DS Adam Dalgliesh visits Toynton Grange, a small private nursing care facility, in response to a letter received from his old friend Father Baddeley. When he arrives, he discovered the man died a few days earlier and left him his book collection. He stays on a few days to sort and box the books and discovers other unexpected deaths in the facility's recent past. Then a suspicious fire takes place in a detached black tower on the property nearer the coastline. Soon another death occurs. Dalgliesh had recently been released from the hospital following a critical situation and decided to "retire" from his police career when this book begins. Readers still don't have resolution to that situation by the book's end. My biggest problem with the book was this was an unofficial snooping rather than a formal police procedural. There really wasn't an official crime through most of the book although Dalgliesh could see the tell-tale signs and was able to follow them. Dalgliesh, of course, solves the case, but this isn't one of my favorites. It reminds me a lot of "And Then There Were None" because of the small pool of suspects where one keeps dying. I listened to the audiobook, and Penelope Dellaporta always does a good job with this series. ( )

Murderous Monks?
Review of the Sphere Books paperback (1977 orig./1986 reprint) of the Faber & Faber hardcover original (1975)

This, too, was a sensation which in the long dog days in hospital he had thought never to experience again, the frisson of excitement along the blood at the first realization that something important had been said, that although the quarry wasn't yet in sight nor his spoor detectable, yet he was there. He tried to reject this unwelcome surge of tension but it was as elemental and involuntary as the touch of fear.

Scotland Yard CID's Detective Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh has decided to give up his police career after coming through a terminal scare due to a mis-diagnosis and a resulting hospital stay. For his convalescence, he takes up the invitation of Father Baddeley, an old family friend, to visit him at his cottage by the Toynton Grange Nursing Home. He arrives to find out that Father Baddeley has passed away from an apparent heart attack. This is shortly after a resident patient has apparently committed suicide by propelling his wheelchair off the nearby seaside cliff. Regardless of his planned change of career, Dalgliesh is drawn by instinct to further investigate the situation.

Dalgliesh has an excuse to stay on at the cottage, as he has inherited the Father's book collection which needs sorting. The nearby Toynton Grange facility is a private nursing home run on a spiritual basis due to its founder Wilfred Anstey's miracle cure from Disseminated Sclerosis (an alernative name for Multiple Sclerosis). The caregivers all wear monk-like habits, there are regular prayer readings and twice annual pilgrimages to Lourdes in France to take the waters.

Due to his recovering health Dalgliesh is perhaps a bit slow at first to piece together all of the clues surrounding the situation. The discovery of a series of poison pen letters further complicates matters and then there is yet another apparent natural death and yet another apparent suicide. Four deaths at the same facility in such close sequence can't possibly be natural and a coincidence surely? Dalgliesh manages to solve it all in the end but comes close to becoming the murderer's fifth victim.

See cover at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/10/TheBlackTower.jpg
Front cover of the original Faber & Faber hardcover edition (1975). Image sourced from Wikipedia.

I read The Black Tower as part of my continuing 2022 re-read binge of the P.D. James' Adam Dalgliesh and Cordelia Gray novels, which I am enjoying immensely. James is truely at the height of the Silver Age of Crime authors and puts most modern mystery writers to shame with her extensive character backgrounds and plots often set in confined communities where an atmosphere of paranoia and foreboding reign, until the cool, often detached detection of Dalgliesh is able to arrive at a clarifying solution.

See photograph at https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BODc4YzQ0YzgtNTFhYy00OGVhLWI3OGYtYTZjYTJi...
Actor Bertie Carvel as Adam Dalgliesh in the Acorn TV series "Dalgliesh" (2021-). Image sourced from IMDb.

Trivia and Links
* In Book 1 Cover Her Face, Adam Dalgliesh was a Detective Chief Inspector. In Books 2 to 4 he is a Detective Superintendent and then in Books 5 to 14 he is a Detective Commander.

The Black Tower was adapted for television in 1985 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 6 episodes of the 1985 adaptation starting with Episode 1 on YouTube here. The adaptation is reasonably faithful to the novel.

The new Acorn TV-series reboot Dalgliesh (2021-?) starring Bertie Carver as Adam Dalgliesh filmed an adaptation of The Black Tower as Episodes 3 & 4 of Season 1. The adaptation is reasonably faithful to the novel, but it reduces the number of characters at the Toynton Grange Nursing Home, renames Julius Court as Julius Marsh, and adds a local Sergeant Miskin (who becomes a regular series character in Episodes 5 & 6). It has not yet been announced which books are being adapted for Season 2 (as of late July 2022). Season 1 adapted Books 4, 5 & 7. ( )

Dalgliesh is recovering from an extended illness, he decides to visit an old friend while he recuperates and reevaluates his life. This is not an action-packed story, although the end is pretty tense. I enjoyed the slow pacing. James has a way of description which not only tells you about the place, but sets the tone of the story as well. ( )

Shouldn't have re-read Death in Holy Orders so close to re-reading this one. How did I not notice when I read them decades ago that they're *the same book*!

Anyway this one was an unpleasant experience all around; not to re-read. ( )

Adam Dalgleish is at the end of a serious stay in hospital. At points it was thought he might die from his illness. That prognosis was wrong and he is now to go home and take it easy for a week or two.

During his stay he did a lot of thinking about his job and the idea of quitting. Did he really want to continue on with police work? Was there something other he’d rather do? This personal thought pattern runs in the background.

Meanwhile, he has received an invitation to visit. The writer was Father Baddeley, a man from Dalgliesh’s childhood. The man is probably in his 80s and has a problem he feels Dalgleish is qualified to help solve. But by the time Dalgleish is able to get there the man is dead and buried.

Dalgleish finds he is named in Baddeley’s will as being given the job of sorting Baddeley’s library and keeping what he wants. This turns out to be a good reason for Dalgleish to stay around and do a little investigating. The story of the Father’s death seems a bit shady.

While there are three more unexpected deaths, Dalgleish thinks there is a common killer involved. Who and why?

There is an assortment of characters and the location is a private hospital, Toynton Grange, originally a family estate. It caters to a select group of disabled. There are only five patients, each has an unusual backstory and not all are pleased with their situation.

Dalgleish finds that the years he’s done police work cause him to automatically investigate when things don’t seem right. Should he retire? What would he do with his time? ( )