Original Sin

By P. D. James,

Book cover of Original Sin

Book description

Now a major Channel 5 series

'The Queen of Crime.' New York Times

The Peverell Press, a two-hundred-year-old publishing firm housed in a dramatic mock-Venetian palace on the Thames, is certainly ripe for change. But the proposals of its ruthlessly ambitious new managing director, Gerard Etienne, have made him dangerous…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep the lights on. Or join the rebellion as a member.

Why read it?

2 authors picked Original Sin as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This was the book that turned me on to crime fiction, a genre I had always previously spurned. Why should anyone want to read about crime, I’d thought. Isn’t there enough of it in real life anyway?

Then, on my honeymoon in St Lucia, I was staying with my new wife in a magical villa full of books I’d never read. I picked this one up because it was about a publishing house, which reminded me of several I knew as an author. Right from the off, I was drawn in by James’s superb characters and wonderful descriptions. Then the…

I need crime novels to have a good backstory–characters that grip me beyond the murder, burglary, or kidnapping. The setting of this story, in the world of publishing in a building on the bank of the River Thames, fulfills everything I could want.

As a detective, Adam Dalgliesh is intriguing; he is highly respected but intensely private, a published poet who lives alone in a flat overlooking the river, all of which made me want to know more about the man, as well as the crime he has to solve. 

Want books like Original Sin?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 45 books like Original Sin.

Browse books like Original Sin

Book cover of Rivers of London
Book cover of Green for Danger
Book cover of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,081

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in police, London, and presidential biography?

Police 256 books
London 863 books