Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales - Hardcover

James, P. D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 073527438X ISBN 13: 9780735274389

Publisher: Knopf Canada, 2017

Synopsis

A holiday gift for all  P. D. James fans to stand alongside her bestselling The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories: six previously uncollected stories from the beloved "Queen of Crime"--swift, cunning murder mysteries from throughout her extraordinary career.

Put your feet up and enjoy a good read! Longtime P. D. James fans will devour these short tales of criminality and deception, each one a pleasure, evocative and engrossing. Including several stories originally published in magazines, this enchanting arrangement of memorable whodunits treats the reader to atmospheric storytelling, mysteries to be solved, and enjoyable puzzles that will keep you guessing. With wit and warmth, P. D. James pays tribute to her English crime-writing forebears, delighting in the dark secrets that lurk beneath the surface of quintessentially English settings.

      Sleep No More is a beautifully produced, rare gift book, and an exciting addition to the P. D. James library, offering her devoted readers a glimpse of earlier work never before collected between two covers, and--for those who come newly to it--a delightful place to begin.

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

“Quite wonderful. . . . [Sleep No More] will delight [James’s] longtime fans and can be a fine introduction to her work for others. . . . James transcends genre and should be viewed simply as a writer of exceptional literary skill.” —Hamilton Spectator
 
“I breezed through these tales in an afternoon; reading them was like sitting down with an old friend to catch up on the latest neighbourhood gossip.” —Suzanne Moutis, Canadian Living
 
“[A] chilling chronicle.” —Toronto Star

“[The stories in Sleep No More] are, at least on the surface, of the ‘cosy’ school of crime fiction, though as any seasoned James reader will anticipate, that cosiness is something of an angora mitten on a clenched fist. . . . [A] worthy addition to [James’s body] of work. It is difficult to imagine a more pleasing afternoon than one beside a fire or radiator, with a pot of tea to hand and autumn rain against the window, while settling in for a series of delightful shocks.” —Sarah Perry, author of The Essex Serpent
 
“[B]rilliantly murderous. . . . Extraordinarily clever, immensely entertaining and with a wintry theme that makes them perfect for the long dark nights ahead, these murderous tales are a dead cert for all crime lovers.” —Burnley Express
 
“The few improbabilities are effectively disguised by the sublime quality of James’s writing. She never puts a word wrong. Moreover, she is the unrivalled portrayer of the sort of bad character who keeps up a convincing performance until the mask is torn off to reveal evil intent. With endings sometimes shocking and never less than surprising, she leaves her readers gasping.” —Daily Mail
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: Knopf Canada
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 073527438X
• ISBN 13: 9780735274389
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 176