Shroud for a Nightingale (Adam Dalgliesh, #4)

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Shroud for a Nightingale (Adam Dalgliesh #4)

4.03 of 5 stars 4.03 · rating details · 8,699 ratings · 158 reviews

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 il...more

Paperback, 368 pages

Published September 4th 2001 by Touchstone (first published 1971)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Best British Crime/Mystery Fiction

73rd out of 571 books — 511 voters

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen

The Birds

12th out of 325 books — 50 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

May 13, 2013 Leon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An Adam Dalgliesh mystery by an award-winning, internationally acclaimed novelist.

Two student nurses lie dead, the great hospital nursing school of Nightingale House is shadowed with terror, and a secret medical world of sex, shame, and scandal is about to be exposed. It is the job of Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard to probe even deeper into the macabre mystery and unmask a killer who operates as skillfully as a surgeon -- before the epidemic of evil gets completely out of hand.

Review

“The re

...more

like · see review

Mar 16, 2013 Fran rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: drawing-room-mysteries, mystery-thriller, summer-time-fluff

James has raised the stakes in the 4th Dalgliesh mystery, with murders more frequent and more brutal than in the previous books. As in the first three novels, the case hinges on information the reader simply cannot surmise from the clues in the book. In fact, there are probably enough clues here to figure this one out, at least in terms of motive, if not the identity of the murderer. But as I work my way through the Dalgleish mysteries, I'm finding that I don't make a huge effort to solve the ca...more James has raised the stakes in the 4th Dalgliesh mystery, with murders more frequent and more brutal than in the previous books. As in the first three novels, the case hinges on information the reader simply cannot surmise from the clues in the book. In fact, there are probably enough clues here to figure this one out, at least in terms of motive, if not the identity of the murderer. But as I work my way through the Dalgleish mysteries, I'm finding that I don't make a huge effort to solve the case; I just dive in, enjoying the intensely British settings and characters.

I don't know how she does it, but P.D. James always manages to find plausible settings for her "locked room" mysteries -- where the suspects circle each other warily, confined, with a murderer in their midst, to a manor house, an isolated village, or in this case, a teaching hospital set on the grounds of a creepy Victorian estate:

It was a night of violent but erratic storm, the wind varying in intensity and even in direction from hour to hour. At ten o'clock it was little more than a sobbing obbligato among the elms. An hour later it suddenly reached a crescendo of fury. The great elms around Nightingale House cracked and groaned under the onslaught, while the wind screamed among them like the cachinnation of devils. Along the deserted paths, the bands of dead leaves, still heavy with rain, shifted sluggishly then broke apart into drifts and rose in wild swirls like demented insects, to glue themselves against the black barks of the trees. In the operating theatre at the top of the hospital Mr. Courtney-Brigges demonstrated his imperturbability in the face of crisis by muttering to his attendant registrar that it was a wild night before bending his head again to the satisfying contemplation of the intriguing surgical problem which throbbed between the retracted lips of the wound.

(Another thing I love about James: New words. I had to look up two words in this passage!)

I've learned that James spent a good part of her career as a hospital administrator. That makes sense; both here and in A Mind to Murder, she shows an intimate knowledge of the medical bureaucracy. It was educational and cringe-inducing to learn about treatments patients were subjected to 40 or 50 years ago. I trust things have changed since the days of live-in hospital Matrons and nurses-in-training in their crisply peaked white caps.

Once again, James has created characters who throb with secrets, ambition, jealousy, and hatred. Student nurse Christine Dakers is the first to die, quite horribly, during a demonstration of gastrointestinal feeding through a tube. Through narration and flashbacks, we learn that Nurse Dakers had a nasty habit of spying and blackmail. I can vividly picture this petty, plain girl who turns to destruction when she can't crack into the popular set. Julia Pardoe is everything Christine Dakers is not -- beautiful, sexy in a sly, manipulative way, and popular with her peers. Then there's student nurse Madeleine Goodall, a more bookish version of Hermione Granger, knowledgable, observant, and just a tad discomfiting as her grey, bespectacled eyes silently take it all in without revealing what she's thinking. Or the Burt twins, whose "polite antiphonal answers to his questions, spoken in a West Country burr, were as agreeable to the ear as their shining good health to the eye." The hospital staff includes Sister Rolfe, who had "the face of a woman who had never learnt to come to terms with life, and had, perhaps, given up trying"; Mary Taylor, the elegant, crisply efficient Matron; her sycophantic underling, Sister Brumfert, a dour by-the-books type who reflexively bristles at even the suggestion of change; and Sister Maevis Gearing, whose frippish femininity hides a more complex interior. My favorite character, the wonderfully named Morag Smith, doesn't show up until nearly 3/4 of the way through the book. A wind-blown redhead who assures Dalgleish that "I know how the milk got into coconut all right," Morag spends her spare time in an abandoned gardener's hut on the hospital grounds.

