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The Lighthouse P.D. James

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The Lighthouse

P.D. James

The Lighthouse P.D. James A secure and secluded retreat for the rich and powerful becomes the setting for an unsettling series of murders.Combe Island off the Cornish coast is a restful haven for the elite. But when one of its distinguished visitors is found hanging from the island’s famous lighthouse in what appears to have been a murder, the peace is shattered. Commander is called in to handle the sensitive case, but at a difficult time for him and his depleted team. He is uncertain about his future with his girlfriend Emma Lavenham; his principle detective Kate Miskin is going through an emotional crisis; and the ambitious Sergeant Francis Benton-Smith is not happy about having a female boss. After a second brutal killing, the whole investigation is jeopardized, and Dalgliesh is faced with a danger even more insidious than murder.

The Lighthouse Details

Date : Published October 10th 2006 by Vintage (first published November 22nd 2005) ISBN : 9780307275738 Author : P.D. James Format : Paperback 400 pages Genre : Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Detective

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From Reader Review The Lighthouse for online ebook

Elisa says

There were so many factors that added to my dislike of this book: I couldn't stand any of the characters, and the only passable one got very little lime light; the romantic scenes were so tacked on; I found the writing excessively descriptive and contrived to the point that I started ignoring the narrator wishing they'd shut up; the plot was not well paced and all of the vital action took place in the first and last 100 pages (making 200+ superfluous); and the qualifying of all female professionals just incensed my feminist sensibilities.

I hate disliking books but this was a difficult one to finish. This is my second PD James, although my first Dalgliesh mystery, and I don't think I'll be coming back. I just don't like James' writing style or the intense caste system that is foundational to this story. Perhaps forcing myself back into the mystery genre with my class didn't allow me to approach this book with the normal excitement I usually would, but I was happy to finally finish it.

Jim Bowen says

The Lighthouse, by PD James isn't a book that those who want realism in their crime stories will like.

It's set on an island off the British coast that the "well to do" use as a retreat from their stressful (but "terribly correct") lives. When a prize winning author is found hanging in the lighthouse on the island, the police, in the shape of Adam Dalgliesh and his merry band of men, are called in to solve the case.

I've read worse books. I've read worse crime books in fact, but this one didn't grab me. I come from a fairly well to do background, but I didn't recognise the people in this book. They're all about "correctness," "show," and how they present themselves to the world, and after a while this really starts to get on my wick. It shouldn't but it did.

My irritation over the suspects wasn't helped by the fact that Dalgliesh (a senior officer) is too sensitive by half. I've never particularly fond the idea of a poetry writing detective, but the more I read of him, the more I just want to yell "Get over yourself and get on with the crime bit of the story."

My other criticism is that it takes a long time for anything to happen. We're told early that something's coming but it took almost 200 pages (of 466) to get there, and I'm sorry, but I found that beyond irritating.

Jon says

I was a great fan of P.D. James long ago when she was the latest thing and she seemed far more erudite than her rivals. But gradually I lost interest as her writing became more turgid, pompous, and needlessly detailed. My wife recommended that I try this one, but James put me off from the first sentence. Could this be self- parody? "Commander Adam Dalgliesh was not unused to being urgently summoned to non-scheduled meetings with unspecified people at inconvenient times, but usually with one purpose in common: he could be confident that somewhere there lay a dead body awaiting his attention." Brevity and clarity were apparently not the goals here. Most of the action takes place on a small island off the southwest coast of England, an island that James describes in detail three times in the first 100 pages. But when I tried to draw a

PDF File: The Lighthouse... 3 Read and Download Ebook The Lighthouse... map, (she did not provide one) I ran into multiple inconsistencies. The murder victim is found hanging from a lighthouse, the outside of which James describes twice as having "concave" walls. I have trouble picturing this. Perhaps she means that the lighthouse is slimmer half-way up than at the bottom or top. The victim is suspended by a rope around the neck, a rope twice described as being tied with a bowline. When the body is lowered to the ground, the rope is removed (again described twice) by loosening the loop around the neck. But a bowline is a knot specifically used because it doesn't slip. It was at this point, 138 pages in, that I gave up.

Clare says

Listened to in audio format.

The Lighthouse is the 13th book in the Commander Dalgleish series.

I found this story hard to get into at first and had to rewind to the beginning and listen again.

A.D. and his team Kate Misken and Francis Benton-Smith go to a retreat called Coombe Island to investigate the death of author Nathan Oliver. Nathan was not a popular man and had many enemies on the Island including a priest called Adrian Boyd. Boyd was a recovering alcoholic until Oliver persuaded him try a drink so he could study the effects for a character he was writing about. Guest Dr Yelland was also angry with Oliver for writing a nasty character in his book Yelland believed was based on himself.

