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By P.D. James Three complete novels P.D. James: Murder in Triplicate [Hardcover]
The incomparable, bestselling mystery writer P.D. James displays her brilliant English detective skills in a triple-scoop of murder novels written in the grand tradition and featuring the dashing detective Adam Dalgliesh: Unnatural Causes, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, and The Black Tower. Reissued edition. 6 x 9.
- GenresMysteryMystery Thriller
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1980
4 people are currently reading
437 people want to read
About the author
P.D. James
330 books3,214 followersP. D. James, byname of Phyllis Dorothy James White, Baroness James of Holland Park, (born August 3, 1920, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England—died November 27, 2014, Oxford), British mystery novelist best known for her fictional detective Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard.
The daughter of a middle-grade civil servant, James grew up in the university town of Cambridge. Her formal education, however, ended at age 16 because of lack of funds, and she was thereafter self-educated. In 1941 she married Ernest C.B. White, a medical student and future physician, who returned home from wartime service mentally deranged and spent much of the rest of his life in psychiatric hospitals. To support her family (which included two children), she took work in hospital administration and, after her husband’s death in 1964, became a civil servant in the criminal section of the Department of Home Affairs. Her first mystery novel, Cover Her Face (1962), introduced Dalgliesh and was followed by six more mysteries before she retired from government service in 1979 to devote full time to writing.
Dalgliesh, James’s master detective who rises from chief inspector in the first novel to chief superintendent and then to commander, is a serious, introspective person, moralistic yet realistic. The novels in which he appears are peopled by fully rounded characters, who are civilized, genteel, and motivated. The public resonance created by James’s singular characterization and deployment of classic mystery devices led to most of the novels featuring Dalgliesh being filmed for television. James, who earned the sobriquet “Queen of Crime,” penned 14 Dalgliesh novels, with the last, The Private Patient, appearing in 2008.
James also wrote An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1972) and The Skull Beneath the Skin (1982), which centre on Cordelia Gray, a young private detective. The first of these novels was the basis for both a television movie and a short-lived series. James expanded beyond the mystery genre in The Children of Men (1992; film 2006), which explores a dystopian world in which the human race has become infertile. Her final work, Death Comes to Pemberley (2011)—a sequel to Pride and Prejudice (1813)—amplifies the class and relationship tensions between Jane Austen’s characters by situating them in the midst of a murder investigation. James’s nonfiction works include The Maul and the Pear Tree (1971), a telling of the Ratcliffe Highway murders of 1811 written with historian T.A. Critchley, and the insightful Talking About Detective Fiction (2009). Her memoir, Time to Be in Earnest, was published in 2000. She was made OBE in 1983 and was named a life peer in 1991.
The daughter of a middle-grade civil servant, James grew up in the university town of Cambridge. Her formal education, however, ended at age 16 because of lack of funds, and she was thereafter self-educated. In 1941 she married Ernest C.B. White, a medical student and future physician, who returned home from wartime service mentally deranged and spent much of the rest of his life in psychiatric hospitals. To support her family (which included two children), she took work in hospital administration and, after her husband’s death in 1964, became a civil servant in the criminal section of the Department of Home Affairs. Her first mystery novel, Cover Her Face (1962), introduced Dalgliesh and was followed by six more mysteries before she retired from government service in 1979 to devote full time to writing.
Dalgliesh, James’s master detective who rises from chief inspector in the first novel to chief superintendent and then to commander, is a serious, introspective person, moralistic yet realistic. The novels in which he appears are peopled by fully rounded characters, who are civilized, genteel, and motivated. The public resonance created by James’s singular characterization and deployment of classic mystery devices led to most of the novels featuring Dalgliesh being filmed for television. James, who earned the sobriquet “Queen of Crime,” penned 14 Dalgliesh novels, with the last, The Private Patient, appearing in 2008.
