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P.D. James Books in Order
P. D. James, Baroness James of Holland Park, is a British mystery novelist of international acclaim. Born in Oxford on August 3, 1920, she rose to prominence with her fictional detective Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard. As the daughter of a middle-grade civil servant, James grew up in the university town of Cambridge, where she developed a deep understanding of the complexities of human nature. Although her formal education ended at 16 due to financial constraints, she continued to educate herself, ultimately becoming a skilled wordsmith. Following a long career in hospital administration and government service, including a stint as a civil servant in the criminal section of the Department of Home Affairs, James retired in 1979 to focus on writing. Her first novel, Cover Her Face, introduced Dalgliesh in 1962, and she went on to write numerous critically acclaimed and bestselling mysteries, solidifying her reputation as a master of the genre.
Bibliography verified: March 2026
Quick Answer
What are all of P.D. James's book series? P.D. James has written 5 book series. The most notable is the Adam Dalgliesh series.
Complete series list with all books in reading order below.
Book Series by P.D. James
- #1
Cover Her Face(1962) - #2A Mind to Murder(1963)
- #3Unnatural Causes(1967)
- #4Shroud for a Nightingale(1971)
- #5The Black Tower(1975)
- #6Death of an Expert Witness(1977)
- #7
A Taste for Death(1986) - #8Devices and Desires(1989)
- #9
Original Sin(1994) - #10
A Certain Justice(1997) - #11Death in Holy Orders(2001)
- #12
The Murder Room(2003) - #13The Lighthouse(2005)
- #14
The Private Patient(2008)
- #1An Unsuitable Job for a Woman(1972)
- #2
The Skull Beneath the Skin(1982)
- #1
A Good Man Is Hard To Find (By: Flannery O'Connor)(1955) - #2
The Inner Room (By: Robert Aickman)(1968) - #3
Daughters of Passion (By: Julia O'Faolain)(1982) - #4
Giacomo Joyce (By: Richard Ellmann)(1983) - #5
Homeland (By: Barbara Kingsolver)(1989) - #6
Shanti (By: Vikram Chandra)(1997) - #7
Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine (By: Thom Jones)(1998) - #8
An Elegy for Easterly (By: Petina Gappah)(2009) - #9
The Shielding of Mrs Forbes (By: Alan Bennett)(2011) - #10
The Cheater's Guide to Love (By: Junot Díaz)(2012) - #11
Mrs Fox (By: Sarah Hall)(2014) - #12
Mostly Hero (By: Anna Burns)(2014) - #13
Mr Salary (By: Sally Rooney)(2016) - #14
Come Rain or Come Shine (By: Kazuo Ishiguro)(2019) - #15
The Victim(2019) - #16
Dante and the Lobster (By: Samuel Beckett)(2019) - #17
Paradise (By: Edna O'Brien)(2019) - #18
Cosmopolitan (By: Akhil Sharma)(2019) - #19
The Lydia Steptoe Stories (By: Djuna Barnes)(2019) - #20
Mary Ventura and The Ninth Kingdom (By: Sylvia Plath)(2019) - #21
Terrific Mother (By: Lorrie Moore)(2019) - #22
The Country Funeral (By: John McGahern)(2019) - #23
The Forester's Daughter (By: Claire Keegan)(2019) - #24
Three Types of Solitude (By: Brian W. Aldiss)(2019) - #25
A River in Egypt (By: David Means)(2019) - #26
Fairy Tales (By: Marianne Moore)(2019) - #27
Ghostly Stories (By: Celia Fremlin)(2019) - #28
Intruders (By: Adrian Tomine)(2019) - #29
Verdict of Thirteen(1979) - #30
Murder in the Dark(1983) - #31
English Country House Murders(1988) - #32
Great Law and Order Stories(1990) - #33
The Man Who...(1992) - #34
The Penguin Book of Modern Fantasy by Women(1995) - #35The Detection Collection(2005)
- #36She sadly passed in November 2014.(20)
- #1
The Maul and The Pear Tree (With: T.A. Critchley)(1971) - #2
Time To Be In Earnest(1999) - #3Talking About Detective Fiction(2009)
- #4
P.D. James in Her Own Words(2017)
- #1
Innocent Blood / Innocent House(1980) - #2The Children of Men(1992)
- #3
Death Comes to Pemberley(2012) - #4
The Part-Time Job(2005) - #5
The Mistletoe Murder(2016) - #6
Sleep No More(2017)
About P.D. James
P. D. James, Baroness James of Holland Park, is a British mystery novelist of international acclaim. Born in Oxford on August 3, 1920, she rose to prominence with her fictional detective Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard. As the daughter of a middle-grade civil servant, James grew up in the university town of Cambridge, where she developed a deep understanding of the complexities of human nature. Although her formal education ended at 16 due to financial constraints, she continued to educate herself, ultimately becoming a skilled wordsmith. Following a long career in hospital administration and government service, including a stint as a civil servant in the criminal section of the Department of Home Affairs, James retired in 1979 to focus on writing. Her first novel, Cover Her Face, introduced Dalgliesh in 1962, and she went on to write numerous critically acclaimed and bestselling mysteries, solidifying her reputation as a master of the genre.
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