The Black Tower

Adam Dalgliesh #5

by P.D. James

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Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Detective, Mystery Thriller, British Literature, Audiobook

371 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

P. 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.

Reviews

[Phrynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think you need to be an Adam Dalgleish fan to really enjoy this one. Luckily I am !

The book starts off really slowly with Dalgleish leaving hospital after a serious battle with a possibly life threatening illness. He goes to convalesce with an old friend from his past only to find he has died. Dalgliesh suspects murder especially as a series of local deaths then occur. He cannot help but investigate, yet he is not at the top of his game, and event after event piles up before he realises what is going on and finds himself in a very unfortunate situation.

The story does move slowly but I think this emphasises the fact that Dalgleish himself is moving slowly as he works his way back to fitness. He is actually debating whether to leave the police force altogether so he has much on his mind. The mystery is intricate and detailed with a huge range of possible suspects.I enjoyed it very much and was able to guess the who but without understanding the why. Fortunate Dalgleish sparked back to life at the end and sorted it all out for me.

I am glad to report that Adam Dalgleish does not leave the police force - this is only #5 in the series after all. There are a lot of books to go yet which I am very happy about!

[Майя Ставитская · Rating 4 out of 5]

Commander Adam Dalglish, recovering from an illness that doctors considered fatal, having made a mistake with the diagnosis, decides to leave Scotland Yard, lead a quiet life, write poetry. That's when the letter from the priest comes to him. who knew him as a boy. After that, they did not communicate for many years, and now Reverend Baddeley serves at Toynton Grange. the very shelter, above which stands a black tower made of slate. The old priest asks to come, he needs to consult.

Surprised, the commander sets off to find an old friend dead. It alarms him. that some items that clearly should have been in Baddeley's cabin were gone. Besides, the old man's library is bequeathed to him, he will have to spend a few days at the Grange. Where more and more strange and suspicious things begin to happen.

"The Black Tower" is a slow, perfectly logically grounded detective, maybe a little more verbose than usual in our hurried age, but without unpredictable maniacs and without a newfangled passion for disgusting ways of killing. And the performance of the audio version by Igor Knyazev gives the novel additional charm and respectability.

A solid, interesting, logical and highly humane detective.

Легко ли быть инвалидом?
У вас эйфория. Это характерный признак вашего заболевания, многие больные со склерозом отличаются этим ни на чем не основанным ощущением счастья и надежды. С вашей стороны это никакая не добродетель, а нас всех такие штучки чертовски раздражают.
Речь не о том склерозе, при котором, как в старой репризе: "А я все забываю..." Рассеянный склероз чудовищное заболевание. Многоочаговая аутоимунная патология, при которой нормальная нервная ткань замещается соединительной, человеку постепенно начинают отказывать конечности, итогом становится полный паралич. От паралича дыхательных органов больной в результате умирает, даже при идеальном уходе.

В мире два миллиона человек с этим заболеванием, из которых в России - сто пятьдесят тысяч, это очень высокий процент от общего количества населения. В России об этом не говорят до сих пор, тема в числе стигматизированных. Англичанка Филлис Дороти Джеймс, которая писала классические детективы, включила рассказ о больных рассеянным склерозом в роман, написанный полвека назад - в 1975 году. Красноречивый пример разницы в отношении к инвалидам в западном мире и у нас.

Еще раз, объясню. чтобы понятнее: там, где проблему ставят, где о ней говорят, государство оказывается перед необходимостью реагировать, в бюджете выделяются средства для клинической и паллиативной помощи. Там, где не говорят, помогать, вроде как. и не нужно. Заболевший остается наедине с болезнью. События "Черной башни" разворачиваются в санатории для людей с заболеваниями опорно-двигательной системы, среди которых большинство составляют больные именно с рассеянным склерозом.

И Ф.Д.Джеймс умеет описать состояние своих героев предельно наглядно. Когда я читала "Дом, в котором" Мариам Петросян, пробовала ползать, опираясь только на руки, как это делает Лорд. Так вот, в процессе написания романа, автор, похоже, пробовала передвигаться по гладкому линолеуму с подушкой, как это делает Урсула — так уж подробно и точно описан процесс.

И это не единственный случай, когда читателю поневоле приходится погружаться в ощущения героев. Получать представление о том, что чувствует человек, обреченный на медленное умирание в становящемся все более чужим теле. Боль, стыд, обида. одиночество - весь спектр переживаний. К чести писательницы, она не нагнетает мрак намеренно, все это остается фоном для событий классического английского детектива с мастерски закрученной интригой.

