam Dalgliesh, der längst in die Krimi-Literaturgeschichte eingegangen ist Diese vier Weihnachts-Krimis zeigen das ganze Können der englischen Bestseller-Autorin P. D. James, von ihrem eleganten Stil über ihre Akribie bis zum unbestechlichen Blick hinter alle Fassaden.

    Der Mistelzweig-Mord
  16. The Mistletoe Murder

    • 160 pages
    • 6 hours of reading
    3.7(275)Add rating

    Throughout her illustrious career as the Queen of Crime, P. D. James was frequently commissioned by newspapers and magazines to write a special short story for Christmas. Four of the best are collected here. “Mystery lovers are in for a very merry time. . . . Will entertain and delight.” —USA Today Each of these stories is as playful as it is ingeniously plotted, the author's sly humor as evident as her hallmark narrative elegance and shrewd understanding of some of the most complex--not to say the most damning--aspects of human nature. In "The Twelve Clues of Christmas," James's iconic Scotland Yard detective Adam Dalgliesh is drawn into a case that is, in his own words, "pure Agatha Christie." In "A Very Commonplace Murder," a respectable clerk's secret taste for pornography is only the first reason he finds for not coming forward as a witness to a terrible crime. "The Boxdale Inheritance" finds Dalgliesh's godfather imploring him to reinvestigate a notorious murder that might ease the godfather's mind about an inheritance--but which will reveal a truth that even the supremely upstanding Dalgliesh will keep to himself. And, in the title story, a bestselling crime novelist describes the crime she herself was involved in fifty years earlier. A treat for P. D. James's legions of fans and anyone who enjoys the pleasures of a masterfuly wrought whodunit.

    The Mistletoe Murder
  17. Innocent house

    • 64 pages
    • 3 hours of reading
    3.9(312)Add rating

    Every book tells a story And the 70 titles in the Pocket Penguins series are emblematic of the renowned breadth of quality that formed part of the original Penguin vision in 1935, and that continues to define our publishing today. Together, they tell one version of the unique story of Penguin. highly praised crime novels for more than forty years, and Penguin is proud to publish them in paperback. Her most famous and enduring creation is the poet-detective Adam Dalgliesh, and in Innocent House taken from Original Sin he is confronted with a suspicious death and a puzzle at a respected publishing house.

    Innocent house