Here's a great example of how James crafts a scene, managing to characterize a minor player, explore Dalgleish's deservedly melancholy worldview, and startle us with memorable imagery in a few deft words:

He waited and watched while the porters manoevered their stretcher into the room and with brisk efficiency dumped the dead weight onto it. Sir Miles fretted around them with the nervous anxiety of an expert who has found a particularly good specimen and must carefully supervise its safe transport. It was odd that the removal of that inert mass of bone and tightening muscle, to which each in his different way had been ministering, should have left the room so empty, so desolate. Dalgleish had noticed it before when the body was taken away; this sense of an empty stage, of props casually disposed and bereft of meaning, of a drained air. The recently dead had their own mysterious charisma; not without reason did men talk in whispers in their presence. But now she was gone, and there was nothing further for him to do in the room. He left the fingerprint man annotating and photographing his finds, and went out into the passage.

I'd give this one 3.5 stars if I could. (less)

like · see review

Sep 10, 2012 Cheryl rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery

The scene is a claustophobic Victorian home where a horrific murder took place more than one hundred years ago. It is now living quarters for a half-dozen nursing students cloistered in the old mansion since the start of their training three years ago. They are supervised by Matron Taylor and several teaching Sisters, an egotistical surgeon, and a pharmacist. All of the suspects are on the first page of this exquisitely plotted mystery.

In the provincial hospital where you can smell the disinfect...more

like 1 like · see review

May 12, 2012 trishtrash rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-fiction-and-mystery

A nursing school inspection ends horribly with the death of a student during a demonstration of intra-gastric feeding tubes. This gruesome beginning is compounded with a second student death, and the local police are exchanged for the Yard’s Inspector Adam Dalgliesh whose implacable determination to get at the truth is welcomed by the nursing staff with varying degrees of coolness.

I’m not sure where in the series this one falls, but this Dalgliesh novel was just a bit too staid and dated to hold...more

like 1 like · see review

Jul 10, 2011 Erin rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: recommended, genre, reviewed

My grandmother left this for my mother to read, and bored, I started it waiting for her in the car. Boredom, too, is the only reason I can give for my finishing it -- I was mesmerized by how entirely uninteresting it was, both the story and the literary style.

I don't read mysteries, and essentially all of my related presumptions are based on Cluedo and The Westing Game, but even compared to those, Shroud for a Nightingale is kind of a dud. So two student nurses are killed, the Scotland Yard is c...more

like 1 like · see review

Jun 21, 2011 Sally906 rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery

Nightingale House is where a group of third year student nurses live while they learn the art of nursing. During a routine inspection of the nursing school by the General Nursing Council a horrible death occurs. One of the students, Heather Pearce, who is playing the part of the patient during a demonstration, is internally fed bathroom disinfectant instead of milk and dies thrashing on the floor in front of a classroom. Jo Fallon was rostered to be the patient; however, she was taken ill at the...more Nightingale House is where a group of third year student nurses live while they learn the art of nursing. During a routine inspection of the nursing school by the General Nursing Council a horrible death occurs. One of the students, Heather Pearce, who is playing the part of the patient during a demonstration, is internally fed bathroom disinfectant instead of milk and dies thrashing on the floor in front of a classroom. Jo Fallon was rostered to be the patient; however, she was taken ill at the last minute and Heather Pearce was a substitute. Was the victim supposed to be Fallon? A few days later, another nurse is found dead in her bed. This time Jo Fallon is the victim, and poison is the method. Chief Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh is called in to solve the murders.

