P. D. James: Original Sin [2005] paperback

An Adam Dalgliesh Mystery 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 enemies - a discarded mistress, a neglected and humiliated author, and rebellious colleagues and staff. When Gerard's body is discovered bizarrely desecrated, there is no shortage of suspects and Dalgliesh and his team are confronted with a puzzle of extraordinary complexity and a murderer who is prepared to strike again. 'Outstanding ...These are books to escape into, delighting in the sense that you are in safe hands, no matter how unsafe the subject.' Kate Kellaway, Observer 'An elegantly written, splendidly atmospheric and immensely satisfying mystery.' Sunday Telegraph