The Lighthouse

By P. D. James,

Book cover of The Lighthouse

Book description

Now a major Channel 5 series

'The Queen of Crime.' New York Times

Combe Island off the Cornish coast is a restful retreat for the rich and the powerful. But the peace of the island is violated when one of its distinguished visitors is murdered.

Adam Dalgliesh is called in…

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Why read it?

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

I have always been a huge fan of PD James’s writing style, and I had the pleasure of meeting her many years ago. She told me one of her earliest memories was hearing the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty at the age of three and immediately wondering, ‘Was he pushed?’

This book was her second-to-last whodunit and is a gripping reworking of the ‘murder on an island’ theme. Her detective, Adam Dalgleish, strives to solve the mystery and unravel his own complex feelings towards his life on the mainland. As always with one of her books, I felt in safe hands…

From Alice's list on thrillers set on an island.

For the clarity and precision of her prose and its perfectly chosen words, I always enjoy PD James.

James started writing to help support herself and her children after her doctor husband returned from the war, and was disabled by mental illness and consigned to a series of psychiatric institutions. The Lighthouse is the penultimate installment of her Adam Dalgleish series.

Dalgliesh is a somewhat aloof, poetic, and intellectual Commander of the Metropolitan Police, whose first outing was in 1962. The setting of The Lighthouse is vital to the structure, pace, and engineering of the novel. 
The action takes place…

From Hugh's list on puzzling murder mysteries.

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