Nightingale House is a great setting for a murder; it is surrounded by large trees, with a dark road thickly lined by trees leading from the hospital to the nurses’ home. The house itself is a Victorian monstrosity described as red bricked, castellated, overly ornate, with four huge turrets. This is one of P. D. James’ earlier works, and as she was a nurse during the WWII she is able to depict the life of a nurse from personal experience. The pecking order within the hospital hierarchy is described beautifully. Being an early work, it makes it possible to see how James started to develop her trademark style of allowing the reader to see why all the main suspects had a reason to kill, but SHROUD FOR A NIGHTINGALE doesn’t let us into the mind of the suspects like she has with her later books. Dalgliesh is not quite as developed as a character as he is in later books, but the basics are there. I love P.D. James’s attention to detail – her descriptions bring the locations vividly to mind. There are lots of red herrings – I changed my mind a couple of times before I got to the end only to find I wasn’t even close. She never fails to produce clever, unexpected solutions, and a dramatically satisfying ending, and this novel is no different.

(less)

like · see review

May 27, 2010 Surreysmum rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1988, mystery

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. [These ntoes were made in 1988:]. Given that I read this shortly after having surgery, a real shudder-inducer for me. It's set in a hospital, where a student nurse is painfully murdered while acting as the "patient" in a demonstration. Shortly thereafter, another student nurse dies, apparently by suicide, but it is at this point that Adam Dalgliesh is called in. The cast of sharply delineated characters includes a dignified matron to whom Dalgliesh unwillingly finds himself rather attracted, a d...more

like · see review

Jun 25, 2009 Rachel rated it 4 of 5 stars

I had heard of P.D. James before but had never read any of her works, and I didn't really know she wrote mysteries. So I was quite pleasantly surprised by Shroud for a Nightingale--so much so that I've since read another James and am onto a third.

Shroud is a great caper, written in the 70s. I think it's aged extremely well; in fact, I think the whole plot and setting is made all the more creepy and ominous by the somewhat antiquated medical procedures that figure prominently in the plot. I defy...more

like 2 likes · see review

Dec 24, 2012 Tombom P rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery, fiction, english

At several points the main character is discussing the case with his assistant and, despite the fact they've already talked about the evidence and what they think and he's the current viewpoint character and we follow both of them through everything important they do, their important deductions are covered up with sudden reported speech, like "he said what had happened, his assistant said yes that's obvious". Like are you *kidding* me how lazy can you get

The book is OK enough but the denouement...more At several points the main character is discussing the case with his assistant and, despite the fact they've already talked about the evidence and what they think and he's the current viewpoint character and we follow both of them through everything important they do, their important deductions are covered up with sudden reported speech, like "he said what had happened, his assistant said yes that's obvious". Like are you *kidding* me how lazy can you get

The book is OK enough but the denouement is pretty silly and is the sort of thing that makes 95% of the book feel like a total waste. There aren't enough clues for it to make sense and the ones given which do lead to the ending don't really feel consistent or reasonable. They try and link the ending to a character's personality and then right at the end do a "oh btw actually it's someone totally different" for who there are 0 clues given. Not horrible horrible but pretty typical mystery fare in that the ending may as well be detached from the rest of the book because the rest of the book isn't important.

EDIT: After thinking about it some more, decreased my rating to 1 star because of the above and
1) The ending is absolute nonsense. The motives given make no sense, the story of the identity of a character makes no sense and the entire book requires several characters to have acted with no intelligence or thought at all, even ignoring the typical mystery trope of "oh they avoided an easier way because of X unlikely idiosyncrasy"
2) The main character is dull as ditchwater. I remember hardly any of what he did. His assistant just had sex with a suspect (no lead up, no follow up) and made misogynistic+abusive comments about a witness. I'm not saying all characters have to be cool and likeable but scenes which are 15 pages of abusive, cruel thoughts about an old woman from someone who's seriously abused his position is horrible.
3) I could predict an event that happened near the end because it happened at near the exact same time and in a similar way to the other one of her books I read and, like that one, puts the character in incredibly serious danger and then pulls it out by having the dangerous person be a complete idiot and events to play out perfectly. (view spoiler)
4) Physical attractiveness is treated as the most important part of each character to a large extent. Not surprising, but really crap.