Командер Адам Дэлглиш, оправляясь от болезни, которую врачи считали смертельной, ошибившись с диагнозе, решает уйти из Скотланд Ярда, вести тихую жизнь, писать стихи. Тут-то к нему и приходит письмо от священника. который знал его еще мальчишкой. После они много лет не общались, теперь преподобный Бэддли служит в Тойнтон-Грейндже. том самом приюте, над которым высится черная башня, сложенная из сланца. Старый священник просит приехать, ему необходимо посоветоваться.

Удивленный, командер отправляется в путь, чтобы застать старинного приятеля мертвым. Настораживает его. что кое-какие предметы, которые явно должны были быть в домике Бэддли, исчезли. К тому же, ему завещана библиотека старика, придется провести несколько дней в Грейндже. Где начинают твориться все более странные и подозрительные дела.

"Черная башня" неспешный, отлично логически обоснованный детектив, может несколько более многословный, чем привычно в наш торопливый век, но без непредсказуемых маньяков и без новомодной страсти к омерзительным способам умертвия. А исполнение аудиоверсии Игорем Князевым придает роману дополнительный шарм и респектабельность.

Добротный, интересный, логичный и в высшей степени человечный детектив.

[Quirkyreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first book of my 2019 P.D. James read-a-thon is done.

I saw the film adaptation years ago, so it was playing along in my head as I was reading the story. So it made the book even more enjoyable. I forgot what happened in the ending, so I had a delightful surprise with the ending.

Now onto the next one.

[Katharine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Continuing my investigation of a new author for me, I got a couple more PD James novels at the library. I'm beginning to come to the conclusion that James is not worth reading when she tries to be deep and thought-provoking and to elucidate Serious Themes. Because she just comes across as ponderous, self-important, and well, boring.

The Black Tower is an okay mystery, I guess, but I had a really hard time getting into the story and as it progressed I wasn't particularly entertained. The writing is fair but James seems to be better at quick-sketch characterization than intensive studies. I don't find Dalgleish to be a very convincing detective hero, and none of the other characters were terribly sympathetic. Her style can work, as in the first James I read, if she has at least one sympathetic character and the rest are interesting if not likable. But it didn't work in this case. And what struck me as a minor flaw in the first novel I read, her obsessively detailed scene descriptions, are by now becoming irritatingly forced.

I think I need to give James a break and maybe read one now and then when I'm in the mood. It all comes down to the fact that I prefer my mysteries to be entertaining, light, escapist reading, and James just isn't fitting the bill.

[Wanda Pedersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favourite James book. Her main character, Adam Dalgliesh, has been seriously ill and must convalesce and decide what to do with his life. Turns out his illness wasn't the fatal cancer his doctors originally feared, so he must find a way to re-engage with life (a circumstance echoed in the situation he finds himself later in the novel).

So we have an uncertain and disillusioned Dalgliesh, called to give advice to a clergyman that he has known when he was a boy. He's unsure what the man wanted to discuss, but by the time he arrives at the odd facility/community where the priest lives, the man is dead. Dalgliesh doesn't want to be an investigator any more, but he also can't turn off his brain. Perhaps it's this lack of true engagement in the main character, but I had a hard time caring whether it was a murder or not.

Of course, the mysterious events don't stop there. The deaths pile up and both Dalgliesh and I wonder why he's still hanging around this weird nursing home. Why hasn't he fled the scene, typed up his resignation letter, and written some poetry about it? During the last 20 pages, James suddenly regains her grip and the plot thunders to an inevitable conclusion.

We can't write fabulous books every time, so I am chalking this offering up to that. I'm still a Dalgliesh fan and will give the next book in the series a chance.

Cross posted at my blog:

https://wanda-thenextfifty.blogspot.c...

[Piyangie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the longest winding murder-mystery I've ever read. The story is based on a good plot, no doubt; but for the readers to comprehend this, they have to wait till the very end. The problem with this particular installment, I believe lies in the execution of the plot. The too detailed descriptive trend that the author uses on scenes, the thoughts and actions of suspects, and even of Dalgliesh makes the main murder-mystery stray from its course. In this particular installment, two men including a reverend father are dead, and a couple of deaths take place during the course, but all I read was the descriptions of events, scenes, suspects' minds and actions, and Adam Dalgliesh's disinterestedness. It was one long tedious reading.

This was not an official case for Commander Adam Dalgliesh. He arrives at the scene (which is a sort of institution for the patients with disabling diseases) by an invitation of the reverend father attached to the place and finds him dead and buried. It is only Dalgliesh's hunch that something was amiss. But Dalgliesh, being convalescent, is at a point of indecision as to continue his work with the police force or not. His indecision makes him reluctant to involve himself and he proceeds with his hunch only in disinterested curiosity. This isn't a flaw of course, but I prefer Dalgliesh in his official capacity when his authority and force of character come out to his advantage.