A.D. catches SARS from guest Dr Speidel and ends up in quarantine leaving Misken and Benton Smith to catch the killer. Fiancee Emma Lavenham is only in the background in this story until the final chapter.

The Lighthouse was not on par with The Murder Room or but enjoyable non the less. Plenty of suspects to get your teeth into and dark secrets galore.

Laura says

Combe Island, na costa da Cornualha, tem uma história sangrenta de pirataria e crueldade. Agora pertence a um respeitável fundo privado e serve de refúgio para personagens importantes em busca de sossego e segurança. Mas o passado parece assombrar a ilha quando um dos hóspedes aparece morto, vítima de um assassinato com características muito estranhas, que parecem apontar em direções contraditórias e confundem as investigações.

4* An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (Cordelia Gray, #1) 4* The Skull Beneath The Skin (Cordelia Gray, #2) 4* 3*

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TR Death in Pemberley

Adam Dalgliesh series: 4* Cover Her Face (Adam Dalgliesh, #1) 4* A Mind to Murder (Adam Dalgliesh, #2) 4* Unnatural Causes (Adam Dalgliesh, #3) 5* Shroud for a Nightingale (Adam Dalgliesh, #4) 5* (Adam Dalgliesh, #5) 5* Death of an Expert Witness (Adam Dalgliesh, #6) 5* A Taste for Death (Adam Dalgliesh, #7) 3* (Adam Dalgliesh, #8) 5* A Certain Justice (Adam Dalgliesh, #10) 4* Death in Holy Orders (Adam Dalgliesh, #11) 4* The Murder Room (Adam Dalgliesh, #12) 3* The Lighthouse (Adam Dalgliesh, #13) 3* (Adam Dalgliesh, #14) TR Original Sin (Adam Dalgliesh, #9)

Kirsty says

This is the thirteenth novel in the Dalgliesh series, and the second which I've read. Whilst I enjoy James on the whole, her strongest books as far as I'm concerned are the two in the Cordelia Gray series, which should have been expanded. Regardless, I do not perceive James as a crime author in the vein of Agatha Christie and Edmund Crispin, where I very much want to read their entire oeuvres. Whilst I rated The Lighthouse three stars, I found quite a large portion of the novel rather dull, and will be putting the series to bed accordingly.

The crime itself and its motives were rather interesting, but the novel felt so drawn out that entire chapters were superfluous to the whole. Many of them deal with the minutiae of the characters; development on this scale I am fine with, but not at the expense of the story. There are very few twists and hooks in The Lighthouse, and I have come away feeling rather disappointed.

Colin Mitchell says

Commander Dalgliesh, Insp. Miskin and Sgt Benton-Smith have a tricky case of murder on a remote island off the coast of Cornwall. Nathan Oliver was a well known author and had been found strangled and hanging over the edge of a lighthouse. There is a catalogue of complex relationship among the quests and permanent residents and a number of apparently connected leads from events in the past.

The expected delightful description does help to disguise the somewhat thin plot. The perpetrator seemed quit obvious but in the end the actual deduction was rather abrupt. The perpetrator rather played into the teams hands. Nevertheless a good read.

S.C. Skillman says

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P.D. James's scrupulous examination of this closed community of characters rivetted me. The phrase "late- night page-turner" has never been more accurately used. This is a novelist who compels you to overcome tiredness, as you read through to the end. In the character of Nathan Oliver she challenges us with the chilling juxtaposition of a brilliant novelist and an unpleasant, universally-disliked personality. James is masterful in her use of the murder mystery device upon which to hang her examination of a group of people in a closed community - all but one we know to be innocent yet every character behaves in ways that make them seem guilty. I loved the clever twist which came when I thought, "Hang on, Dalgleish is the main protagonist but he's out of the action with a dreaded disease!" And yet the breakthough came though him and precisely because of his being in enforced solitude and contemplation. P.D. James ia a master of many things, but I can single out the pacing and the intensity of the terrifying confrontation with the killer near the end.

Mizuki says

DNF-ed@page 50.

P. D. James is praised as the New Queen of Murder, but honestly...I just can't get myself through the first 50 pages...these first 50 pages do not even both to show us much of the main players in this murder mystery, and I have absolutely no interest in the MC, Adam Dalgliesh, he and his voice in this story is so fucking boring. Will return this book to the library tomorrow!

