From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

A Taste for Death (Adam Dalgliesh, #7)

P.D. James

Start date: July 1, 2020

Finish date: July 31, 2020

Discussion: Group Challenges

Why we're reading this: Next in our PD James/Adam Dalgliesh challenge.
[close] Next in our PD James/Adam Dalgliesh challenge.

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Group Challenges

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last updated Sep 12, 2025 08:12PM

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What Members Thought

Nov 06, 2017 John Frankham rated it liked it

Shelves: crime-detective

First read this on publication in 1986, having read all the preceding Adam Dalgleish series avidly. I stopped after this one! A superb writer, with great descriptive powers and psychological insight into her wide range of characters, the increasingly morbid descriptions of murders, etc, became distasteful, as if she felt the need to match her more gruesome competitors. Also, beneath her insights lies a nasty contempt for the lives of those without sufficient class/breeding, and this seems not ju ...more

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Sep 20, 2015 AngryGreyCat rated it really liked it

I am reading through the Dagliesh series by P.D. James and I really loved A Taste for Death. The plot was intricate with multiple emotions running through it. The handling of the religious themes was well done and balanced. The victim had recently had a religious experience and it caused him to make extreme changes in his life leading to his murder.

Dagliesh and his team work tirelessly through interviews with large cast of suspects. Sorting through lies and half-truths, many spun with some empha ...more

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Jun 27, 2020 Jill rated it liked it · review of another edition

I really liked the beginning, and thought it had me hooked. The concept of the story was very good, however, I then had suspicions that James really wanted to be a letting agent and not an author. The descriptions of architecture of all the buildings went on for far too long, followed each time by the furnishings of everywhere, giving the impression she was trying to get me to rent the furnished buildings. I don't mind a short description to set the scene but this went overboard. I also think Ja ...more

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Jul 06, 2020 Sandy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-classic, mystery-detective-grp, zjames-challenge-2020, rread-2020

Four stars, vs. three, as James (in my opinion) has finally developed Dalglish into an individual, instead of just the detective who is assigned to the case. She has also introduced an interesting investigating team that I expect to continue. Intricate plot with good characters but quite a lot of descriptions: architecture, furniture, carpets, curtains, clothing (many fawn colored), so the book could have been a lot shorter.

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