The story wasn't interesting. There is no suspense, none at all, except in the final two chapters. But even then it was a feeble attempt at that, for the ending was predictable. The setting is becoming repetitive. This is the third time in five books that the author took us into a medical institution. The characters were intolerable and I dislike the whole set of them. Of Adam Dalgliesh, I didn't like the particular character portrayal of his in this installment.

After five books, I'm still not drawn into this series. But for some reason, I don't feel like quitting yet.

[booklady · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best I've read by James yet. Not sure if James or Inspector Dalgliesh are growing on me. Both are acquired tastes I'm convinced of that. The fact that James is a subtle writer and Adam is a not very charming sleuth don't really explain anything...or do they? In this story, we catch a few more glimpses into the mysterious character of our detective. I find myself liking Adam in spite of himself, or is it because I feel sorry for him? He's brilliant, cold, aloof, calculating and a born investigator, but a rather sorry human being. He solves his crimes but he doesn't always come out on top like Poirot or other serial detectives, which makes him and the stories more interesting.

[Roman Clodia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Counterintuitively, I enjoyed this more as a novel than as 'crime fiction'. In terms of the latter, it's another story, like Unnatural Causes, where Dalgleish is off-duty. It's not even clear what needs investigating till way past the halfway mark. James suddenly seems to wake up and crams a whole lot of crime-y stuff into the final chapter including the Detective's Burst of Intuition, the Cornered Killer Climax, the Jeopardy on a Clifftop, and the Last Minute Rescue!

But before we're recalled to the crime tropes, there is much to enjoy in the weird setting (those monks' habits!), and, especially, the characterisation. After the way James trashed a disabled character in Unnatural Causes I was wary, but here she conveys a sense of the horror of a degenerative neurological disease like MS and gives her characters the dignities of rounded personalities. I don't think I'm ever going to warm to chilly, cerebral Dalgleish, but this story has more depth than we might typically see in this style of crime fiction.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the fifth in the Adam Dalgliesh series and sees him needing to recuperate, after a stay in hospital, which has led him to question his career in the police. Having received a message from the old curate, of his father’s, asking him to visit, he decides to take him up on his offer and heads off to Toyton Grange, a home for the disabled. He is not sure why Father Baddeley wanted to see him, but, by the time he arrives, the old family friend is already dead.

Before long, and despite his attempts not to get involved, Dalgliesh is questioning events at the Grange. Who wrote the poison pen letter that Dalgliesh finds among Father Baddeley’s papers? Was the recent death of one of the patients an accident, or is there something to investigate? Obviously, the detective in Dalgliesh still lurks and, before long, he is asking questions and uncovering more strange events, among the assorted group of people who live, and work, at the home. Meanwhile, the Black Tower, on the grounds, looms over the countryside; used mainly by the warden, and owner, Wilfred, who opened Toyton Grange after experiencing a personal cure, which he sees as a miracle.

Author P.D. James spent much of her life working in the health service and many of her books have a setting revolving around doctors, nurses, hospitals or clinics. Dalgliesh, disenchanted by his career, also finds himself vaguely uncomfortable around the inhabitants of the home. This is a personal trait which has occurred in previous books and, although it may be realistic, it is quite uncomfortable for the reader. It makes the dour detective seem both cold and judgemental. His distaste of the odours, his discomfort around the patients, his analytical nature, all tend to make you aware of the faults of the man. The fact he is also aware of them, is cold comfort at times.

Overall, this is not my favourite of the Dalgliesh mysteries so far. I do not mind when such books are slow, and winding. However, these are not, frankly, a cast of characters which excite much interest, despite the schemes and plotting beneath the surface, and the plot takes too long to conclude. It has something of the feeling of a waiting room, where you always have the sense that something might happen, but that, probably, you are in for the long haul… I look forward to reading on, despite my difficulties with this novel. I loved the previous book in the series – I hope I will love the next as much. Rated 3.5.

[Tristram Shandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Will He or Won‘t He?

After a gruelling series of medical tests which eventually proved a fatal diagnosis false, Adam Dalgliesh is released back to life, much like a long-term serving prisoner, though, who has forgotten what to do with life. Still being too weak to return to the police force, and not knowing anyway whether he ever wants to go back, he decides to visit Michael Baddeley, a curate he has known from his childhood, who has invited him to come to Dorset in order to advise him on a difficult question. When Dalgliesh arrives, however, the clergyman is dead, cremated and buried, and he is told that his old friend died after a heart attack. Baddeley has worked as a minister in the Toynton Grange home for disabled people, a place which at present only has five patients and is in financial difficulties, and before long, Dalgliesh learns that shortly before Baddeley’s death, one of the patients, the wheel-chair-bound Victor Holroyd died when rolling down a sheer cliff. Might these two deaths be just accidental, or was Holroyd’s death the very thing the reverend needed advice about? Or was the old man needled by the pen poison letter Dalgliesh had found in his desk? These are some questions Dalgliesh asks himself, but after his hospital sojourn he just does not really fully care to voice his suspicions to the local police, all the less so as he is not on an official case.

