Faber & Faber

Review in the Daily Telegraph:

'Last week, Ian Rankin and P. D. James "hit out" - as the tabloids have it - at the reluctance of the literary establishment to treat crime writing and other genres as "real" literature. "Genre writing at its best can stand with any good straight novel," said James. "It can tell you more about life today than more 'prestigious' novels."

She and Rankin have a point. Crime writing is often accused of being artificial, and yet one wonders why. As with many novels, a complex plot is required, but take away a plot from a novel and you find yourself in the drearier reaches of magical realism. 

Then, too, a crime thriller is dependent upon a set number of characters, but a group of people brought together because of a murder is no more artificial than, say, Jane Austen's preferred cast list of "three or four families in a country village". Is it possibly because the crime novel is often based upon certainties - upon the principles that good and evil exist and that justice will prevail - that has caused the sophisticated to dismiss the genre as unliterary?

How fortuitous, then, that The Lighthouse should land on my desk. It is P. D. James's thirteenth book featuring Adam Dalgliesh and ticks many of the boxes mentioned above.

Dalgliesh is called in to investigate the suspicious death of a writer, Nathan Oliver, on Combe Island, off the coast of Cornwall. Under the terms of a charitable trust, the island is used as a retreat for distinguished men and women to get away from the rigours of their professional lives. True to form, the island is impregnable, so only one of 15 people could have murdered Oliver - the other guests on the island, the full-time residents and the staff.

True to form, virtually everybody on Combe had a motive to kill Oliver, who was cold, self-absorbed and manipulative, a man who could only observe emotion and its effects upon others, but not engage in it himself. In the previous few days he had vented his fury on his daughter, Miranda, and her secret lover, Denys Tremlett, on the handyman, Dan Padgett and on another guest, Dr Mark Yelland, a vivisectionist in constant danger from animal rights activists who, to general consternation, has decided to exercise his right to live on Combe.

What lifts The Lighthouse out of the realm of the run-of-the-mill and gives weight to James's pleas for literary, as well as popular, recognition are her explorations of the undercurrents of hatred, jealousy, misunderstanding and self-delusion that confront Dalgliesh and his two colleagues in the sealed-off little world of Combe. With the same combination of detachment and sympathy that she gives Dalgliesh, James examines the psychological impulse that leads a man to exercise ruthless control over others; or another to allow the guilt of one failure to make him forever fearful; or another to flee one safe shelter for the infinitely safer world of Combe.

Another brutal murder occurs before the plot takes a melodramatic twist, when first one of the visitors and then Dalgliesh himself is stricken with Sars. It is a useful device to cut off the island completely but it dates the novel in a way that jars. For, though set in the present day, The Lighthouse, like the best novels, actually exists outside time.

It is a psychological exploration of a small society, where strains, disappointments and moral ambiguity can build up in a group of people, and lead one human being to kill another for reasons that are not forgiveable, though they may be understandable.

Dalgliesh, with his emotional ruthlessness and fear of commitment, could in many ways be seen as the dark, mirror reflection of Nathan Oliver.

By giving him a potentially fatal illness, James allows Dalgliesh to see that turning away from the world is itself like dying. And at the end of the novel, he has made the life-changing decision he has been shying away from for years.

His is not the only happy ending: the last few pages are of tensions gone, decisions made, conflicts resolved. It's a neat tying up of loose ends - another of the things that literary types dislike about crime novels. Strangely, it gives The Lighthouse a curiously sombre, even valedictory, feel. Have we said goodbye to Adam Dalgliesh?’

'Her disciplined social conventions, her observations of social and class niceties, renew the traditional Franco-British drama of domestic crime. She is a very superior writer of detection.’ Times Literary Supplement

‘The most elegant and ingenious crime novels around, featuring her saturnine and cultivated copper, Adam Dalgliesh.’ Publishing News

‘P. D. James is a real writer and a highly intelligent one. Her characters are varied, multi-faceted and wholly credible and she is demonstrably interested in everything, including what makes the modern world tick. The Lighthouse is the Baroness on top form and you will love it.’ Spectator

‘To say the that P. D. James is a skilled exponent of the "closed community" mystery is like calling caviar blini a fish paste sandwich ... she is unique in her ability to create an intelligent crime story which is also extremely perceptive about human nature ... The book’s strengths, as always with James, lie in her consummate characterisation ... beautifully satisfying and will delight her many fans. Few can match her skills.’ Yorkshire Post

‘Nobody does the classic crime novel better than P. D. James; indeed, nobody does it half as well ... James remains as careful, honest and ingenious a constructor of plots as ever ... The Lighthouse is a novel of character, not just a puzzle. This is what makes James so satisfying a writer ... Serious and marvellously done.’ Allan Massie, The Scotsman

‘Throughout her career she has always been the supreme practitioner of the traditional whodunit, and that is what she has once again produced in The Lighthouse ... a traditional whodunit ... but a multi-layered and sharply contemporary version, demonstrating P. D. James at her finest.’ Daily Mail

‘She writes extremely good, intelligent prose ... Her characters, even the minor ones, are scrupulously presented as individuals; never mere puppets, the are rounded and contrasted. And she looks clear-eyed at life with its perplexities and disillusionments.’ The Tablet

‘James has proved that she deserves her reputation as our leading "literary" crime writer.’  Express

‘The strong cast of suspects and victims combined with a vivid sense of place make for a compelling read.’ Wales on Sunday

‘The leading lady of British crime is back.’ Good Book Guide

‘The great thing about P. D. James is that the writing is so accomplished, her crime novels could equally be read as straightforward novels. Not that “straightforward” is a good description of any of her books.  For part of her tremendous skill lies in weaving underlying stories into the main plot ... gripping reading.’ Leicester Mercury

‘The Lighthouse is a whodunit which takes murder seriously; this writer never lets her readers forget that death is no joke. The earnest viewpoint is combined with playful use of the conventions of the mystery game, a formal pattern in which suspects come forward in turn, as the detectives scrupulously consider a series of clues and motives ... [A] bleak realism underlies P. D. James’s work too, enriches it and makes it memorable. Long may she reign.’ Guardian

‘James spares no horses in this satisfying detective whodunit.’ Daily Echo (Bournemouth)

‘Formidable, classy whodunit with superior, well-pondered detective work performed impeccably ... What’s rarely remarked on by reviewers of P. D. James is the sheer hard work that goes into inventing and structuring a plot as rich and as subtle as that which usually engages the author. The Lighthouse runs true to form ... Her characterisation is ambitious and mostly spot on ... Ms James is the best of authors.' Literary Review

‘James proves yet again she’s the mistress of her craft.’ Woman & Home

‘The amazing P. D. James’s novels just seem to get better and better ... a well-rounded novel, the whole package. A sense of place with a cast of three-dimensional characters and an extremely good plot that will satisfy even the sturdiest of crime reader.' www.crimesquad.com