So yeah this book stinks. A lot. (less)

like · see review

Apr 12, 2012 ^ rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: detective, fiction, novel, books-with-1001-to-10000-ratings

Such fascinating and intriguing characters cause one to realise how relatively few people (if any) one ever gets to know well in any education, employment, or social circle. The methods used to bring about untimely death here range from the horrifically physically painful to the psychologically nasty; which in the setting of one of the most caring of professions (how often are nurses referred to as ‘angels’?) emphatically succeeded in distinctly unnerving this reader.

This is a book which also ma...more

like · see review

Feb 16, 2012 Debra rated it 4 of 5 stars

Detective Chief-Inspector Adam Dalgleish is investigating the suspicious deaths of two nursing students at Nightingale House. Given the time and circumstance of both poisonings, it appears that a fellow student or one of the nursing instructors had something to do with it, or did they?

As usual, P.D. James weaves subtle clues into complex relationships that take time to reveal, but with this book, I didn’t mind. Although I found the narrative too plodding in Cover Her Face, it works much better i...more

like · see review

Nov 21, 2010 Badlydone rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: pd-james

I reread this book after a gap of several years, and it seemed just as good if not better than it did during my first reading. P. D. James is at her element in this book. A closed setting, a very finite list of suspects, good red herrings and most of all, great writing.

Two nursing students are found murdered at a nurses' training school. Adam Dalgliesh is sent to investigate and discovers great drama and intrigue behind the serene facade. This book was written before Kate Miskin made her appear...more

like · see review

Jul 09, 2011 FittenTrim rated it 3 of 5 stars

my never-ending quest to find a new Agatha Christie, has lead me far & wide, but alas, no cigar. Famed British author P.D. James is a fine candidate. Her story here has many Christie trappings: a closed-room murder. One killing leading to another. A motive hidden among layers of red-herrings and obfuscation . But this story doesn't reach Christie's heights because: A. her through-line isn't a clean as Christie's aka the murder/motive/cover up are slightly lost amid the dense plotting. B. Her...more

like · see review

Mar 14, 2012 Anna rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery

P.D. James writes a darn fine mystery, and this one was no exception. This time Inspector Dalgliesh is investigating the suspicious death of a nursing student at a teaching hospital outside of London. While he is knee deep with the questioning of suspects, another nursing student turns up dead. Were they murdered? Was is an accident? Suicide? Dalgliesh has his hands full.

The thing I like most about these mysteries is the point of view shifts, so we may learn insights into the characters that the...more

like · see review

Jul 29, 2009 Alex Watkins rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People who don't work at mid-century hospitals

Shelves: mystery, 2009

This was really good, I had never read one of the many Adam Dalgliesh mysteries, only P.D. James' miscellaneous books Children of Men and An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (which does have Dalgliesh come in later). It was not my stereotype of a mystery novel, which I'm not really sure what I have in mind, but is something that I feel like I wouldn't like. The book is very cerebral, setting up timelines and alibis, so much so that it was a bit hard to keep track. I loved the end though, very exciting...more

like 1 like · see review

Jun 30, 2012 Sophie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-books, audio-book

I'm always amazed by the intelligence of P.D. James's writing. It's not just the mystery aspect, it's the brilliant observations she makes about human nature, and the way she presents her characters and stories. In this story, she immerses the reader in the claustrophobic atmosphere of Nightingale House, presenting each character in meticulous detail, and makes us understand--and even sympathize with, to a certain extent--her characters' motivations. Ms. James develops her plot using precise, sp...more

like · see review

May 06, 2011 Rusty rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ah, P.D. James does it again. Not one murderer but two. Two nurses die in a teaching hospital and Adam Daigliesh has to figure it all out. The suspects are many - student nurses, teaching nurses, two doctors and a pharmacist. It appears that any one of the them could have murdered the young women. Once the inspector and his sidekick, Masterson, gather all the pieces the puzzle begins to take shape. The answer is stranger than you think. It's a very good mystery and I couldn't help but keep readi...more

like · see review

Mar 11, 2011 Kathy Petersen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: x-feb-11-thru-jan-12, z-read-p-d-james, read-mysteries

This one is my favorite so far. I'm reading the Dalgliesh books in their chronological order, and each one gets better. The "nightingale" is a nurse, not a singer as I presumed from the title.