After reading five P.D. James novels now, I have not yet warmed towards Adam Dalgliesh, who seems extremely cold, analytical and distant to me, a gnarled weeping willow in the middle of bleak swampland. The patients, the staff, the owner of Toynton Grange, and Julius Count, the neighbouring gentleman, all of them seem to be getting on his nerves, and although he now has a bad conscience about not having come down to Dorset earlier to have a talk with Baddeley, when the old man’s letter reached him, he was somewhat relieved that his impending death saved him from making the journey. A character thus aloof and introverted surely fails to awake genuine interest with the reader. Apart from that, The Black Tower is a novel that starts incredibly slowly, not only taking its but also our time, making us witness the main character musing several times on whether he should actually care at all to make any inquiries. The biggest sin, however, in the construction of this novel is that the decisive hint to the solution comes to Dalgliesh very late, in the last fifth of the book, and out of the blue so that it feels a lot like cheating.

And yet, there are the characters and James’s style that compensate for a lot: James dives into background stories to make most of the characters in the tale more plastic and believable, giving us a good look at the grudges, the secrets and the yearnings that are typical of people forced to live together in the close boundaries of an institution for the disabled. She also makes the place come to life quite vividly, the rough beauty of the coastline, the quick changes in weather, the difficulties people have manoeuvring the ground in their wheelchairs. Last not least, there is James’s sardonic outlook on human nature, sometimes expressed in grim humour, sometimes not, that always wins me over to her books. Here, the very first sentence already gives us an example:

”It was to be the consultant physician’s last visit and Dalgliesh suspected that neither of them regretted it, arrogance and patronage on one side and weakness, gratitude and dependence on the other being no foundation for a satisfactory adult relationship however transitory.”

[Carlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un libro que se me hizo un poco largo en el cual vemos a un Adam Dalgliesh no tan enfocado en sus quehaceres de detective, ya que pasa por un evento que lo tuvo mal de salud y no está seguro de continuar con su trabajo o no. Se va a ver a un amigo sacerdote, ya que éste le envía una carta para que lo vaya a ver... y ahí empieza el asunto. Adam trata de no involucrarse en el caso cuando encuentra al sacerdote muerto, ya que el caso está a cargo de otros colegas. Sin embargo, el sacerdote le dejó muchos libros para que se lleve a casa, por lo que tendrá que quedarse en la congregación/comunidad por un tiempo más. Es en ese tiempo cuando otros eventos pasan y en resumidas cuentas, termina metiéndose en el caso por cosas del destino.

Me gustó el momento que Adam vive como detective, ya que todos tenemos crisis existenciales a lo largo de nuestras vidas, aunque amemos nuestra profesión o lo que hacemos a diario. Siento que James quiso que Adam se tomara una pausa para reflexionar sobre su futuro, pero aún así hay una investigación envuelta. Los personajes son más interesantes que en otros libros de esta serie, así también como el lugar donde se ubica La Torre Negra y Toynton Grange.

Personajes como Julius, Wilfred y Grace fueron de mi agrado. Muy activos durante el libro, lo que es bueno ya que si todo se centra solamente en Adam pierde un poco de interés y se vuelve monótono. En cuanto a la escritura del libro, para mí fue de peor a mejor. Mejoró un poco en la segunda mitad y el remate de las últimas 20 o 30 páginas fue mucho mejor de lo esperado. Por lo mismo le pongo 3 estrellas y no 2, como pensaba ponerle.

Ahora a leer el siguiente libro y veremos qué tal.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't understand how anyone can like this book.

Take the spitefulness of Melrose Place, add the sex appeal of Confederacy of Dunces, and sprinkle on the inanity of a Jane Austen heroine (none of it in a good way) and you've got The Black Tower. Who would ever do any of the things that the characters do in this book? And they do boring things, by the way, nonsensically boring - the worst kind of boring. Let's eat together every night in silence except for we'll take turns reading boring stuff aloud. Tonight is my turn, I'll read the phone book while you slouch in your wheelchair and masticate your food.

Since half the potential suspects are in wheelchairs, the inspector has to keep the reader guessing by constantly speculating that this or that criminal act could not have been committed by a resident in a wheelchair EXCEPT if they had an accomplice - ooooh!

The worst is at the climax...

