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The Black Tower P. D. JAMES

P. D. JAMES IS “the greatest living mystery writer” (People)

Just recovered from a grave illness, Commander Adam Dalgliesh receives a call for advice from the elderly chaplain at Toynton Grange, an isolated nursing home on the coast of England. But by the time Dalgliesh arrives, it is only to discover that his friend Father Baddeley has mysteriously died, as has one of the patients.

When the bodies begin to pile up, Dalgliesh once again finds his own life at risk as he determines to get to the truth behind his friend’s death and unmask the terrible evil at the heart of Toynton Grange.

“The ability to haunt has earned P. D. James the title ‘queen of crime.’ Long may she reign.”

—CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

“Any ranking of today’s best crime writers would surely put Britain’s P. D. James at or near the top.”

—THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

P. D. JAMES is the author of twenty books, most of which have been filmed for television. Before her retirement in 1979, she served in the forensics and criminal justice departments of Great Britain’s Home Office, and she has been a magistrate and a governor of the BBC. The recipient of many prizes and honors, she was created Baroness James of Holland Park in 1991. In 2000, she celebrated her eightieth birthday and published her autobiography, Time to Be in Earnest.

Praise for The Black Tower

“A masterpiece.”

—The London Sunday Times

“Intriguing, suspenseful, full of strange twists … you’ll love this one!”

—Nashville Banner

“In the heroic tradition of Agatha Christie.”

—Times Literary Supplement

Praise for P. D. James

“Mystery writers often deploy stereotypes in similar ways—but not P. D. James. She gives her people fully rounded life, never sacrificing character to plot, and makes deft fun of conversation.”

—Newsweek

“Ms. James is simply a wonderful writer.”

—The New York Times Book Review

“If we’re lucky, there will always be an England and there will always be a P. D. James.”

—Cosmopolitan

“One reads a P. D. James novel in something like the spirit that one reads a novel by Zola, Balzac, Thackeray, or Dickens.”

—The Christian Science Monitor

“James delivers the pace and tensions of a mystery yarn better than any other living writer.”

—People

“P. D. James … writes the most lethal, erudite, people-complex novels of murder and detection since Michael Innes first began and Dorothy Sayers left us.”

—Vogue

“The best practitioner of the mystery novel writing today.”

—The Boston Globe

ALSO BY P. D. JAMES

The Private Patient

The Lighthouse

The Murder Room

Death in Holy Orders

Time to Be in Earnest: A Fragment of Autobiography

A Certain Justice

Original Sin

The Children of Men