The depiction of the nursing school/hospital makes it seem old-fashioned, out of date even; but, counting my blessings, I'm not that familiar with such institutions. The large cast of characters—and suspects—calls for a reader's attention, an exercise well worth the effort partly because the story is quite...more

like · see review

Aug 23, 2010 Renee Wolcott rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, mystery

Another murder mystery with which I entertained myself while waiting for the travails of graduate school to be over. This is the first I have read by P.D. James, whom the cover touts as the successor to Agatha Christie. And it was good, escapist fiction. A student nurse no one likes is killed horribly during a class demonstration, and then bodies keep piling up while Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard investigates. The novel includes a terrific gothic location in a nurses' training hospital, a bit...more

like · see review

Nov 28, 2012 Rania rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: my-favourites

Well, it was a good book i read it with excitement and it kept my interest till the end. It was nicely written not tiring or boring at all. Also a thing that i really liked is the way the writer described the different personalities without being subjective and the fact that all these different personalities were interacting with each other throughout the book with all king of intresting behaviors that you do not usually find in most books.

i would also like to point out that Mrs P.D. James was 9...more

like 1 like · see review

Oct 22, 2012 Margaret Mccamant rated it 5 of 5 stars

Reread this for book group, this one a suggestion of mine. I've read just about every book by P.D. James and heard her lecture once, not to mention that I have had a crush on Adam Dalgleish for at least 30 years. This one was first published in 1971; my yellowed paperback from either 1982 or 1987 is so old that GoodReads doesn't even picture it among its "other editions"!

Although the setting (1960s) of this story may be dated, P.D. James always plots stories that become more and more complex as...more

like · see review

Jun 07, 2012 Poonam rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: library

An Adam Dalgliesh mystery surrounding a double murder in a nursing home-cum-training center. A typical whodunit. I find Dalgliesh better than Cordelia Gray mystery where book usually crawls.

This book too began at morbidly slow place, it didn't help that setting was a nursing home full of seemingly dull, spinster characters. But it got better, when narrative unfolds from POV of Dalgliesh, who is an experienced professional detective. However, other than mystery do not expect any thrill or excite...more

like · see review

Dec 14, 2012 Erin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, mystery

This is the first P.D. James book I've ever read, and one of the few murder mysteries I've read recently and enjoyed. Her main character, Adam Dalgliesh of Scottland Yard, reminds me a lot of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot -- arrogant, overly confident, opinionated. And as with Poiriot, I didn't like Dalgliesh. But my dislike for him as a character didn't detract from the story's brilliance.

I managed to narrow the suspects down to two and was quite proud of myself when toward the end one of my...more

like · see review

Mar 25, 2013 Abbey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: vintage, favorites, myst-police, series, myst-cosies, myst-fems-project, myst-set-andor-auth-uk

1971, #4 Supt. Adam Dalgleish, Scotland Yard, Nightingale House, just outside London. Nursing students living in a creepy old hospital building find murder and lots of intrigue; erudite, old-fashioned closed-community/manor house style mystery but with interesting modern (~1970) twists and a bit of then-relevant British history; classic cosy police procedural.

Nursing "sisters" are an alien breed to most US folks, but if you've read or watched a lot of British-set mysteries you'll have a bit of u...more 1971, #4 Supt. Adam Dalgleish, Scotland Yard, Nightingale House, just outside London. Nursing students living in a creepy old hospital building find murder and lots of intrigue; erudite, old-fashioned closed-community/manor house style mystery but with interesting modern (~1970) twists and a bit of then-relevant British history; classic cosy police procedural.

Nursing "sisters" are an alien breed to most US folks, but if you've read or watched a lot of British-set mysteries you'll have a bit of understanding how their ranking system for nurses and doctors works; the plot of this intricate mystery is closely woven around this, with the information presented slowly and interestingly. The systems of training in British hospitals of the period is the center for this murder mystery, and James shows not only her familiarity with the Health Service and many of its ramifications (she worked for them for many years and was, I think, still working for them when she wrote this). But don't be put off by this - the plot is a very good (if convoluted) one, the characters remarkably fine, and the overall writing while a mite florid in spots is beautifully done.