(spoiler alert)
At the exact moment that the inspector finally figures out what is going on - not by good sleuthing but by having everything suddenly occur to him, it turns out that the bad guy has simultaneously figured out that he figured it out and disconnects the phone lines. The climatic confrontation is almost laughable. When the good guy tries to make the phone call, the bad guy pops out and with no other preamble, asks 'How did you know it was me?' It was like the start of a Laurel and Hardy routine: Um, how did you know that I know that it was you?? except it wasn't supposed to be funny.

The writing was fine, but the characters, the narrative, the action - not so great.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had an extremely hard time falling into this work, and I struggled initially to continue reading it.

The story eventually lured me in at the halfway point and made sticking with it worthwhile.

I’m on to the next in this series and I am hopeful that it will be more to my liking.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this outing with Commander Dalgliesh. Recovering from an illness he goes to visit an elderly friend in Dorset at Toynton Grange a private institution that looks after disabled people. On arrival he finds his friend Father Baddeley has died. The Commander stays on in his cottage to sort out some books that were left to him in the will.

Mysterious deaths occur and Wilfred the owner and manager is reluctant to involve the police. Julius an owner of a cottage on the grounds keeps popping up when something happens. Is he the murderer or is it one of the many able bodied suspects. Dr Eric, Helen or Millicent.

I like the detailed descriptions of the landscape and the flawed characters. The setting on a windswept headland close to the sea with a Black Tower that may be haunted all add to the atmosphere.

[Siv30 · Rating 2 out of 5]

לסקירה מפורטת בעברית, קישור לבלוג שלי -

https://sivi-the-avid-reader.com/the-...

[Julie Durnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars for the wonderful writing and intricate plotting, but oh my there are so many characters!

[Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Murderous Monks?
Review of the Sphere Books paperback (1977 orig./1986 reprint) of the Faber & Faber hardcover original (1975)

This, too, was a sensation which in the long dog days in hospital he had thought never to experience again, the frisson of excitement along the blood at the first realization that something important had been said, that although the quarry wasn't yet in sight nor his spoor detectable, yet he was there. He tried to reject this unwelcome surge of tension but it was as elemental and involuntary as the touch of fear.

Scotland Yard CID's Detective Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh has decided to give up his police career after coming through a terminal scare due to a mis-diagnosis and a resulting hospital stay. For his convalescence, he takes up the invitation of Father Baddeley, an old family friend, to visit him at his cottage by the Toynton Grange Nursing Home. He arrives to find out that Father Baddeley has passed away from an apparent heart attack. This is shortly after a resident patient has apparently committed suicide by propelling his wheelchair off the nearby seaside cliff. Regardless of his planned change of career, Dalgliesh is drawn by instinct to further investigate the situation.

Dalgliesh has an excuse to stay on at the cottage, as he has inherited the Father's book collection which needs sorting. The nearby Toynton Grange facility is a private nursing home run on a spiritual basis due to its founder Wilfred Anstey's miracle cure from Disseminated Sclerosis (an alternative name for Multiple Sclerosis). The caregivers all wear monk-like habits, there are regular prayer readings and twice annual pilgrimages to Lourdes in France to take the waters.

Due to his recovering health Dalgliesh is perhaps a bit slow at first to piece together all of the clues surrounding the situation. The discovery of a series of poison pen letters further complicates matters and then there is yet another apparent natural death and yet another apparent suicide. Four deaths at the same facility in such close sequence can't possibly be natural and a coincidence surely? Dalgliesh manages to solve it all in the end but comes close to becoming the murderer's fifth victim.


Front cover of the original Faber & Faber hardcover edition (1975). Image sourced from Wikipedia.

I read The Black Tower as part of my continuing 2022 re-read binge of the P.D. James' Adam Dalgliesh and Cordelia Gray novels, which I am enjoying immensely. James is truely at the height of the Silver Age of Crime authors and puts most modern mystery writers to shame with her extensive character backgrounds and plots often set in confined communities where an atmosphere of paranoia and foreboding reign, until the cool, often detached detection of Dalgliesh is able to arrive at a clarifying solution.

Actor Bertie Carvel as Adam Dalgliesh in the Acorn TV series "Dalgliesh" (2021-). Image sourced from IMDb.

Trivia and Links
* In Book 1 Cover Her Face, Adam Dalgliesh was a Detective Chief Inspector. In Books 2 to 4 he is a Detective Superintendent and then in Books 5 to 14 he is a Detective Commander.

The Black Tower was adapted for television in 1985 as part of the long running Dalgliesh TV-series for Anglia Television/ITV (1983-1998) starring actor Roy Marsden as Commander Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard. You can watch the 6 episodes of the 1985 adaptation starting with Episode 1 on YouTube here. The adaptation is reasonably faithful to the novel.

