Original Sin. A Dalgliesh Mystery. [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

The hushed mock-Venetian halls of England's oldest publishing house reek of secrets. Why did senior editor commit suicide in the archives office? And who decided to kill the managing director in the same place -- or was his death a suicide also? Adam Dalgliesh and Kate Miskin will find out, but how many more deaths will there be before all the secrets see the light of day? -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

Like a poet committed to sonnets in an age of free verse, P. D. James continues to show the younger, more rambunctious crime writers (Hiaasen, Dibdin, Ellroy) that there's still some life left in the classical detective story. Of course, it helps when the sleuth injecting most of that life is the inimitable, ever-suave Adam Dalgleish, critically acclaimed poet and Scotland Yard commander. Both of Dalgleish's vocations come into play here, at least tangentially, as the murders in question take place at one of London's oldest publishing houses, Peverell Press, located on the banks of the Thames in a Venetian-style mansion called, ironically, Innocent House. A slumping frontlist is the least of the problems at this once-distinguished press: its senior staff is being bumped off faster than a copy editor can blue-pencil a dangling participle. James has created a classic country-house mystery here, with the house transported to the city and the five partners at Peverell Press taking the roles of the landed gentry. One of the surviving four, after the managing director turns up dead, is clearly a killer, and James expertly constructs believable scenarios that might convict any of them. And don't forget the subplot: in this case, the personal crises of Dalgleish's two lieutenant's, Kate Miskin, choosing career over love, and Daniel Aaron, letting his ties to his family and his Jewish heritage slip away.

All the pieces of the puzzle are in place, and James plays them with careful attention to the rigors of formula, yet the novel is always more than its form, just as the best sonnets are more than 14 lines of tightly controlled rhymes. As we learn about the various suspects, we're not just building scenarios and detecting red herrings; we're also learning about people, observing their frailties, recognizing their illusions, and, above all, feeling their pain. Order is always restored at the end of a James novel, as formula requires, yet it is never without an overpowering sense of loss. Perhaps that is the real mark of James' genius and her enduring popularity in a very un-classical age: she gives us the comfort of the classical detective story, but it comes at a price, a quiet reminder that order--however we crave it--rarely penetrates the human heart. Bill Ott -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Gebundene Ausgabe .

After a quick detour into science fiction with her last novel, The Children of Men (Knopf, 1993), the venerable James returns to the genre that made her famous. In Original Sin, detective Adam Dalgliesh investigates the bizarre death of a ruthless publisher.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Gebundene Ausgabe .

Paperback edition of the latest Adam Dalgleish novel, from a crime writer whose phenomenal reputation continues to grow. Set in a London publishing house, it is a puzzle of extraordinary complexity and a portrait of a killer who is prepared to, and will, strike again. "She is a superb writer...there are passages in }Original Sin{ as striking as anything published this year" }Guardian{.

Gerard Etienne, the brilliant new managing director of the Peverell Press, is murdered, and there are many suspects - a discarded mistress, a rejected author and rebellious colleagues. Adam Dalgliesh and his team are confronted with a complex puzzle and a killer who is prepared to strike again.

Phyllis D. James (eigentlich Phyllis White), geboren 1920 in Oxford, die unter ihrem Mädchennamen schreibt, war in einer Krankenhausverwaltung tätig und war mit einem britischen Arzt verheiratet.