2007: #78 – Shroud for a Nightingale (P.D. James)
Book #78 was Shroud for a Nightingale, the fourth book in P.D. James’ Adam Dalgliesh series. The back of the book reads:
Two student nurses lie dead, the great hospital nursing school of Nightingale House is shadowed with terror, and a secret medical world of sex, shame, and scandal is about to be exposed. It is the job of Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard to probe even deeper into the macabre mystery and unmask a killer who operates as skillfully as a surgeon — before the epidemic of evil gets completely out of hand.
This is the first P.D. James book I’ve read, though I saw the movie of Children of Men. It took me a bit to get into (it seems like every british police story I pick up is very dense), but once it started rolling I got caught up in it. This seemed different than other police mysteries I read, because you really only see Dalgliesh in the context of the investigation… You don’t know much about him or his history or home life. The motive for the murders was something I would have never guessed (along with the final twist). I’d definitely be willing to read others in this series.
Page count: 287 | Approximate word count: 123,188
2006 – Voyager (Diana Gabaldon)