James is one of my favorite writers, and I've reread most of her books several times; this time I listened to SHROUD in audio, read by Michael Jayston, courtesy of my library. He's a smooth, excellent reader, and this was very enjoyable. And now to the plot...

An almost-graduated nursing student is killed while playing the patient in a demonstration/instruction lecture before a visiting VIP. It might have been suicide - the girl was extremely religious, temperamental, moody, and prone to extremes of behavior - much of it rather unforgiving, and some of it perhaps illegal. As the local police work their way through the suspect list and information they've gathered, no real conclusion is reached and the case goes cold. But before too long another student is dead under suspicious circumstances, and the "coincidence" is too much for one high-powered doctor connected with the training facility to endure. He calls Scotland Yard himself, and Adam Dalgleish is assigned to the case, along with Sargent Masterson, a young, not exactly raw (but not far removed from it either) policeman with a slight tendency for bullying witnesses. He's got a lot to learn.

This is an intricately woven story of power and the power of forgiveness - or not, as the case may be. Involving medical - and personal - politics in the late 1960s and a bit of recent British history, the main focus is upon five increasingly interesting young women and their teachers, the nursing Sisters. Each Sister is very clearly presented and followed through the story, along with most of the students as well. James has a facility for showing us the workings of people's minds and their interactions with others. Here she uses that approach in a lot of detail but it never becomes quite slow - the information given is always pertinent, always at least "curious..." if not always immediately easy to understand where it falls within the plot.

Written in a completely classic style this may seem a bit slow-moving for modern tastes, but is downright explosive when compared with earlier, similar, stories. I've recently been reading Mignon Eberhart's nursing mysteries from the 1930s, and if you want "slow-moving thriller" (not *exactly* an oxymoron...), then her earliest work is for you! But while Eberhart was entertaining, James is an overall much better writer, and it is fascinating to see here how little of the attitudes towards nurses and their craft had changed in the intervening forty years. And while outside of the small-hospital environment (the nurses live-in, and don't spend much time in The Real World) things are changing rapidly in the social sense, here the ethos is of an older Britain even in 1970 - the values are traditional, the plotting traditional, the writing style traditional. But not stuffy, not at all boring.

There are chase scenes, murders-in-progress, a couple of nasty assaults, one or two very funny set-pieces (particularly Sargent Masterson's involvement with a ballroom dancing contestant...) and a lot of suspense and gloomy forboding along with really superb characterizations. And the ending exposition while a bit slow in spots is fascinating, and absolutely beautifully done, weaving in every little thread and bit of earlier-presented information we'd been given, while still making us/allowing us to "feel for" the people involved. Really fine writing.

If all you've read of James' writing is her post-1990 books, then give yourself a nice treat and read some of her earlier works - she was first published in 1962. Her earliest novels are smoothly written, very well-plotted, and within a couple of books her characterizations move from "decent" to "very good", and become brilliant by her middle period (~1980s). This 1970 story is an excellent mystery in and of itself, and although IMO it's not her very best, it's still head and shoulders above that of most mystery writers from the period, and comparable to some of the best then (last 1960s, early 1970s) writing in that classic style in the UK (i.e., Catherine Aird, Ruth Rendell, Ellis Peters, Sara Woods, Charlotte Armstrong, Christianna Brand...) and the US (Margaret Millar, Amanda Cross, Elizabeth Peters, Sarah Caudwell, Emma Lathen...).

James obviously read and admired Christie, as did most women readers (and writers!) of her generation. Early on in her career you can easily see how Christie and Sayers et. al. have influenced her. But James then goes on to actually improve upon their writing style, at least IMO, becoming one of the best current practitioners of the "traditional style" mystery now living and still writing. As she's extremely elderly now, I suspect she won't be publishing much more in the future, alas. So savor her earlier works if and when you can - while quite old-fashioned they're still a treat!