Hannah says

Rating Clarification: 3.5 Stars

Very engaging police procedural by P.D. James. The thing I most enjoyed about this one was the setting (an island off the Cornish coast) and the fact that it was a "locked-room" murder mystery. James has a very easy to read writing style that keeps the pages turning. I also like the fact that even though her books are part of a series, they can still be read as stand-alones by readers (like myself) who pick up a book out of series order.

Good series, good mysteries, good stuff all 'round.

Rebecca says

I found this latest installment in the Dalgliesh series rather cold and disjointed. James' usual skill at plotting is in evidence, but perhaps because I haven't read the two or three before this one, I found myself uninterested in the personal lives of most of the characters. The prose is always poetic in a particularly English reserved kind of way, but usually I find the people endearing, especially Adam and Kate. For some reason, in this book, I could not bring myself to care much what happened to their emotional lives.

The murder plot is laid out well, with a couple genuinely unexpected turns. (I was relieved, actually--there's a hint on the jacket flap of one of the twists that doesn't actually spoil anything. But I put it together with an off-hand comment early on that made me wonder if one of the old villains was going to come leaping out of the shadows three quarters of the way through, which would have pissed me off to no end. Fortunately, I was

PDF File: The Lighthouse... 6 Read and Download Ebook The Lighthouse... overthinking things and the twist was unexpected and entirely appropriate.)

I just never really cared about any of the suspects. Most of them were rather unsympathetic in one way or another. It's a perfectly well-written mystery, but I couldn't help but feel that it was missing that spark that makes you care emotionally about the fate of the characters instead of merely trying to solve the puzzle. As I've previously enjoyed many of James' novels, I was disappointed that this did not rise above the level of average.

Helena (Renchi King) says

?etiri plus zvjezdice za ovaj klasik.Nakon mnogobrojnih krvavih,psihoti?nih,brutalnih i pedofilskih romana,ovaj do?e kao odmor za ljubitelje ovog žanra. Lagana radnja.Ubojstvo na izoliranom otoku za VIP goste, podsje?a me malo na romane Agathe Christie.. Sve onako fino,lagano u stilu "tko bi mogao biti ubojica"..Majstorski odra?eno,mrvicu previše odugovla?enja za uvodni dio. Uživala! P.D James je doista prava dama krimi?a:)

Sandy *The world could end while I was reading and I would never notice* says

4.5* A secure and secluded island retreat for the rich and powerful becomes the setting for the murder of an author who is a regular visitor to the island. Commander Adam Dalgliesh is called in to handle the sensitive case, but soon falls victim to an infective illness that has also felled one of the island's other visitors, so is forced to hand the case over to his principle detective Kate Miskin and the ambitious Sergeant Francis Benton-Smith. Can they identify the killer before there is another death? Or is this to be the undoing of Kate's career?

This was an absolutely lovely read. PD James is brilliant at setting the mood; she has a wonderful mastery of the English language and her characters are rounded and largely enchanting while being very human, although there were several in this book that I didn't particularly like. There are several threads running through this story, which all tie together nicely at the end without resorting to the dreaded "happy ever after" ending.

Smitha says

P D James is one of my favorite mystery authors, and this book substantiated the same. All elements of a cozy mystery are there - a closed room mystery, here portrayed by the death by hanging of a renouned but not very well liked author, while relaxing in a reclusive private island with limited access, accompanied by his secretary and daughter. There are barely a dozen or so people living in the island, and all fall under suspicion when murder is confirmed after autopsy. Adam Dalgleish and his closely knot group of detectives are called upon. Thereafter we follow the personal lives of suspects as well as detectives on the cozy island, with intricate descriptions of scenery and objects. Absolutely enjoyed this one.

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Elinor says

I can only assume that the less-than-glowing reviews of The Lighthouse must mean that some readers are holding the great P.D. James to a higher standard than other crime writers. This may not be one of her best, but even a mediocre mystery by this creator of the unforgettable Adam Dalgleish is better than most others in print. Consider that she was eighty-four years old at the time of publication, and her efforts are even more remarkable. I found the reveal a wee bit rushed, and the villain not as finely portrayed as I would have wished, but it was still a very enjoyable read.

Blurb says

Love PD James and obviously she's a great writer, but her books (even though nominally set in the present day) always seem very old-fashioned to me. I feel like you could have almost a PD James drinking game around everything that doesn't seem like it belongs in this century. Like...

Take a sip every time someone:

* Writes a letter * Eats a home cooked meal (have two sips if it's made by an actual personal cook) * Employs a maid, laundress, butler or other personal servant * Talk about something that happened during WWII (two sips if it's something secret and dangerous that happened during WWII, three sips if this secret is the key to solving the mystery)

Bionic Jean says

The Lighthouse is the 13th mystery novel by P.D. James to feature her detective Adam Dalgliesh. The penultimate one in the series, it was published in 2005.

