Rating: 
Summary: She does it again!
Review: P.D. James is a fantastic writer and "Death in Holy Orders" is no exception to her long list of accomplishments. She stages the setting beautifully and the writing is so elequent that you forget (only temporarily) that it is a murder mystery. I highly recommend this book and if you are like me, you will read the last page, sigh with contentment, and read it all over again.
Rating:
Summary: She does it again!
Review: P.D. James is a fantastic writer and "Death by Holy Orders" is no exception to her long list of accomplishments. She stages the setting beautifully and the writing is so elequent that you forget (only temporarily) that it is a murder mystery. I highly recommend this book and if you are like me, you will read the last page, sigh with contentment, and read it all over again.
Rating:
Summary: Dalgleish Returns!
Review: It has been some considerable time since P. D. James has written an Adam Dalgleish mystery. The last, I believe, was "A Certain Justice." For some reason I had trouble with that novel. I bought "Death in Holy Orders" when it came out, but let it languish on my shelf for a while before diving in.When I finally started reading the new novel I realized that I had entirely forgotten what an accomplished writer James really is. Her ability to create vivid and believable plots, settings and characters really is remarkable. Capable of extreme power when she needs to call upon it, James is not a lighthearted writer. But neither is her style oppressive or exhausting. Commander Adam Dalgleish, her detective, is a character painted with considerable sensitivity. He is an unusual character for a policeman, sober and philosophical. His avocation is writing poetry, at which he has enjoyed considerable success. The death of his wife at an early age, and the nature of his job gives him with a poignancy which perfectly balances the tragic nature of the crimes he investigates. When a theological student at St. Anselm's College is found buried under a sandfall, his father is not satisfied with the finding of accidental death by the Suffolk police. Adam Dalgleish is asked to look into the crime. He had spent several summers at St. Anselm's and so was familiar with the setting. Although unable to form any conclusion about the boy's death, Dalgleish is struck by many coincidental events and is not totally satisfied. Margaret Munroe, a nurse and attendant at the school, dies of apparently natural causes, but the death prevents Dalgleish from following up some important evidence. St Anselm's is facing closure as the result of the Episcopalian Church's need to consolidate its theological training. The holdings of the school are quite valuable, and an unusual will makes the disposition of these artifacts is a bone of great contention between Archdeacon Crampton, who represents the diocese and Father Sebastion, who heads St. Anselm's. There are few in the school who have reason to like the Archdeacon. He sent one of the clergymen to prison for sexual misconduct on trumped up charges. A local policeman in retreat at the school suffered disciplinary action when he investigated Crampton's complicity in the death of his first wife. Several students were vehemently antagonistic to the Archdeacon's behavior. When Archdeacon Crampton is found horribly murdered before the altar of St Anselm's church it comes as no surprise. Dalgleish takes over the case with his regular squad, and quickly determines that the crime must have been committed by one of the school's residents. Sensing a subtle mind at work, the commander is faced with a complex investigation full of contradictory clues and intuitions. For all the time that P. D. James lovingly puts into the details of setting and characterization, "Death in Holy Orders" is hardly slow paced. I found myself quickly drawn in and it was a great struggle to put down the book the few times I was able. Dalgleish's introspection keeps the plot from becoming shallow, providing a satisfactory experience at many levels. The will be a serious contender for mystery story of the year.
Rating: 
Summary: A Lot of Holy Smoke
Review: Ms. James is too fond of overwhelming us with her knowledge of words -- a virtual torrent, to tell a thin story. I like most of her work but "Death in Holy Orders" was not one of the best. Some of the characters appeared to be a collection of ideas she had lying around and decided to pack into this book, in case it was her last. And how come Commandere Dalgleish didn't have an expert look into the computers at the place? Mightn't this have helped track down the writer of the letter that set the whole thing off?
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but a little tired.
Review: The two mystery writers at the top of the pack are, in my view, Tony Hillerman and P.D. James. This book had all the virtures of James -- intelligent plot, well-drawn characters, interesting setting -- but still missed fire just a bit. There were too many bodies for one thing. One should be sufficient for a good mystery. I counted five in this one and that seems a cheap way to prolong and complicate a plot. The detective, Daghleish, seemed a little tired. The bodies are showing up by the bucketful and he just keeps on plodding along as if he were investigating dead tomato plants instead of dead humans. Where's his outrage? Or at least his concern about the damage being caused his reputation by an investigation that stimulates carnage rather than preventing it. This is a good book, but a little too restrained and unemotional.
Rating:
Summary: Strong, Character-Driven Novel
Review: A rich stew of contradictory characters, DITHO involves readers not merely with its intricately rendered and intimately illuminated mystery but with its level of personal and physical detail and description. Dalgliesh remains the contemporary mystery novel's most fully realized detective--a brooding, solitary man, questioning his isolation from the world.
Rating: 
Summary: A very dull story.
Review: Anyone that considers PD James the top British mystery writer has obviously never read anything from Colin Dexter. This story had great potential, but the combination of dull characters and a very slow pacing put an end to those hopes. James bogs down the first third of the story with background and detail overkill. When the story finally does get moving the charters involved are very dull and I really had to force myself to finish it. Better editing could have saved this story, but as with many of todays writers James tries to stretch a 200 page story into 400 pages with disasterous results.
Rating:
Summary: Death in Holy Orders
Review: P.D. James has written sixteen books prior to Death in Holy Orders and fourteen of them are fictional mysteries. She is the reigning queen of the British murder mystery. Many of her books have a religious theme. This one is set in a seminary on the bleak coast of East Anglia. It features Commander Adam Dalgliesh, well known to her readers and also from the "Mystery" series on PBS. James is a master of the plot, but her strength is in developing the characters and making them become real. In this book, the murderer becomes known some time before the ending, but the book is so well crafted that it is only a minor flaw in an otherwise brilliant work.
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Summary: The Dame Can Write!
Review: In this 11th outing, Adam Dagliesh is requested by his superior to unofficially investigate the death of a MP's son at a theological school where Dagliesh had spent his summers in his youth. While he's there, there are two more deaths. Are they connected? Who would kill someone at a school for Anglican priests? Dame James is, once again, in top form. She is one of the few writers of mysteries today who seems to have a love affair with words. Those of you who like your mysteries terse and short should avoid this. But for those of you who love well-written procedurals from a writer who knows how to use the language, don't miss this one!
Rating:
Summary: Hopefully Not The End
Review: Even though she has turned 80 Baroness James keeps writing top notch detective fiction. Hopefully, she still has one or even two more Dalgliesh novels in her, because this series has always been top notch. The only problem I have ever had with this series is that there has never really been a full-scale development of Dalgliesh's character(compare the painstaking development of the Lynley character in the Elizabeth George series). But, in this novel, we at least get more of a glimpse into Dalgliesh. One quibble, though, is that since she started this series, I believe, in the mid 50's, and Dalgliesh was probably already in his 30's at the time, it is hard to think of him as a fortyish or even fiftyish, virile guy.
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