(1994)Once you get past the obsession with minute detail, a good story emerges as a small publishing company suffers thru 3 mysterious deaths that ultimately is the result of revenge being sought by the son of a holocaust victim as he attempts to exact an eye for an eye of a collaborator in Vichy France. (PW) A sprawling paean to the Thames River and its London environs, James's 12th novel and latest mystery to feature New Scotland Yard Commander Adam Dalgleish is set in the modern publishing world where traditions may crumble but where such timeless emotions as grief, rage and love prevail. Peverell Press, which occupies the magnificent Innocent House, modeled on the palaces of Venice and built by the firm's founder in 1792, has been plagued by the misdeeds-misplaced manuscripts, lost illustrations-of an unknown "office menace" since the death, nine months earlier, of managing director Henry Peverell. The stakes are upped when a senior editor, recently sacked by the new director Gerard Etienne, kills herself. When Etienne is found dead in the same room, Dalgleish is called in to investigate. He discovers that plenty of people, including the four other partners in the firm and various employees whose jobs are threatened by Etienne's plans to sell Innocent House and modernize the firm, had reason to wish Etienne dead. James (Devices and Desires) gives pride of place here to lush, leisurely descriptions of waterside London and the landscape of the Essex coast; Dalgleish and his assistants seem more observers than participants in this plot that ticks along on its own momentum, driven by the various suspects' motivations and actions to the credible, if not fully prepared for, resolution.

Set in a Publishing House along the Thames; Wapping district of London ( )

A prankster has been causing problems at Preverell Press, many year occupant of Innocent House on the banks of the Thames in Wapping. Lord Stilgo asked Adam Dalgliesh to investigate, but Adan declined. Henry Preverell has recently died and Jean-Claude Etienne recently retired leaving Gerard Etienne as the CEO. He has many ideas for modernizing the press including laying off long-time employee, selling Innocent House, and moving the press to the Docklands down river. The other four managing partners don't want to do this, but most understand without it, the press will not survive. One person layed off, commits suicide in the Archive Office. Then Gerard Etienne is murdering via carbon monoxide in the same office. Enter Adam Dalgliesh and his team of Kate and Daniel to investigate. There is a great amount of description of scenery, architecture, English history, and more in this book. So much that it detracts from the plot. ( )

I remember buying this on the day it was published, and am dumfounded now to realise that that that that was almost thirty years ago. Re-reading it now, I couldn’t remember any of the details of the plot, and had certainly forgotten who the murderer was, although I did have a recollection of having especially enjoyed it. That was borne out by this re-reading, and I think it may well be my favourite of P D James’s books.

I have always had a particular taste for fiction about the world of books, so this was always going to appeal to me, with the story being set in an old publishing house. Peverell Press claimed to be the country’s oldest publisher, having been established in a glorious reproduction of a Venetian palazzo on the eastern reaches of the Thames. It had remained entirely under the control of the Peverell family until just after the Second World War, when a hero of the French resistance had bought a significant share, introducing much needed working capital. Now his son, Gerard Etienne, is managing director and his daughter Claudia is also on the Board, along with Frances, last of the Peverells, Gabriel Dauntsey, an ageing formerly venerated poet, and James de Witt, an accomplished literary critic.

Gerard Etienne has ambitious plans for the company, but they involve a programme of radical modernisation and ‘downsizing’, and he has stirred up considerable animosity both among his fellow directors and more widely across the company’s workforce. His ardour for reform is not damped by a series of ‘pranks’ that have caused slight reputational damage to the company. However, the tide of change is stemmed when he is found dead in the company’s archive room, with a fabric draught excluder in the shape of a snake tied around his neck, its head thrust into his mouth. It is at this point that Commander Adam Dalgleish is called in, ably assisted by his Detective Inspectors Kate Miskin and Daniel Aaron.

