Death of an Expert Witness

By: P. D. James

Narrated by: Penelope Dellaporta

The sixth mystery in the acclaimed and bestselling Adam Dalgliesh series, which led Newsweek to crown P. D. James "the new queen of crime."

An evil-tempered forensic scientist is put to death, putting many of his colleagues out of misery. Dr. Lorrimer appeared to be the picture of a bloodless, coldly efficient scientist. Only when his brutally slain body is discovered and his secret past dissected does the image begin to change. Once again, Chief Inspector Adam Dalgliesh learns that there is more to human beings than meets the eye–and more to solving a murder than the obvious clues.

"A craftsman with a poet's vision...[P.D. James] not only detects evil but attempts to uncover the more elusive–and enduring–enigmas of the human psyche that lead to it."–Time©2001 P.D. James; (P)2008 Random House

a thrice murder mystery review

maybe it's just the story... the story itself, was just ... too... wordy...and ... all ... over... the ...place....
even the performer audibly sometimes had to remember to come back and change voices, intonations and emotions on time to make sense...

Hard to Hear

I felt there was too much reverb in the recording levels making it difficult to understand without paying a lot of careful attention.

Another example of beautiful writing.

PD James has been a favorite of mine for many years. I consider her to be an author whose works will stand the test of time, for the same reason Josephine Tey and Agatha Christie are beloved even today. They are gifted writers.

Penelope Dellaporta is a wonderful narrator and I love listening to her PD James readings. I normally listen at 1.0 because I don't want to miss any of the luscious details found in every book. With this specific book, however, I recommend bumping the audio speed up to 1.5. 1.0 is too slow and not, I think, true to the original recording.

This murder mystery is classic James. Moody environment and characters, and enough viable suspects to keep the reader wondering until the reveal.

I like to use immersion reading when listening to PD James. It allows me to go back and find details I feel I might have missed, or just reread and listen to the wonderfully atmospheric descriptions of the countryside or architecture in a particular location.

Ms Dellaporta sounds like I think P.D. James would, based on nothing more than than her photo on the back of her books and a snippet of an interview I heard many years ago. I feel like I'm listening to her read her own books.

Great bargain if bought with a credit.

Even Masters of Crime Fiction can be ponderous

Of all the P D James books which I have listened to this seems the most contrived. She doesn't spend much time developing her iconic detective, Adam Dagleish. He seems to move through the story in a detached way, In her other books the reader (listener) gets to practically camp out in his brain as he discovers clues, experiences architecture and landscapes and interacts and makes judgments about suspects and supporting characters, but not here. This was still early in the series (1972) so I would guess that may be part of it. Don M of Queen Creek, AZ

Clever mystery with a cultured voice

Nice Daglish mystery. Typicality over-convoluted. Ms. Dellaporta is ideally suited to narrate the book. The recording quality was just OK. It sound like it was in a smallish echo chamber