Making his eleventh appearance, Scotland Yard Inspector Adam Dalgliesh is planning a vacation visit to St. Anselm’s Theological College on England’s East Anglia coast, where he spent time as a boy; prior to leaving London, he is told to look into the recent death of a St. Anselm ordinand (seminarian), the son of an important industrialist. Though the coroner ruled it an accident, Scotland Yard has received an anonymous letter that raises the specter of foul play. Dalgliesh—an introspective poet-intellectual who epitomizes the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) operative—finds the St. Anselm community upset by the young man’s death. They are also wary of the imminent arrival of Archdeacon Crampton, a trustee who wants the small seminary to be closed because, despite its endowment, it is not self-sufficient and requires too much financial support from the Church. The priests and others who work and reside at St. Anselm’s have many reasons for thwarting Crampton’s intent, though under its founding charter, when the school property (including valuable art holdings) is sold, the four resident priests will share the bounty. Even before Dalgliesh gets to the school, James has built the framework of a typical mystery novel: a restricted community, anxiety-filled characters, complex personal relationships, a suspicious death, an isolated setting, the prospect of inherited wealth as a possible motive. Her novels normally are longer than most mysteries, concerned as she is with theme as well as event, but the leisurely pace enhances the narrative and makes her characters more three-dimensional and realistic. The end result is a sombre, serious novel about guilt, remorse, responsibility and death. (...) She believes that, just as the strict sonnet form can contain great poetry, a traditional detective novel can bear the weight of a serious moral theme. I think so, too, and found this one absorbing and provocative. But it's not light entertainment." - Jessica Mann, New Statesman From the award-winning master of literary crime fiction, a classic work rich in tense drama and psychological insight. The story starts in the past with the original discovery of the boy's body by Margaret Munroe, an elderly woman who works at St Anselms. This part of the story is told through the means of Margaret's diary. She ends it with a statement that the death concerns her and that it reminds her of something that occurred in her past. Margaret is discovered dead the day after this last entry. Others present include only a few of the students, the Fathers, the resident help, a visiting lecturer, Emma Lavenham, and a researcher, Clive Stannard.

I hate to offer a negative review - but someone has to stand up and say something for children who have been sexually abused - particularly by clergy! It is amazing that anyone, seeing heartbreaking stories of sexual abuse of young people, would allow such an apologetic to be published. It will give Jerry Sandusky and the like something to read while in prison.I usually lose interest half way through. I wanted to see this drama after buying the book by PD James and because i never got round to reading it. I decided to watch the drama. There is no shortage of possible suspects, or motives, for Ronald's death. But before Dalgliesh even arrives on the scene, another death occurs - a death everyone else considers natural and expected. Dalgliesh wonders otherwise. As the body count continues to rise, so too the means, motive and opportunity of almost the entire community of St. Anselms. Dalgliesh and his team steadily work to reveal the killer or killers before someone else falls victim. Long-time widower Dalgliesh is furthered hampered in the investigation by his unexpected feelings for a visiting guest lecturer, Emma Lavenham. Will the possibility of love turn out to be a blessing or curse for Dalgliesh? The acting was first class, especially Jesse Spencer character Raphael Arbuthnot. I had only ever seen him in Neighbours. His English accent was very convincing and his acting on whole was nothing short of superb.

Ms James has always made it clear that she has no time for all this namby-pamby PC rubbish and her high Tory sensibilities have in the past taken swipes at the disabled, the working class especially women, Jews, any woman less than 'ravishingly beautiful', but her skewed view of sexual assault on children is breathtaking.

Book Summary

The mystery started with a lot of promise. And as I've already said it was complex and well structured. There were a few suspicious deaths and one positive murder, so it wasn't easy to guess the criminal, nor it was any easier to fathom a connection between the deaths. My suspicions, even though I felt illogical at the time, proved to be true in the end. Now I used the word "illogical", and that is how I still feel, for there is no other word to describe the absurdity of it all. The motive behind the crimes was simply ridiculous! It was a heavy blow to the carefully constructed structure of the murder-mystery which at the weight of it staggered and collapsed. The setting is St. Anselm's, an elite theological college at an isolated location on the coast of Suffolk.

Character development suffers, particularly on the part of the hero, commander Adam Dalgliesh. The reader comes to be more enamored with the (rather perverse) sub-characters than with the protagonist.

Need Help?

James prefaces Dalgliesh’s first interview with Father Sebastian by describing the warden, his clothes, and his office:

The narrative proceeds predictably, with a series of interviews interspersed with chapters that afford the principals opportunities to interact when they are away from prying officials. The priests are the central figures. Avuncular Father Martin, eighty years old, former warden, and senior member of the quartet, is confidant to many. Father Sebastian, present head of the seminary, is a gruff cleric, jealous of his position and prerogatives. Father Peregrine, priest librarian, is a quiet, cherubic man with a possessive attitude toward his domain. Father John, who was convicted of sexual offenses with boys and served a prison term, shares quarters with his elderly sister. Among the others are George Gregory, part-time teacher and full-time resident; Clive Stannard, grandson of a college benefactor, who comes for weekends ostensibly to do research; Roger Yarwood, at the college for a rest cure following the break-up of his marriage; and Eric Surtees, a handyman who, at St. Anselm’s, has found the tranquillity he always had sought. To these men, the college is a haven, fulfilling personal, professional, and spiritual needs. On one hand, each has a vested interest in the continuation of the school, but at the same time, the priests would gain financially by the demise of the school. Whether the Archdeacon in this regard indeed represents a threat to their well-being is open to question. Father John, however, received a long prison sentence for his crimes largely due to the Archdeacon’s zeal; and when Crampton’s wife committed suicide, Yarwood, then a police sergeant, raised questions of irregularities at the inquest; further, Raphael Arbuthnot, senior ordinand and the last descendant of St. Anselm’s founder, despises the Archdeacon for having hounded Father John into prison. He dies in horrible fashion, buried alive in sand that collapsed on top of him (despite there being many signs warning of precisely such dangers). The novel is mainly set in and around an Anglo-Catholic theological college, Saint Anselm's, on the windswept coast of East Anglia. It provides an insight into the structure of the Church of England and its training of students, known as ordinands, for religious ministry.This is not a madman moved by evil passion to commit terrible acts, but a psychologically complex person about whom Dalgliesh wonders how he will endure his imprisonment and “was he even now looking from his barred windows and wishing that he, too, could smell the sweetness of this spring day?”