This particular novel brings to mind much earlier ones featuring Dalgleish, such as "The Black Tower" from 1975, where the action takes place on a Dorset hilltop, or the even earlier 1971 novel, "Shroud for a Nightingale", set in a student nursing school. P.D. James usually chooses fascinating locations for her novels. One such location is Larksoken, the setting for her novel "Devices and Desires". Set in a nuclear power station on an isolated Norfolk headland on the East Anglian coast, this novel typically lends itself to exploring wider, perhaps darker, issues. Sometimes the settings are identifiable, although in The Lighthouse the island described is very much like Lundy Island.

All such novels hinge on a favourite device of the author's; a murder which takes place in a closed, almost inaccessible community. In this case, the community is located on an island 12 miles off the north coast of Cornwall. Here, stressed high-level executives were sometimes admitted for recuperation and seclusion. No ordinary holiday destination, "Combe Island" had at one time been a pirates' lair, then a privately owned estate, and had now been taken over and was governed by a charitable trust. Those who visited this high- security retreat, often did so in strict secrecy.

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At the start of the book, what appeared to be a murder had taken place on the island, and Adam Dalgleish is being briefed about it. The famous novelist Nathan Oliver was the victim, and although he had been discovered hanging from Combe island's historic lighthouse, in a position suggestive of another's involvement, it is not absolutely certain that it is not suicide. Nathan Oliver had been a very brusque and unpleasant man, unpopular with long-term residents and staff alike. However, because he had been born on the island, the conditions of the trust stipulated that he was allowed to visit whenever he liked.

After this brief introduction to the scene, we follow the three police officers who are to be involved. P.D. James carefully allows ample space in three separate chapters to detail the personal situations in the lives of each. There is Commander Dalgleish, plus his two assisting officers, Kate Miskin and newcomer Francis Benton-Smith. There is also a romantic back story at the start, with Bentons's predecessor Piers Tarrant.

The officers arrive at the island by helicopter, along with a pathologist, Dr. Edith Glenister, who is very highly regarded; an expert in her field. When she confirms it is murder, the detectives begin to try to sort out the threads of what has happened.

Nathan Oliver had been accompanied on his visit to Combe Island by both his daughter Miranda and his copy-editor, Dennis Tremlett. Each of these individuals has their own complicated history - and is also hiding a secret. The manager of the trust, and therefore the coordinator of this little community, is Rupert Maycroft. We quickly discover that he is under pressure from two sides, both of whom wish to live in the best cottage. The cottage is currently inhabited by the sole remaining member of the family who had owned the island for many years, but Nathan Oliver had been pushing to replace the current occupant himself.

Each of the guests have reason to feel dislike - or even outright enmity - for Nathan Oliver. The manager's secretary Adrian Boyde, for instance, used to be an Anglican priest. He seems to be under a cloud, and the readers and the police suspect that he is a recovering alcoholic. As the novel progresses, we learn more about Nathan Oliver's malevolent influence. Another guest who has reason to fear and dislike Nathan Oliver is a scientist, Dr. Mark Yelland, who believes that an evil character in Oliver's latest novel is a thinly veiled description of him. He feels this to be a gross distortion of the truth. Not only that, but he fears it is likely to inflame the Animal Rights activists, who had already been very critical of him publicly, and he now has real concerns for his reputation. He had confronted Nathan Oliver in full view of all the community, shortly before Oliver's death.

The permanent residents of Combe Island too have had their own arguments with Nathan Oliver. Jago Tamlyn, the boatman, is a taciturn individual, but clearly has had past dealings with him. Daniel Padgett is a handyman who came to the island with his mother who also worked there. He plans to leave the island as she has recently died. However, he incurs Oliver's wrath, after a simple mistake. Just as with the other characters the other guests feel nonplussed at Oliver's extreme reaction of anger.

Nathan Oliver's behaviour - both in the past and more recently - tends to disgust everybody, with one sole exception. There is a young staff member, Millie Tranter, who seems to have liked him. This in itself seems odd to the others, especially the housekeeper, who suspects ulterior motives on Oliver's part. However, all are equally adamant that they did not kill Nathan Oliver, or know anything about it. One other character arrives late on the scene, having been exploring the island on his own and therefore being difficult to track down. The eminent Dr. Raimund Speidel is visiting from Germany. However, it becomes clear during Dalgleish's interview that he is very ill, and is soon under strict medical attention.

