National Bestseller

Cheverell Manor is a beautiful old house in Dorset, which its owner, the famous plastic surgeon George Chandler-Powell, uses as a private clinic.  When the investigative journalist, Rhoda Gradwyn, arrives to have a disfiguring facial scar removed, she has every expectation of a successful operation and a peaceful week recuperating.  But the clinic houses an implacable enemy and within hours of the operation Rhoda is murdered.   Commander Dalgliesh and his team are called in to investigate a case complicated by old crimes and the dark secrets of the past.  But Before Rhoda's murder is solved, a second horrific death adds to the complexities of one of Dalgliesh's most perplexing and fascinating cases.

""Brilliant. . . . A jewel in [James's] crown."" —Pittsburg-Post Gazette

 ""No one is better than James at maintaining this tension between the cozy and the frightful."" —The Washington Post

""[James is] a master. . . . Nothing is as it first appears."" —The Boston Globe 

""[I]intricately plotted and suspenseful.... James' clear-eyed, often sardonic prose describes rooms and people exactly as she sees them."" —Providence Journal

""Elegant . . . compelling. . . . Continues the James tradition. . . . She comfortably tackles timeless concerns."" —Chicago Tribune

""The ghost of literature past haunts P.D. James' newest novel. . . . The novel's pointed descriptions, its gothic settings, and its theme exploring the insidious legacies of family and class violence suggest Charles Dickens may have rested a hand on James' shoulder while she wrote this terrific literary mystery."" —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

""James is a wonderful writer."" —Chicago Sun-Times

""James is in excellent form. . . . [She] offers her readers intelligence, wisdom, dry humor, knowledge both deep and wide-ranging, humanity, compassion, understanding and a wonderful way with words. . . . James is one of Britain's greatest living writers."" —St. Louis Post-Dispatch