An elegant work about hope, death, and the alternately redemptive and destructive nature of love.” — The Miami Herald

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. 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).Though one can enjoy the author's sharp-eyed portrayal of domestic interiors, which goes hand in hand with an acute dissection of character and personality, and cannot but appreciate the uninhibited manner in which she sets about her pet aversions -- the two most prominent are the modernisation of the Church of England and the Macpherson Report -- the book is far less satisfying as a detective story." - T.J. Binyon, Evening Standard The apparent suicide, the certified natural death, the brutal murder -- there was a cord which connected them. 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. I remembered the setting & the characters Father Martin, Father Sebastian and Eric from my first read. Book takes place at an Anglo-Catholic theological college, Saint Anselm's, on the isolated, wild and windy East Anglican coast. Setting was 5 star & most of the characters were very well drawn. This time around I was bothered though by the very sympathetic portrayal of one of the characters, Father John, a convicted pedophile. There are some hints that perhaps he wasn't guilty at all, certainly there's explanations that he was only accused of fondling, but somehow, today, this is hard to justify. I assume James is trying to portray moral ambiguity, the grayness of guilt in her characters.

I have read previous reviewers who mention the paedophile priest. This storyline was only mentioned 3 times in the entire book and was in no way part of the story so do not let you put you off. Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival. It is not only nature that undermines the College: the Church is apparently looking to close it down, and then events at the college itself reinforce the sense of inevitability of this.Review notes: Roy Hattersley tells us "Dalgliesh, as a boy, spent a summer at the college", even though P.D.James has Dalgliesh say: "I stayed there as a boy for three summers." The first is that of Ronald Treeves, a student at the college -- and the adopted son of wealthy industrialist Sir Alfred Treeves.