James also wrote An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1972) and The Skull Beneath the Skin (1982), which centre on Cordelia Gray, a young private detective. The first of these novels was the basis for both a television movie and a short-lived series. James expanded beyond the mystery genre in The Children of Men (1992; film 2006), which explores a dystopian world in which the human race has become infertile. Her final work, Death Comes to Pemberley (2011)—a sequel to Pride and Prejudice (1813)—amplifies the class and relationship tensions between Jane Austen’s characters by situating them in the midst of a murder investigation. James’s nonfiction works include The Maul and the Pear Tree (1971), a telling of the Ratcliffe Highway murders of 1811 written with historian T.A. Critchley, and the insightful Talking About Detective Fiction (2009). Her memoir, Time to Be in Earnest, was published in 2000. She was made OBE in 1983 and was named a life peer in 1991.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 24, 2017
Unsuitable Job for a Woman was the second Cordelia Gray novel I read. In both of those novels, the mystery is solved by Gray but the criminal cannot be brought to justice since there is not proof. I did not find this a satisfying end because it does not happen this way in reality as often as James would tend to have her readers think. I also don't like to dismiss the problem of dealing with the criminal by his suicide or an accidental death such as in the Black Tower. It is a neat ending for a problem but not a particularly satisfying conclusion. Still, the books do provide interesting information, are well written, and give good puzzles to be thought about but not solved by me.
January 17, 2021
James writes with wonderful descriptive powers. Each of the novels were nicely different in characters and plots. It was an enjoyable past time.
December 30, 2020
Three early stories from James, clearly written during the period when she was figuring out her craft. Where the more mature James was writing at her own pace, allowing her poet-policeman to be himself and the facts of the case to emerge from the process of the investigation, these early stories struggle to find the correct mood. Dalgliesh in these two tales distracts himself with personal (dreary) miseries about his future, and stumbles into two murder investigations by accident. Only the interposition of a fluffy 'girl-gets-it-done' case for Cordelia Grey keeps you from immediately noticing that the set up for the two tentpole novels are close variations on the same tale. As for that Cordelia Grey case, this is a character who feels more at home in a 1920s teen crime novel and were it not for the incidental bits about casual sex and drug use it could have been written for a Bobbsey Twin. In this respect James in An Unsuitable Job For a Woman is trying the same hat trick as other early 1970s mystery authors, where they updated the cozy village murder tale with some very careful mentions of the hedonistic youth scene. There are things to like about Cordelia Grey, but she is too lucky in her investigations and too knowing for who she is for this novel to be a success.
Back to the Dalgliesh bookends, both are tales of a seaside rest gone wrong when Murther Most Foul happens too close for him to avoid getting involved. There are details about the troubles of being disabled (metaphors for our detective), he intuits the solution in both cases by sheer extrapolation. Then he throws himself in the way of harm, escapes by chance, and so the book ends with a panting near miss that recommits our self doubting detective to his line of work.
Really these are try out books that James would largely ignore later. It's best just to do the same and overlook these practice pages for the better work to come.
Back to the Dalgliesh bookends, both are tales of a seaside rest gone wrong when Murther Most Foul happens too close for him to avoid getting involved. There are details about the troubles of being disabled (metaphors for our detective), he intuits the solution in both cases by sheer extrapolation. Then he throws himself in the way of harm, escapes by chance, and so the book ends with a panting near miss that recommits our self doubting detective to his line of work.
Really these are try out books that James would largely ignore later. It's best just to do the same and overlook these practice pages for the better work to come.
November 17, 2022
For some reason, I've never really gotten interested in PD James. But I picked up this omnibus at the transfer station Swap Shop and read it with great enjoyment. Then I was on Amazon Prime or some streaming channel and started watching an old PD James BBC production, eventually realizing that it's NOT an old production, it's brand new, starring Bertie Carvel. I liked it very much, and recommend it as well. I feel certain I'll read more James'. I did read Death at Pemberley several years ago and liked it -ish ... I don't think I kept my copy of it but maybe i'll find one at the library and go back and re read it, or watch the BBC version again.
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June 9, 2018Intriguing enough to make me want to track down the other books. Always a little off the stereotypical track. Excellent in details. Odd in pace, often, but somehow still attractive despite the occasional sense of slow drifting along a calm tributary rather than rushing downriver to the sea.
November 27, 2014
RIP P.D. James.
Her novels were a delight to read -- she never lost her sense of humor about murder -- and compellingly plotted as well.
Her novels were a delight to read -- she never lost her sense of humor about murder -- and compellingly plotted as well.
January 7, 2017
Loved it, all three books
March 19, 2020
Contains three PD James novels -- two of which I'd already read (and mostly forgotten). When you hit that level of repetitiveness, time to move on. No more PD James for me.
October 31, 2015
3 novels by P.D. James
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews