Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales - Hardcover

James, P. D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0571339875 ISBN 13: 9780571339877

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2017

Synopsis

The acknowledged 'Queen of Crime', P. D. James, was a past master of the short story, weaving together motifs of the Golden Age of crime-writing with deep psychological insight to create gripping, suspenseful tales. The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories contained four of these perfectly formed stories, and this companion volume contains a further six, published here together for the first time.

As the six murderous tales unfold, the dark motive of revenge is revealed at the heart of each. Bullying schoolmasters receive their comeuppance, unhappy marriages and childhoods are avenged, a murder in the small hours of Christmas Day puts an end to the vicious new lord of the manor, and, from the safety of his nursing home, an octogenarian exerts exquisite retribution.

The punishments inflicted on the guilty are fittingly severe, but here they are meted out by the unseen forces of natural justice rather than the institutions of the law. Once again, P. D. James shows her expert control of the short-story form, conjuring motives and scenarios with complete conviction, and each with a satisfying twist in the tail.

About this title

About the Author

P. D. JAMES (1920-2014) published nineteen novels, two works of non-fiction, a memoir, and many distinguished essays. Most of her novels have been broadcast on television, and The Children of Men was the basis for an award-winning film. From 1949 to 1968 she worked in the National Health Service and subsequently in the Home Office, first in the Police Department and later in the Criminal Policy Department. She was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Arts. Her commitment to public service included serving as a Governor of the BBC, on the Board of the British Council, and as a magistrate in Middlesex and London. She was an Honorary Bencher of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, and was elected President of the Society of Authors. She received honorary degrees from seven British universities, was awarded an OBE in 1983, and was created a life peer in 1991 as Baroness James of Holland Park.

Review

PRAISE FOR THE MISTLETOE MURDER AND OTHER STORIES:

“[A] lovely collection from the late P. D. James. . . . Here, we get the Queen of Crime in her prime, with Adam Dalgliesh on the trail and the title piece set in wartime England. As always with James, character dominates and murder is messy and damaging. These tales don’t end with tea and crumpets. This is the ideal stocking stuffer for any mystery fan, and it includes a masterful little essay by James on the importance of the short story. The preface by Val McDermid is the ideal introduction if, indeed, there is anyone who still needs one to the late Baroness James. I read it in a swoop after lunch and loved every page.” —Margaret Cannon, The Globe and Mail

“[W]riting in her trademark careful and unhurried prose, James delivers the goods in the surprise department. . . . The book . . . represents James in very fine form.” —Toronto Star

“Four of her best.” —The Tri-City News (Port Coquitlam)

“[T]his posthumous collection of short stories by the Queen of Crime, P. D. James, puts a Christmas spin on the whodunit to delightfully macabre effect. . . . You’ll have visions dancing through your head . . . but they likely won’t be sugarplums.” —Canadian Living

“For those missing the Queen of Crime. . . . A lovely surprise for her fans.” —Toronto Star

“Four perfectly drawn short mysteries. . . . Has a great mystery writer ever gone about her craft more self-consciously than P.D. James? . . . The four tales in this slim volume . . . are old-fashioned, at least up to a point: no noir, yet plenty of shadows; no explicit sex, but ample erotic tension. And James spins them with the economy demanded by the short form. . . . Among the many pleasures of reading James is her evocative style. . . . [W]hat a pleasure it is to have ‘The Boxdale Inheritance’ and its three siblings as postscripts to James’s oeuvre.” —The Washington Post

“Mystery lovers are in for a very merry time with this posthumous collection of short stories set around Christmas (and Boxing Day) from Britain’s P. D. James. . . . She delivers four stellar stories that will please fans of the author and those who like a classic Agatha Christie ‘whodunit.’ . . . All four tales will entertain and delight.” —USA Today

“Does murder take a break over the holidays? Hell, no. And a good thing, too. . . . The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories, a collection of four short stories originally commissioned for newspapers and magazines, demonstrates P. D. James’s mastery when it came to plotting and characterization in a condensed format.” —The Times (South Africa)
PRAISE FOR P. D. JAMES:

“Nobody can put the reader in the eye of the storm quite like P. D. James.” —Sunday Express

“[Possibly] the finest English crime novelist of her generation.” —The Globe and Mail

“The reigning mistress of murder. . . . [Her] vivid, compelling whodunits over almost a quarter of a century have made James one of the world’s leading crime writers and a worthy successor to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie.” —TIME

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0571339875
• ISBN 13: 9780571339877
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 192