Original Sin

Adam Dalgliesh, Book 9

By: P. D. James

Narrated by: Penelope Dellaporta

Length: 20 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Adam Dalgliesh takes on a baffling murder in the rarefied world of London book publishing in this masterful mystery from one of our finest novelists.

Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his team are confronted with a puzzle of impenetrable complexity. A murder has taken place in the offices of the Peverell Press, a venerable London publishing house located in a dramatic mock-Venetian palace on the Thames. The victim is Gerard Etienne, the brilliant but ruthless new managing director, who had vowed to restore the firm's fortunes. Etienne was clearly a man with enemies - a discarded mistress, a rejected and humiliated author, and rebellious colleagues, one of who apparently killed herself a short time earlier. Yet Etienne's death, which occurred under bizarre circumstances, is for Dalgliesh only the beginning of the mystery, as he desperately pursues the search for a killer prepared to strike and strike again.

©1995 P.D. James (P)2013 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Complex and compelling.... James is writing in full mastery of her craft." (The New York Times Book Review)

"One of James's best novels.... James transcends literary classification." (Chicago Sun-Times)

"The queen of the British murder mystery demonstrates why the crown is hers." (Newsday)

A long story with a very long back stories.

I had to turn up the speed, because the narration was very slow as it was the rest of the recording. The narrator was very good about different voices, but there were so many characters. It was a long, dark story about a long, dark time along time ago.

Again an extraordinary mystery with humam emotion

...left me with a sense of deep feelings for all the characters...well done! Narrator outstanding and a comfortable companion on the novels journey.

Quiet Different=unexpected

Struggled to finish as descriptions(too many) just too wordy. Storyline very unique .The mystery very deep a.nd surprising. Normally really enjoy author but this one just too too many long descriptions that instead of interesting begin to get boring.At times,the Narrator saved the day. I will still try another book by James as she has very unique plots but hope she stays away from long,, long descriptions. Looking forward to reading (listening to) the next book. More of AD please and less descriptions.

No complaints

Too many descriptions? Maybe, but those descriptions allow the reader to see the characters, the locations and the action. I was there all along the way and feeling the emotions of every character. There was less of Adam, but his influence was strongly felt.

Good book, still needs some work on the audio thou

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Almost the first 6 hours are building up to the murder. So it's not really an edge of the seat type book. The nice thing is you do know all the characters. I somehow missed this one when I started reading P. D. James. I like the stories and I know what I'm getting.

Any additional comments?

The story like others of P. D. James is great though it did take a while to get started. I just wish there was more attention paid to the audio file. Every so often lines are repeated. It seems that an tape version was converted. At least we don't get the side 2 message.

as always PD James is good

What did you like best about this story?

The philosophical elements, such as the exploration of what personal identity means and how it is expressed in life.

What does Penelope Dellaporta bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

She expresses the characters in different accents that I would not even know about let alone be able to imagine as I read the book.

Any additional comments?

One very disturbing thing about this audio book was that every 30-40 minutes a sentence or two would repeat. It bacame very disturbing by the end of the book

Needs better editing

Too many passages were repeated twice. This was very annoying . The narrator of the private patient created a better Dalgleish.

Great!

Sometimes the narrator is hard to understand, but all in all a great production and a great story!

Intriguing, an electrifying mystery

This title is tough to put down. P.D. James continues to write beautiful prose and weave a plot that draws the reader into it. Some passages are electric with tension. Plus, I was particularly smitten by a minor character named Mandy. Listen with excitement and pleasure.

Too long

I would advise the listener to set the speed on at least 1.2; otherwise the narrator’s voice will put you to sleep. The second half of the story was better than the first half. I kept forgetting who was who as the back story of each character just slowly melded together and my mind would wander often. Overall the writing was very good but everything just went on too long.