SHROUD FOR A NIGHTINGALE may not be her very best novel, but it's an extremely good one, and I highly recommended it to your attention. (less)

like 1 like · see review

Jan 20, 2010 Lobstergirl rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Leon Panetta

Shelves: own, mystery-thriller, fiction

Student nurses are dropping dead at the Nightingale nurse training school. Does someone there harbor a secret past? (Hint: yes.) Published in 1971, this is James's fourth novel, and of these, her most robust and satisfying. It feels miles away from her earlier, Christie-esque stylings. You wouldn't find a passage like this in any of her first three, for example:

She had given him a depressing glimpse into the stultifying lack of privacy, and of the small pettiness and subterfuges with which peopl...more

like 1 like · see review

May 23, 2010 Spuddie rated it 5 of 5 stars

#4 Adam Dalgliesh British mystery, in which the Scotland Yard detective and his team are off to a nursing school to investigate the untimely death of two nursing students--both dead by poison of different types a couple of weeks apart. One was administered during a demonstration of gastric feeding during an inspection by the General Nursing Council, when Nurse Pearce, playing the role of the patient has her stomach dissolved by a caustic substance added to the milk feed. The second death of Nurs...more

like · see review

Dec 06, 2009 Stven rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: mystery fans

Recommended to Stven by: BBC-TV

In the fourth Adam Dalgliesh novel, P.D. James adopts a mood bordering on the gothic. The atmosphere is laden with fear, there are dark forces at work in the winds and the trees, and the house is one of mystery with the occasional single illuminated window. It's effusive for a murder mystery with a police detective, but she pulls it off convincingly. This is another fine book in the series, and of course it's the one set a the nurses' training hospital.

like 1 like · see review

Feb 07, 2013 Carol rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Adam Dalgliesh mysteries are so satisfying—comfort food for the mind—, perhaps because P.D. James understands human nature. Here's an example:

He [Dalgliesh] sat through the next fifteen minutes in exemplary patience. Sister Gearing couldn't have guessed from his courteous attention to her chattering and leisurely way in which he drank his third and last cup of tea, that every moment was now grudged.

Three stars because the macabre was more than I like.

like · see review

Apr 12, 2013 Al rated it 4 of 5 stars

From the Inside Flap

An Adam Dalgliesh mystery by an award-winning, internationally acclaimed novelist.

Two student

...more

like · see review

Jan 21, 2013 KarenF rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiobook, mystery, library

It's been a while since I read a PD James book. I forgot how satisfying a mystery they are. Sex & secrets abound in an incestuous small nursing school. There was a lot of talk about there being no secrets or privacy in a small dormitory like setting. And certainly everyone has secrets, both small and larger that are revealed throughout the investigation. But it's the biggest secret, the one worth killing for, that doesn't come out until the end.

like 1 like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (47)

More editions...

Genres

Mystery

296 users

Mystery > Detective

21 users

European Literature > British Literature

16 users

Thriller > Mystery Thriller

15 users

Mystery > Crime

9 users

Thriller

7 users

Literature

5 users

Suspense

4 users

Adult

4 users

Novels

4 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About P.D. James

Official Facebook fan page

P. D. James is the author of twenty books, most of which have been filmed and broadcast on television in the United States and other countries. She spent thirty years in various departments of the British Civil Service, including the Police and Criminal Law Department of Great Britain's Home Office. She has served as a magistrate and as a governor of the BBC. In 2000 she...more

More about P.D. James...

Books by P.D. James

The Private Patient (Adam Dalgliesh, #14)

An Unsuitable Job For A Woman (Cordelia Gray #1)

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Shroud for a Nigh...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from Shroud for a Nightingale

“He didn't want her; he wanted me. Well, you know how it is."

Dalgliesh did know. This, after all, was the commonest, the most banal of personal tragedies. You loved someone. They didn't love you. Worse still, in defiance of their own best interests and to the destruction of your peace, they loved another. What would half the world's poets and novelists do without this universal tragicomedy?” — 6 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: Shroud for a Nightingale
avg rating	preview: Shroud for a Nightingale Goodreads rating: 4.03 (8699 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/764434.Shroud_for_a_Nightingale?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1321172495l/764434.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/764434.Shroud_for_a_Nightingale?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Shroud for a Nightingale by P.D. James[/url]

Shroud for a Nightingale (Adam Dalgliesh #4)

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website