Original Sin: The classic locked-room murder mystery from the 'Queen of English crime' (Guardian)

PD James is outstanding and convenient. In reading her books you get the best of a crime novel and a literary fiction. As usual the book lives up to her reputation.

Okayish whodunnit.

Classic James, as always. Impeccable writing with exquisite detailing of the surroundings and the rooms and the buildings. It sounds as if it should be tedious, but it’s anything but. Instead, it sets the atmosphere and the stage as if one is standing right there, beside the characters, peering into their souls. The murders themselves are satisfyingly convoluted, but that isn’t the real point. The joy of reading a great writer is.

I started re-reading James's books in order last year and I have been looking forward to reaching this one from the beginning - I remember it as my absolute favourite. And I'm glad to say I wasn't disappointed.Personally, I am now finding James a very patchy writer - she's certainly not the crime-writing genius she is proclaimed to be. Well, maybe she is if you have a similar attitude to life as she clearly did/does - at the time of first reading these I was too young to appreciate how judgemental she can be, how mean-spirited, how small-hearted towards her fellow man. In this book she freely has another character refer to another as "Jew-boy" seemingly without any irony or narrative purposes. If you like that sort of thing, great. Similarly, she's not always that great at plotting - A Taste for Death would have been a great crime novel if not for the fact that there was almost no mystery to it. Devices and Desires could have been similarly great if not for some bizarre and badly-handled elements of the plot (the serial killer, the left-field events on the boat at sea...) What she is absolutely MARVELLOUS at is a sense of place.Anyway, this is about Original Sin.Original Sin is one of those books where all her strengths do come together. It is supremely atmospheric. It has a fantastic sense of place in the imposing mock-Venetian publishing house on the banks of the rolling Thames. It has a strong, well constructed plot that is well and consistently paced. The solution to the mystery is excellent, and has some wonderful moral ambiguities. It has a strong cast of characters. I loved it. (True, there are still moments where her attitude sticks between the teeth, but I can forgive that when it doesn't come hand in hand with other narrative sins.)Re-reading these books is a really interesting experience but I'm glad to say that after revisiting this one at least past-me is in absolute concordance with present-me in thinking this is one of the strongest of her works. A fantastic detective novel.

Great book. The Adam Dalgleish series seems to get better with each passing book.

A clever plot. You have to read to the end to get to real killer.More than 600 pages. Can't put it down for long. Finish the book in a week.Not too many books have that pull and effect.Highly recommended.

I must admit I am not a fan of P. D. James' writing style. However, I have enjoyed the plot of her books. This one didn't disappoint me. Although it distracted me with so many irrelevant details.