In London, the managing director of a stately publishing house is found dead, a stuffed snake in his mouth. The suspects are many: a rejected author, a discarded mistress, a resentful employee, to mention just a few. Commander Adam Dalgliesh sifts through their lives and the company's finances in order to find the killer

An Adam Dalgliesh mystery On the shore not far away, smothered beneath a fall of sand, lies the body of one of the school's young ordinands. He is the son of Sir Alred Treves, a hugely successful and flamboyant businessman who is accustomed to getting what he wants and in this case what he wants is Commander Adam Dalgliesh to investigate his son's death. Although there seems to be little to investigate, Dalgliesh agrees, largely out of nostalgia...

Commander Adam Dalgliesh investigates the throat-slashing murders, in London's St. Matthew's church, of Sir Paul Berowne, a former Minister of State, and a tramp named Harry Mack, gruesome killings that lead Dalgliesh along a most unusual trail in search of a murderer.

The Dupayne, a small private museum on the edge of London's Hampstead Heath devoted to the interwar years 1919-39, is in turmoil. The trustees--the three children of the museum founder, old Max Dupayne--are bitterly at odds over whether it should be closed. Then one of them is brutally murdered, and what seemed to be no more than a family dispute erupts into horror. For even as Commander Adam Dalgiesh and his team investigate the first killing, a...

"The newly appointed Sgt. Dalgliesh is drawn into a case that is 'pure Agatha Christie.' . . . A 'pedantic, respectable, censorious' clerk's secret taste for pornography is only the first reason he finds for not coming forward as a witness to a murder . . . A best-selling crime novelist describes the crime she herself was involved in fifty years earlier . . . Dalgliesh's godfather implores him to reinvestigate a notorious murder that might ease the...

Cordelia's private investigator partner has killed himself and she must take over the business. Mr. Callender wants to know why his son hung himself, and Cordelia must uncover the truth.

Responding to an old friend's call, Commander Adam Dalgliesh travels to Toynton Grange, a convalescence home in Dorset, where he finds his friend dead and, himself weakened by a recent illness, encounters multiple murder and malicious intrigue.

On the surface, the Steen Psychiatric Clinic is one of the most reputable institutions in London. But when the administrative head is found dead with a chisel in her heart, that distinguished facade begins to crumble as the truth emerges. Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard is called in to investigate and quickly finds himself caught in a whirlwind of psychiatry, drugs, and deceit. Now he must analyze the deep-seated anxieties and thwarted...

"When headstrong and beautiful housemaid Sally Jupp is found strangled in her bed behind a bolted door, Detective Chief-Inspector Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard must unmask her killer from a houseful of suspects--most of whom had very good reason to wish her ill. Each new clue he uncovers leads to a dramatic twist in this ingeniously plotted mystery."--Back cover