Re-reading this book made me feel old: the plot contains a middle aged lady who had been a young German accused of war crimes. When I, initially, consumed this tome, such was a reasonable current event; now, it ages the book. The cerebral nature of the adventure is also something one tends not to get nowadays, but something which I thoroughly enjoyed. I do not need my detective fiction to tell me what it is really like on "the mean streets". I like a poetry writing, thinking detective: top rate! ( )

This is the first P.D. James book I've read, though I saw the movie of Children of Men. It took me a bit to get into (it seems like every british police story I pick up is very dense), but once it started rolling I got caught up in it. This seemed different than other police mysteries I read, because you really only see Dalgliesh in the context of the investigation -- You don't know much about him or his history or home life. The motive for the murders was something I would have never guessed (along with the final twist). I'd definitely be willing to read others in this series. ( )

It's here in Shroud for a Nightingale that I believe P D James reaches the fullness of her gifts as a writer of police procedurals. This fourth installment in the Adam Dalgliesh series is better-developed and richer than the first three, and shows more evidence of the embellishments and risks James takes with the basic form, yielding great rewards.

The setting here is a nurse training school shoehorned into a wicked old Victorian pile in the home counties. The initial killing is spectacular and gruesome, and the rest of the book sustains this intensity.

Nightingale is also notable for James's uncanny ability to make you want to know more about her characters, both the good guys and the suspects. She keeps you teetering on the fine line between good healthy curiosity and frank prurience, as the dirty little details of private lives are exposed and examined. No one, no one does this better.

Highly recommended. ( )

PD James is a master of mystery. Adam Dahlgliesh is one of my favorite characters. Only Ms James could create a poetry writing policeman. Set in a teaching hospital, Adam arrives to investigate a patient and ends up investigating the death of two student nurses. ( )

Nightingale House is where a group of third year student nurses live while they learn the art of nursing. During a routine inspection of the nursing school by the General Nursing Council a horrible death occurs. One of the students, Heather Pearce, who is playing the part of the patient during a demonstration, is internally fed bathroom disinfectant instead of milk and dies thrashing on the floor in front of a classroom. Jo Fallon was rostered to be the patient; however, she was taken ill at the last minute and Heather Pearce was a substitute. Was the victim supposed to be Fallon? A few days later, another nurse is found dead in her bed. This time Jo Fallon is the victim, and poison is the method. Chief Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh is called in to solve the murders.

Nightingale House is a great setting for a murder; it is surrounded by large trees, with a dark road thickly lined by trees leading from the hospital to the nurses’ home. The house itself is a Victorian monstrosity described as red bricked, castellated, overly ornate, with four huge turrets. This is one of P. D. James’ earlier works, and as she was a nurse during the WWII she is able to depict the life of a nurse from personal experience. The pecking order within the hospital hierarchy is described beautifully. Being an early work, it makes it possible to see how James started to develop her trademark style of allowing the reader to see why all the main suspects had a reason to kill, but SHROUD FOR A NIGHTINGALE doesn’t let us into the mind of the suspects like she has with her later books. Dalgliesh is not quite as developed as a character as he is in later books, but the basics are there. I love P.D. James’s attention to detail – her descriptions bring the locations vividly to mind. There are lots of red herrings – I changed my mind a couple of times before I got to the end only to find I wasn’t even close. She never fails to produce clever, unexpected solutions, and a dramatically satisfying ending, and this novel is no different. ( )