Everything is nicely set up for an intriguing mystery, and sure enough the second half includes a secondary murder, and from then on escalates into a gripping drama. A long-forgotten mystery from history, a tale of betrayal and deep resentment, reveals the reasons for what happened. To pile on the suspense, one of the officers falls gravely ill, in itself a life-threatening risk in such a remote location. This character is unable to complete the work, although they are working out the puzzle in their mind. Another excels in a situation they

PDF File: The Lighthouse... 9 Read and Download Ebook The Lighthouse... have not experienced before. There is an extremely tense and exciting edge-of-the-seat scene towards the end, cleverly written by this experienced author. And we have a happy ending of an unexpected type.

P.D. James excels at this type of mystery novel, which never incorporates any humorous elements. Unlike novels by some other authors in the genre, there is never any flippancy in her stories. Murder is always a serious business. She is adept at carefully balancing the back story of her characters, and the action, so that the reader never becomes frustrated at the lack of plot. She involves her readers, fleshing out her picture of the detectives we know and love, moving them forward in their lives from previous novels. But she also manages to explore depths in her new characters, going into meticulous detail about each character's past. These are never cardboard cutouts, or puppets carefully arranged to move the plot forward. P.D. James makes her readers interested in the lives of those individuals specific to the current novel too.

In this way she could be said to write "crossover" novels, which could be considered to be mainstream. Yet she never forgets that what she is writing is a "whodunnit". Unlike the current trend for lengthy novels in which the murder is almost incidental, her novels have a sound crime focus.

The structure P.D James employs is satisfying and pleasing. She employs a formal pattern, first thoroughly introducing the detectives. The suspects then come forward in turn, as both the reader and the detectives carefully analyse all the clues and motives to the murder. P.D James has said that this rigid form, typical of a traditional "golden age" detective novel, sets the writer's imagination free, in a similar way to the 14 lines and strict rhyming sequence of a sonnet. It has to be said that there are other similarities to "golden age" mysteries. Adam Dalgleish is very much in the gentleman detective mould, his penchant for writing poetry and intellectual proclivities being reminiscent of Dorothy L. Sayers' cerebral Lord Peter Wimsey. It is interesting too, that both novelists confessed to being in love with their creations. But the language P.D. James uses is never dated.

Sadly P.D. James died in 2014. She had started her career in the forensics and criminal justice departments of Great Britain's Home Office, and applied her specialist knowledge to her crime novels. Although the 1980's was the decade when her books were memorably best-sellers, it is good to know that she was still able to create such a devious mystery at the grand age of 85.

Carol ?? says

3 & a half stars.

I Googled PD James when I was nearly finished this novel & found she was 84 when it was published. 84! I promise that this isn't going to be the start of rugby analogies in my reviews (I hate rugby) but this is like Colin Meads getting on the field for the current All Blacks & playing a creditable game. No longer at his legendary best, but not being laughed off the field.

But I feel that age & past glories can't be allowed for in reviews & this was one slow moving book. I liked the discussions of the complex relationships between Dalgleish & his staff, but not Kate debating whether to use a cell phone or a landline to ring Emma!

& a pet peeve of mine is when characters carry on with their day to day actions or are really rude while being interviewed by police. For example this interaction between Kate & a suspect;

Kate said, “Good morning. We'd like a word.” “Then make it brief.” He added, “No offence but I'm busy.”

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I can understand TV programmes (“The Bill & “Without a Trace” come to mind) having characters carrying on with their day to day activities, as watching talking heads would get boring after a while – just don't see the need for it in a book.

A thrilling finale to the book, so I have bumped the rating up half a star.

John says

On a remote island off the coast of Southwest England, used as a getaway by the influential, the famous novelist Nathan Oliver is found one morning murdered -- hanged from the topmost railing of the island's fastidiously restored lighthouse. Since there were fewer than a dozen people on the island at the time, and since it's unlikely anyone could have come ashore secretly, the task of solving the murder would seem a simple one for Alan Dalglish and his crew. Yet lots of old coals have to be raked over, and a great deal of James's cumbersome prose negotiated, before the fairly unsurprising solution is revealed. There's plenty of clumsy dialogue, too, of the "You know all this already but I'm going to tell it to you anyway" variety. Aside from a rock-climbing sequence that's genuinely suspenseful, events just sort of . . . lumber on. Even so, the book's moderately enjoyable; just a shame that all the time I was reading it I was thinking it could have been done far better at half the length. kostas vamvoukakis says

µετ? υπ?θεση.. αδι?φοροι χαρακτ?ρες... ωρα?ο σκηνικ?... αποτ?λεσµα...µετριο

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