PD James

Tips and Resources From Your PD James Book Club Friends:

PD James once said, “With the detective story there is horror – I think one needs to make the murder realistic. But I think the main attraction isn’t the horror, it’s the puzzle, the bringing of order out of disorder.” James excelled at creating complex puzzles for her readers and detective Inspector Adam Dalgliesh to solve. Readers may also find themselves trying to figure out the enigmatic detective with a poet’s soul. Dalgliesh has joined the classic detective pantheon and has appeared in multiple television productions and also on the radio. James’ other detective creation, Cordelia Gray, is in many ways the opposite of Dalgliesh in that she’s young and inexperienced, which makes her investigations all the more challenging. James also wrote unusual standout novels such as Children of Men, her sci-fi classic depicting a world in which humans can no longer conceive, and Death Comes to Pemberley, wherein the story in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice continues but this time with a murder to solve.