P.D. James

The world lost a stellar member of the crime-writing world last week. Phyllis Dorothy James, known to her many devoted followers as P.D. James, passed away on November 27th at the age of 94. Dubbed "The Queen of Crime", she was most famous for her series of detective novels featuring police commander Adam Dalgliesh. Her novels had intricate plots and psychologically complex characters. She accumulated numerous awards for the 18 crime novels produced during a writing career spanning a half-century. Seven of her mysteries were adapted for the public-television series “Mystery!” and were broadcast in Britain and the United States. Her last novel, “Death Comes to Pemberley” (2011), is a sequel and homage to Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” and was adapted for a television mini-series in Britain in 2013.

If you're not familiar with James' works, here are a few titles to get you started reading this marvelous author.
A Taste For Death
Commander Adam Dalgliesh investigates the throat-slash murders, in a London Church, of Sir Paul Berowne, former Minister of State, and a tramp named Harry Mack, murders that lead Dalgliesh onto surprising English pathways.
The Private Patient
When investigative journalist Rhoda Gradwyn turns up dead after seeing renowned plastic surgeon George Chandler-Powell for a routine surgical procedure, Commander Adam Dalgliesh is called in to investigate. The last in the Adam Dalgliesh series.
The Children of Men
The human race has become infertile, and the last generation to be born is now adult. Civilization itself is crumbling as suicide and despair become commonplace. Oxford historian Theodore Faron, apathetic toward a future without a future, spends most of his time reminiscing. Then he is approached by Julian, a bright, attractive woman who wants him to help get her an audience with his cousin, the powerful Warden of England. She and her band of unlikely revolutionaries may just awaken his desire to live . . . and they may also hold the key to survival for the human race.
Death Comes to Pemberley
P.D. James has based this novel on Pride and prejudice, written by Jane Austen, and upon the characters within it. Six years after her marriage, Elizabeth Darcy is happily living with her husband and two sons at Pemberley, when, after the end of their annual autumn ball, an uninvited guest arrives in a chaise from the woods surrounding the estate screaming that her husband has been murdered, thereby shattering Elizabeth's peaceful life.