by P. D. James
First published 1997
Cordelia Gray takes on her first major case when wealthy Ronald Callender refuses to accept that his son Mark killed himself. The Cambridge dropout was found hanging with lipstick traces on his lips, but his father suspects something darker than suicide. Gray travels to Cambridge to retrace Mark's final days. She uncovers a web of family secrets, hidden relationships, and buried guilt that someone will kill to protect. As Gray digs deeper into Mark's life, she realizes the real danger lies not in what Mark did, but in what others did to him. The young private investigator must navigate threats from multiple directions while learning that her first case might also be her last. P. D. James introduces detective Cordelia Gray in this intricate mystery where nothing is as simple as it appears and everyone has something to hide.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Cambridge
Period: 20th-century
4 pages · Audiobook · Penguin Audiobooks