Thriller: The Lighthouse

The Lighthouse
P D James, Faber & Faber
It couldn't get better. The pouring rain outside washing away any guilt at calling in sick, your favourite beverage at hand and a P D James mystery to while away the time.
Yes, the Baroness of Holland Park Phyllis Dorothy James is in top form again with The Lighthouse. Commander Adam Dalgliesh of the London Metropolitan Police is sent to a secluded island off Cornwall to hunt down a mysterious killer.
He is assisted by the newly promoted Inspector Kate Miskin and the inscrutable young Sergeant Francis Benton-Smith. As in all James novels, expect an intricate plot that, when unravelled, revels in its simplicity.
Combe Island, which has a bloody history of piracy and slave-running, is now owned by a private trust and is a favourite haunt of the rich and famous.
With no worldly distractions, the island offers a welcome break from the pressures of their personal and professional lives. The idyllic picture is stained by the discovery of the body of world famous writer, Nathan Oliver, hanging from the lighthouse on the island.
There are 12 suspects, each with a plausible motive to kill Oliver. Whodunit? Although James has often said that she has not been inspired by Agatha Christie, the similarities in setting and characterisation are uncanny.
Where James tips the scales is in her psycho-profiling, her ability to make her characters not only believable but also interesting. Each of the suspects, as also the detectives, is troubled by problems, some mundane, some life-threatening.
But wielding her pen with the finesse of a surgeon, James reveals the hate, anger, love and kindness that lie underneath the criminal and detective skins. Dalgliesh, James once said, was named after her school teacher, a Miss Dalgliesh.
The lessons the poet-detective imparts to his assistants, and to us readers, as the team races against time to nab the murderer, go beyond a thriller, to life itself.