The new Acorn TV-series reboot Dalgliesh (2021-?) starring Bertie Carver as Adam Dalgliesh filmed an adaptation of The Black Tower as Episodes 3 & 4 of Season 1. The adaptation is reasonably faithful to the novel, but it reduces the number of characters at the Toynton Grange Nursing Home, renames Julius Court as Julius Marsh, and adds a local Sergeant Miskin (who becomes a regular series character in Episodes 5 & 6). It has not yet been announced which books are being adapted for Season 2 (as of late July 2022). Season 1 adapted Books 4, 5 & 7.

[Romi || Romi Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember watching the TV series adaptation of this book when I was younger and I found it quite ... mysterious and dark. It wasn't like any other detective series I'd seen and it stuck with me ever since. I took some of the mysterious feelings with me when I started reading The Black Tower and soon I discovered that it also read differently from any other murder mysteries I've read so far. P.D. James goes deeper than, for instance, Agatha Christie does: Dalgliesh is much more of a round character than Poirot. The Black Tower starts off with a lot of descriptions of Dalgliesh's thoughts and these descriptions stay throughout the whole book. I really liked this! The solution to the mystery wasn't that original, though, and I soon knew who the killer was. It just couldn't have been anyone else, really!

This is now the fourth murder mystery by P.D. James, with Dalgliesh as the main character, I've read, but The Black Tower stood out more than the other three. However, I think that's mainly because of the nostalgic feelings, of watching the adaptation, I link to it.

[Matthew Harding · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hoo boy.

This book is the definition of the word slow. It is a convalescence book about a character to whom I had little to no connection. I wonder if I would have felt differently if I had read any other books starring Adam Dalgliesh, but I didn't and I found the references to the case he was recovering from kind of irritating. Like an in-joke to which I wasn't privy.

I loved the sense of the solitude and reduced speed of Dorset, but it took too long to get to the action and I had very little attachment to the story. I also found the characters generally confusing and not terribly well fleshed out.

The last 80 or so pages picked up, but it took me a long time to get through this mere 350 page novel. I'd not recommend it, unless you like lurid descriptions of flowers and stories viewed through a mist.

I'm inclined to try another of her books as I feel I may have just picked up the wrong one for starters and I'd give it a star and a half. The writing isn't bad, but when I feel like I'm slogging through a book I'm reading for pleasure, there is something amiss.

Beh.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

P.D. James and I have a history. It's fraught with frequent absences and long periods of silence. Then I get it into my head that I need to reacquaint myself with one of the grande dames of mystery. Sometimes it works, sometimes not so much. The Black Tower is one of my unsuccessful outings with James.

Commander Adam Dalgliesh receives a letter from a priest who was a family friend. Father Baddley requests that Dalgliesh visit him to provide professional advice. As Dalgliesh is recovering from an illness, he sees it as an opportunity to convalesce in the countryside. Upon arrival, he finds that the priest has passed due to heart failure. Father Baddley has been the religious adviser to a home for disabled people; his cottage is located on their property. Dalgliesh finds himself drawn into the community and soon it appears something is amiss. However, it took about 300 pages for the book to get interesting.

It's a 2.5 for me rounded up to a 3 because there is no question James can write. The path to the big reveal was just a little ponderous for me.

[Lobstergirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've lost track of how many P.D. James mysteries are set at medical facilities, but it's getting ridiculous. This one is pretty tedious up until the last 30 pages or so. We have a bunch of convalescents, some seriously ill or dying, in wheelchairs (this makes pushing them off cliffs easier). Commander Dalgliesh, himself convalescing from mono that the doctors at first thought was leukemia, serendipitously ends up among them, as they begin to die, apparently from suicide or natural causes. It takes Dalgliesh 253 pages to figure out that there is something more sinister going on - and since he has decided to quit the police force, he keeps pretending he isn't going to get involved anyway. Tiresome! Honestly, the most interesting part was when Dalgliesh was sorting through an old pile of books.

