Adam Dalgliesh Reading Order
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Cover Her Face | 1962 | Buy |
| A Mind to Murder | 1963 | Buy |
| Unnatural Causes | 1967 | Buy |
| Shroud for a Nightingale | 1971 | Buy |
| The Black Tower | 1975 | Buy |
| Death of an Expert Witness | 1977 | Buy |
| A Taste for Death | 1986 | Buy |
| Devices and Desires | 1989 | Buy |
| Original Sin | 1994 | Buy |
| A Certain Justice | 1997 | Buy |
| Death in Holy Orders | 2001 | Buy |
| The Murder Room | 2003 | Buy |
| The Lighthouse | 2005 | Buy |
| The Private Patient | 2008 | Buy |
Cordelia Gray Reading Order
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| An Unsuitable Job for a Woman | 1972 | Buy |
| The Skull Beneath the Skin | 1982 | Buy |
P.D. James (1920-2014) was a British author who became one of the most respected mystery writers of the twentieth century. Born Phyllis Dorothy James in Oxford, she began writing while working as a civil servant in the National Health Service and later the Home Office criminal policy department. Her professional experience with hospitals, forensic science, and the criminal justice system informed her detailed, realistic mysteries.
James published her first novel, Cover Her Face, in 1962 at age 42. Over the next five decades, she wrote 14 Adam Dalgliesh novels and two featuring private detective Cordelia Gray. Her work was praised for combining traditional mystery plotting with literary prose and psychological insight. She received the Crime Writers’ Association Diamond Dagger, was made a life peer as Baroness James of Holland Park, and served on the board of the British Council.
Beyond mysteries, James wrote The Children of Men (1992), a dystopian novel about a world without children that was adapted into a critically acclaimed 2006 film. She continued writing into her nineties, publishing her final Dalgliesh novel The Private Patient in 2008.