P D James always writes well-crafted prose, and organises the plot development in a closely managed method. I always find her books reminiscent of those of Iris Murdoch – the principal characters are always slightly odd, and approach day to day life in a rather oblique manner. One sometimes imagines that the linguistic style is of greater significance than the substance of the story. However, in both cases, I find that it works. I happily suspend my disbelief, and where with less accomplished writers I might roll my eyes impatiently, I am content to go wherever they might take me. ( )

Murders in Publishing
Review of the Vintage Canada paperback (2011) [with Notes via the Kindle eBook] of the Faber & Faber hardcover original (1994)

Not for nothing were there those five shelves of crime paperbacks in her bedroom, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh, Josephine Tey and the few modern writers whom Joan considered fit to join those Golden Age practitioners in fictional murder. - a character in "Original Sin" admires her collection of classic crime novels.

The 9th Adam Dalgliesh novel finds his elite team from Scotland Yard CID investigating the apparent murder of the managing director of one of the most prestigious publishing firms in the UK. This is at the (fictional) Peverell Press which is housed in a mock Venetian palazzo called Innocent House, built on the Thames in the area of Wapping in East London. The publisher was ruthlessly dragging the stodgy firm into the late 20th century by planning to sell off the building and move the business to the Docklands, cut non-selling, past their prime authors and trim staff, especially long-time employees. There is no shortage of suspects.

Dalgliesh said: "Mr. Gerard Etienne took over as chairman and managing director fairly recently, didn't he? Was he well-liked?"
"Well he wouldn't have been carried out of here in a body bag if he was a little ray of sunshine about the place. Someone didn't like him, that's for sure." - Dalgliesh interviews Mrs. Demery, the kitchen staff at Peverell Press.

To complicate matters further, the publishing house had recently seen another on-site death only weeks before with the suicide of one of its editors who had been given notice. A prankster is also working behind the scenes to sabotage the business by hiding manuscripts and cancelling author engagements. Dalgliesh and his regular assistant Kate Miskin and new assistant Daniel Aaron are faced with a mysterious cause of death in an apparently sealed archive room with every suspect having alibis. And then yet another murder occurs.

See design at https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/london-bridge-ci...
Proposed design of an unbuilt Venetian inspired set of buildings on the Thames from the 1980s which were never built. Possibly the inspiration for the Venetian palazzo of Peverell Press on the Thames in "Original Sin". Image sourced from Unbuilt London.

I very much enjoyed Original Sin (the significance of the title doesn't become clear until towards the very end of the book), with P.D. James' extensive character building and descriptive settings of both the publishing house and its environs. Some of the characters are archetypes i.e. the ruthless business head, the subservient sibling, the washed up author, the rejected love interest etc. but this is James at the top of her game and I'd even say this is one of my favourites of hers. Probably that is partially because it is set in a world of books. Kirkus Reviews described it as "the Middlemarch of the classic detective story," and that seems as good a one-line summary as any.

See original cover at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e7/OriginalSin.jpg
Front cover of the original Faber & Faber hardcover edition (1994). Image sourced from Wikipedia.

I read Original Sin as part of my continuing 2022 binge re-read of the P.D. James novels, which I am enjoying immensely. I started the re-reads when I recently discovered my 1980's P.D. James paperbacks while clearing a storage locker.
See photograph at https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FSug6xHWYAERmYI?format=jpg&name=medium
Rescued from storage and due for re-reading, my early P.D. James paperbacks, mostly published by in the 1980s.

Trivia and Links
Original Sin was adapted for television in 1997 as part of the long running Dalgliesh TV-series for Anglia Television/ITV (1983-1998) starring actor Roy Marsden as Commander Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard. You can watch the 3 episodes of the 1997 adaptation starting with Episode 1 on YouTube here.

The new Acorn TV-series reboot Dalgliesh (2021-?) starring Bertie Carver as Adam Dalgliesh has not yet adapted Original Sin. Season 1 adapted books 4, 5 & 7. There has not been an announcement of the Season 2 and Season 3 adaptations (as of late-November 2022). ( )