[Greg · Rating 1 out of 5]

DAME AGATHA CHRISTIE AND HER PEERS
BOOK 63 - 1975
Please, is this to be the P.D.James book that explains her popularity to me?
CAST - 2 stars: Big problem here. The voice of the author is right up front, on the first page. She hasn't introduced a character yet, but writes about medical students: "... with their long hair and short white coats, they looked like a gaggle of slightly disreputable bridesmaids..." Darn those Beatle- inspired haircuts from 1965 infecting a 1975 crop of doctors! Then the author writes that one character has an "unfortunate predilection for little girls." But wait, what's even worse? Adam Dalgiesh says (to a handicapped gay young man who has just lost his one great love): "He [a separate character outside the gay relationship] might have made himself useful instead of behaving like a hysterical queer." So, in James' universe, a pedophile is "unfortunate" but being gay is the worst thing ever. OK, Boomer! 1 star for the cast, plus another star for the best 2 characters in the book: Father Micheal Baddelay and Victor Holroyd, both dead when the book opens but both drive the rest of the story.
ATMOSPHERE - 1 star: This kind of nursing home/orphanage/home to the misfits of the world may have worked nicely at first, maybe in the early 1900's when the first full-length murder mysteries hit the shelves. By 1975 this is a worn trope, and rather hilarious at times. This big old house is by the sea, and the doctors and nurses favorite place to park their patients is half-way down a slope to the sea. Yea, James likes to kill off her handicapped patients this way, and often. Fun times for James I guess. There is the ominous Black Tower, true, all tall and dark and strong...and just like I like 'em. Problem is, the Black Tower has nothing at all to do with the story, but does make for a good cover.
CRIME - 1 star: Basically, people in wheelchairs wind up down on the rocks by the sea. Fun times, right?
INVESTIGATION - 1 star: You'll know the villain early, way before Adam even has a clue. (Hint: it's the one person who has no reason to be in this story at all.)
SOLUTION - 1 star: Like I say, you'll know the 'who' early. But as to the 'why', the one thing you MUST know, just one single word, pops up on page 316 of 346. 300 pages and not a single clue as to what's really going on. Back in the day, people were hung for less offenses than this author commits.
SUMMARY: 1.2 stars. No, I still don't get James' popularity. This homophobic, hateful, hold-the-BIG-CLUE for 316 pages, kill-off-handicapped-people, queers-are-worse-than-pedophiles is a seriously bad novel, stupendously outdated. P.D.James proves again she isn't a writer for me. But this novel won a Silver Dagger Award: I can only assume for very, very bad taste.

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book opens with Dalgliesh in the hospital, learning that he isn't going to die. But he has had mononucleosis and needs to convalesce. From the beginning, and throughout the novel, Dalgliesh wonders whether he really wants to continue as a policeman. Since there are 9 more installments in the series, it's not a mental leap to know his decision. But while in the hospital he had a letter from his father's curate of 30 years ago asking to see him, professionally, and so Dalgliesh takes himself to the Dorset coast.

I think I prefer the detectives to stay on the job and not operate off duty. This is the second in the series where Dalgliesh has been on scene unofficially. Further, it takes a very long time in this one for us to know with certainty whether previous deaths are murders or from natural causes, as was assumed at the time. As this is a murder/crime novel, it's easy for the reader to jump to conclusions, but I sort of like things a bit more obvious. There is enough guess and conjecture in these things anyway.

In this, there are a *lot* of named characters. The setting is a home for the disabled - all wheelchair bound. Although that population is small, each is named and with a backstory. There is also the small staff. For nearly the first half of the book I had a hard time remembering which were able-bodied and which were not. As we are purportedly talking about a murderer, knowing which was which was pertinent.

This is my least favorite of the series so far. If I weren't reading with a group, and planning to read one a month for the rest of the year, I might throw my hands up and move on. But I like the prose, and despite complaining about too many characters, James does a better job of characterization than I find usual for the genre. I will persevere, but this was a not-very-good 3-stars.

[Divya · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked up this book hoping to find another murder-mystery author I could enjoy as much as I do Christie.
This book takes place in a nursing home for the invalid. Where people are killed off one after the other is what seem like accidents. Inspector Dalgliesh slowly tries to pu pieces together and get to the bottom of the killings.
The plot is tedious. The narrative creaks and groans and whimpers and almost left me in a stupor.
And having reached the end of the book I'm surprised I made it till the last page.

I was thinking of trying another of her books - a more popular one - and then I read this article : where she thinks of Christie as "such a bad writer" : "http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian..."
I don't think I'd enjoy P.D. James - her sensibilities about what makes a good murder-mystery are obviously starkly different from mine.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

On with my reread of PD James’ Adam Dalgliesh series. This is the first book that really starts to resemble her more modern day writing and also starts to showcase her own writing style. Before, we have followed an Agatha Christie type format and this was good, but not great.
This novel gives us far more background and characterisation of Adam Dalgliesh and is bound up in his past. This, as always, is a great way of giving us a more detailed and rounded character, without just saying it.
Commander Dalgleish is visiting the home of an old friend whilst he is convalescing, instantly he is thrown into intrigue, much of which is hard to solve. Not so hard that I lost interest, but just challenging enough to want me to continue to journey. Dalgliesh is cleverly shown to be on less than top form, as you would expect from someone so recently very ill. He is also having an identity crisis. Does he wish to continue as a Police Officer or not? This all complicates his thought processes and we are with him on the ride.
All motives for crime fall into just a few categories. So what is the motive here? Are we dealing with love, greed or hate? It is not easy to work out, but I urge you to give it a try.
PD James is really coming into her own with this novel and I am really inspired to move on with my year long reread of this series.

