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Loading... The Lighthouse (Adam Dalgliesh Mysteries Book 13) (original 2005; edition 2005)by P. D. James (Author)
Work InformationThe Lighthouse by P. D. James (2005)
   No current Talk conversations about this book.  ChazziFrazz | Jan 2, 2025 |   derailer | Jan 25, 2024 |  ) jollyavis | Dec 14, 2021 | I passed it on to John who is grateful for something really unchallenging. Sends him to sleep within minutes! (  ) Ma_Washigeri | Jan 23, 2021 | http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14429511 Adam Dalgliesh is on the case. Dalgliesh is sent off to investigate a possible suicide on a remote island right when he was about to embark on a weekend with his love, Emma. He knows she understands and will not complain, and perhaps this bothers him a little. But he needs to be the one on this case, as it is a sensitive situation. Combe Island was owned by the Combe family, which eventually turned it into a haven for overworked high officials and others. It is not advertised and its temporary residents are protected from invasion of their privacy, even by workers on the island. So when one of those well-known visitors is found hanging from the lighthouse it is sensitive indeed, and rather than the local police, the island's managers call in a favor from Scotland Yard. Dalgliesh arrives by helicopter with his team: DI Kate Miskin and Sergeant Francis Benton-Smith. Benton-Smith is new to the team and Miskin is wary, does not favor him with her confidences or, on her own, discuss the case with him. The investigators interview everyone on the island, as they all had access to the victim. More than one had reason to take him out. The possibility that someone from off the island caused this apparent murder, though, is remote. The pressure is on, and it gets worse when an incident causes further difficulty and Miskin and Benton-Smith are forced to work more closely together. Will Dalgliesh's affair with Emma survive these interruptions? Will the killer or killers be found? ? A good solid tale of detection. ( ) slojudy | Sep 8, 2020 |
 "The Lighthouse" is too rooted in genre conventions to count originality as its strong suit. But it has deviousness to burn, and it also offers other enticements. It's the kind of book that boasts a wryly humorous Scrabble scene, not to mention a Scrabble-lover's vocabulary: Ms. James makes ready use of words like abseil, belay, symphysis and meiosis. It's a book that serves up figurative red herring as well as melon balls in orange sauce. Not a menu goes unmentioned.
Combe Island off the Cornish coast has a bloodstained history of piracy and cruelty but now, privately owned, it offers respite to over-stressed men and women in positions of high authority who require privacy and guaranteed security. But the peace of Combe is violated when one of the distinguished visitors is bizarrely murdered. Commander Adam Dalgliesh is called in to solve the mystery quickly and discreetly, but at a difficult time for him and his depleted team. Dalgliesh is uncertain about his future with Emma Lavenham, the woman he loves; Detective Inspector Kate Miskin has her own emotional problems; and the ambitious Sergeant Francis Benton-Smith is worried about working under Kate. Hardly has the team begun to unravel the complicated motives of the suspects than there is a second brutal killing, and the whole investigation is jeopardized when Dalgliesh is faced with a danger more insidious and as potentially fatal as murder. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction 1900- 1901-1999 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.71)
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Wikipedia in English (1)
6
There are few who live on the island: Rupert Maycroft – secretary/manager, Dr. Guy Staveley – resident physician and wife, Tamlyn – boatman, Emily Holcombe –last surviving Holcombe, and the usual support staff of housekeeper, cook and such.
A current visitor has been found hanging from the tower of the island’s famous lighthouse. Nathan Oliver is a well-known and popular author. A mean, opinionated, selfish, demanding man; he is accompanied by his 32 year old daughter, Miranda, who has devoted her life to serving him, and his assistant/copy-editor, Dennis, who seems to worship the man.
Other visitors to the island are a retired German diplomat and the director of a controversial research lab.
Complications arise when the diplomat contracts SAR and is air-lifted off the island to a hospital. Dagliesh also comes down with it and is quarantined to a private room. This leaves Miskin and Benton-Smith, two of Dagliesh’s team, to work their way through secrets past and present, connections, relationships, twists and turns in the moody atmosphere of the island. A second murder doesn’t make it any easier.
A tight plot, it isn’t easy to figure the connections between the characters, but you know there are some. The atmosphere of the island and the secrecy of the characters make for a solid read. (