He glanced at him, wondering if he dared risk a warning, hoping that the surface would improve and make it unnecessary. In the bleaching beam of the headlights the pustulous road looked as eerie and alien as a moon landscape, at once close yet mysteriously remote and perpetual. Rolf was gazing th...
There was a sense of constant unease like the tension of a thundery day when the storm is inevitable and yet will not break. The tacit assumption that no one at Martingale could be a murderer precluded any realistic discussion of Sally’s death. They were all afraid of saying too much or of saying...
1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 www.SimonandSchuster.com This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is ent...
No doubt, thought Dalgliesh, the old warrior was unaware that other schools existed; like every other class, the aristocracy, however poor, could always find the money for the things they really wanted. But he was an odd product of that establishment, having none of the slightly de gage elegance ...
I asked her if she needed money and she said that she would be all right that money was the least of her problems. She never told me who she was going to, and I didn’t ask.”“But you were prepared to help her with money had she needed it even though you disapproved of getting rid of the baby?”“My ...
James Book Two Death in Chambers Chapter 11 At seven-thirty on Thursday, 10 October, Harold Naughton left his house in Buckhurst Hill, walked the quarter-mile to Buckhurst Hill Station and caught a train just before seven-forty-five which would take him on the Central Line direct to Chancery La...
He saw a thick-set, chubby-featured man, mild-eyed behind the heavy square spectacles, who looked, in his well-cut tweeds, more like a country doctor or small-town solicitor than a bureaucrat. He was completely at ease and bore himself like a man confident of his powers, unwilling to be hurried, ...
Daniel was occupied in the little archives room where the gas man was already at work dismantling the fire and, when this was completed and samples of any chimney debris despatched to the lab, would go on to Wapping Police Station to set up the incident room. Dalgliesh had already spoken to the s...
bus from Gloucester Green, Oxford, expecting that the M40 would be very busy and the journey take far more than the usual hour. However, the road was clear and I got home in fine style. I made a fuss of Polly-Hodge and fed her, and then took the bus to Marble Arch, walked down Park Lane and joine...
Luke's had been a heavy one and it was not until he sat down for lunch that Stephen Maxie remembered Sally. Then, as always, the remembrance came down like a knife severing appetite, cutting him off from the careless and undemanding pleasure of everyday life. The talk at table sounded false; a ba...
There was the question of financial provision for Lady Berowne, for Barbara. She is my cousin, I've known her since childhood. I have an in-terest.''How strong an interest?'Lampart looked sideways over his shoulder at the fair-haired woman and her nurse, still patiently circling the lawn. He seem...
Courtney-Briggs appeared. He knocked briskly at the door, came in without waiting for an invitation, and said curtly: “I can give you a quarter of an hour now, Dalgliesh, if it’s convenient.” His tone assumed that it would be. Dalgliesh assented and indicated the chair. The surgeon looked across ...
His aunt must have answered it quickly for the ringing stopped almost immediately and he dozed again into that happy trance between waking and sleeping which follows a good night. It must have been half an hour before the telephone rang again, and this time it seemed louder and more insistent. He...
To lie in bed wakeful had always been intolerable to him. He could manage with little sleep, but that was invariably sound. Now he swung his legs out of bed, reached for his dressing gown and walked over to the window. He would watch the sun rise over the North Sea. He thought back over the last ...
She came up from Oxford Circus Underground into the bright June sunshine, sped past the early morning shoppers scanning the windows of Dickins and Jones and plunged into the cacophony of Kingly Street, threading her way between the blocked pavement and the shining mass of cars and vans which pack...
Only once before had he seen so gaunt a figure, and that was his Uncle Gerry in those last weeks before the cancer finally got him. He had felt as much affection for his uncle as he was capable of feeling and the protracted agony of his dying had left him with one resolution: if that was what the...
A flight of four wide, curved stone steps led to the doorway, imposing on its pilasters but solidly, unostentatiously, right. Dalgliesh paused momentarily to study the façade. Howarth said: “Agreeable, isn’t it? But wait till you see what the old man did to some of the interior.” The front door, ...
Baguley knew that he couldn’t in decency neglect to offer Miss Kettle a lift home. She lived in Richmond and her house was directly on the route to his Surrey village. Usually he managed to avoid her; her attendance at the clinic was so erratic that they seldom left at the same time and he could ...
He never ate cake and took the view that scones and sandwiches only spoiled his dinner. He thought it right to put in an appearance at four o’clock when there were guests but usually only stayed long enough to drink his two cups of Earl Grey with lemon and welcome any new arrivals. This Saturday ...
It is late afternoon and the shadows are beginning to lengthen but, within the grove, the warmth of day still lingers. I have a conviction that this is the last diary entry I shall make, but even if neither I nor these words survive, I need to record this day. It has been one of extraordinary hap...
He said nothing about the visit of Emma, but he wondered whether his subordinates were aware of it. They must have heard the Jaguar passing Wisteria House and been curious about any car arriving at night on the road to the Manor, but neither of them spoke of it.The discussion was probably unsatis...
It is in any case perhaps one of the reasons for the favour it enjoys. A good detective story possesses certain qualities of harmony, internal organisation and balance, which respond to certain needs of the spirit, needs which some modern literature, priding itself on being superior, very often n...
D. - [Adam Dalgliesh 09] 203over the black waste of the river. At last, humbly, he had asked: 'What are you going to do?' 'Nothing. I had to see you to find out whether you've told the police, whether you propose to tell them. I was asked, of course, whether I'd seen anyone going into Innocent Ho...