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is possibly one of James's most introspective and well-handled mysteries. Recovering from a severe illness and newly aware of his mortality, Adam Dalgliesh makes the decision to leave the police force. Before returning to tender his resignation, however, he decides to visit an old friend who has written him alluding to a need for advice. Father Michael is the chaplain at Toynton Grange, a home for the "young disabled" in Dorset, and it seems like as good a place as any to convalesce. When Dalgliesh arrives, however, he finds a morass of a mystery.

This mystery shares a lot of characteristics with James's later Death in Holy Orders; both are excellent, but I'd recommend not reading them in quick succession, as I found the similarities somewhat distracting.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Job gekündigt, Testament verfasst, Abschied genommen von allen, die er kennt – Adam Dalgliesh hat sich auf den Tod eingestellt, als ihm die Ärzte verkünden, dass die tödliche Diagnose wohl doch etwas vorschnell war.

Um sich von dem Schock des über ihm schwebenden Damoklesschwert des frühen Todes zu erholen, reist er aufs Land nach Dorset, um seinen alten Bekannten, Pater Baddeley, zu besuchen. Dieser hatte ihm eine Postkarte mit Bitte um einen Besuch geschickt. Er arbeite mittlerweile in einer privaten Heilanstalt, in der junge Behinderte untergebracht sind und möchte den Polizisten Dalgliesh in einer Ungereimtheit sprechen.

Als Adam Dalgliesh in Gut Toynton ankommt, erfährt er, dass er zu spät kommt: Pater Baddeley sei vor Kurzem verstorben. Der Kommissar beschließt, sich für einige Zeit in Baddeleys kleinem Cottage auf dem Gelände der Anstalt niederzulassen, unter anderem, um die Bücher, die er ihm vermacht hat, zu sortieren.

Doch dass irgendetwas mit Gut Toynton und seinen Bewohnern nicht stimmt, merkt er auch bald selbst. Ist an seinem Verdacht wirklich etwas dran oder sorgt die Abgeschiedenheit des Ortes dafür, dass sich hier alle so seltsam verhalten?
_____________

Puh, das war slow. Für mich bisher der schwächste Band der Reihe.

Vielleicht war es ein Stilmittel P.D. James‘, um Dalglieshs Verfassung nach einem langen Krankenhausaufenthalt literarisch darzustellen, dieses beständige Gefühl, dass irgendwas in der Luft liegt, ohne, dass es jemals konkret wird, oder die vielen losen Enden dieser Figuren.
Auch die Auflösung des Falls war für den Leser kaum zu erahnen, wir bekamen ja immer nur Brocken hingeworfen…

Die nächsten Geschichten werden hoffentlich wieder besser.

[Shabbeer Hassan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the year comes to an end, I returned to one of my favourite gentleman detectives, Adam Dalgliesh. PD James paints a vivid picture of a remote coastal town where Adam finds himself one foggy morning in search of meeting an old friend, who he finds to be dead. What follows then is a cat and mouse game between Adam the sleuth, his convalescing self hell-bent on leaving the Yard and the crafty villain who preys more on people's psyche than their wallets.

The plot is made more memorable by James' deft and sublime writing, character arcs and her capability to make the reader imagine the Dorset coast setting in all its beauty and gloom. Seldom in detective fiction writing, has anyone reached James' writing calibre and of late, I can only see Louise Penny approaching that prowess.

My Rating - 4.5/5

[MarilynLovesNature · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing is excellent. It's quite long and there are a lot of people to keep track of. I probably should have read it to keep names straight but the audio was very well done. It definitely meets my criteria for literature above mere entertainment. Probably a 4.5. Only the length prevents me from giving it a five plus the rather depressing mood of the novel. But then it is not quite as depressing as The Shadow of the Wind by Ruiz Zafon, which I am reading at the same time but needed to take more breaks from. PD James kept me wanting to find out who was the murderer, so I listened to it all night.

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that some of P.D. James' best books take place at remote locations or on islands. While this book is on the mainland, it's in a hospital for handicapped adults on the coast high on a cliff by the sea in Dorset, very similar to the island location in The Lighthouse. Dalgleish goes to the clinic to visit his father's old curate, but finds that the man has died before he arrives. There are mysterious staff members who wear hooded robes and some of the patients clearly dislike some of the staff and the other patients, so lots of potential murders. The ending is a surprise.