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  • Cover Her Face

  • By: P. D. James
  • Narrated by: Daniel Weyman
  • Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (907 ratings)
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Cover Her Face cover art

Cover Her Face

By: P. D. James
Narrated by: Daniel Weyman
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Summary

An Adam Dalgliesh mystery. Cover Her Face is P. D. James' debut novel, the first Adam Dalgliesh mystery, and a thrilling work of crime fiction set in the English countryside, from the best-selling author of Death Comes to Pemberley and Children of Men.

From P. D. James, one of the masters of British crime fiction, comes the debut novel that introduced Scotland Yard detective Adam Dalgliesh. Set against the English countryside, Cover Her Face is a classic murder mystery filled with James' trademark plot twists, intrigue, and suspense.

Though the Martingale manor house has hosted the annual St Cedd's Church fête for generations, this year feels different. On top of organizing stalls and presiding over luncheon, the bishop, and the tea tent, Mrs Eleanor Maxie now also has to contend with the news of her son's sudden engagement to the new parlour maid, the sly and sensuous single mother Sally Jupp.

Sally has quite a reputation as a ruthless social climber, and no one at Martingale seems too happy about the engagement. But the Maxie family barely has time to contend with her wily ways - on the following morning the whole village is shocked by the discovery of Sally Jupp's body.

Investigating the violent death at the manor house, Detective Chief Inspector Adam Dalgliesh becomes embroiled in the complicated passions beneath the calm surface of English village life.

In Cover Her Face, award-winning P. D. James meticulously plots a complex story of family secrets and suspicion. The book was later adapted into a TV miniseries starring Roy Marsden as the inspector protagonist.

Meet the dark and brooding Dalgliesh - a gentleman, a poet, and a gifted detective - and listen to the novel that launched P. D. James' career as the world's preeminent crime writer.

P. D. James (1920-2014) was a bestselling and internationally acclaimed crime writer. She was the creator of Adam Dalgliesh and Cordelia Gray, and their long and successful series of mysteries. Her works include Cover Her Face (1962), An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1972), Innocent Blood (1980), Children of Men (1992), and the Jane Austen-inspired Death Comes to Pemberley (2011). James was born in Oxford in 1920. She won awards for crime writing in Britain, America, Italy and Scandinavia, including the Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster Award. She received honorary degrees from seven British universities, was awarded an OBE in 1983 and created a life peer in 1991. In 1997 she was elected President of the Society of Authors, and stood down from this role in 2013.

©2015 Faber & Faber (P)2015 Faber & Faber

Critic reviews

"A classic story of English rural murder." ( The Times)
"The greatest contemporary writer of classic crime." ( Sunday Times)
"There are very few thriller writers who can compete with P.D. James at her best." ( Spectator)

What listeners say about Cover Her Face

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

it's early

This is an early P D James book and as such is interesting.
All the features we expect and love are here, a closed community of an upper class family in the loved old home, a few working class characters. A introduction by the end of which you want to murder the victim as do all the others in the story.
The story moves along and it looks like all of them have killed her, but in the finale Dalglish declares the murder to have been committed by.......

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Enjoyed thoroughly!

For some reason have never read this author before but glad I did so now, beautiful writing and so wonderfully well read;ew readers earn 5 stars from me but this one certainly did. The combination of a good story and a good reader is a true pleasure.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Cover her face

I first read this , in 1988, for an examination, little, did I know that I hadn't really appreciate it.
Listening to it, brought it to life, and this time, I really enjoyed it

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A well executed whodunnit

As someone who has never been a particular fan of crime novels, i was very impressed by Cover Her Face. A murder mystery nearly 60 years old contains few thematic surprises for a modern audience and yet P.D.James' elegant lexicon and observations of character and mannerism kept me completely engaged for the duration. Previous reviews paint this first work of the series as a precursor to the following works which I look forward to listening to. Daniel Weyman's performance is excellent.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Di
  • 07-05-15

A good crime story

The writing style is exquisite and the narrator Daniel Weyman is very pleasant to listen to. The story is a good crime mystery going back to the post war times, if you are a fan of Agatha Christie, you are bound to like the story, but written in a different style. I found the story a bit sad, as class prejudice and reserved manner is what ultimately caused the early demise of a young woman. The victim was also portrayed as ''not a very nice person'', when in fact this was a young woman who refused to submit to being lowered, mistreated and discriminated against due to old prejudice over the position of women in society.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Average

Not great, not terrible, just an average read with an average performance. The story started well but quickly became bogged down with too many suspects and too much detail. As it wasn’t overly long I listened to it all but found it rather dull and uninteresting. The revelation of the murderer was unexciting and wholly predictable.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great who-dunnit

A great who-dunnit! By the end I couldn't wait to find out who the guilty party was and how the whole business had come to pass.
Great narrator.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Very formulaic whodunnit very well narrated

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Seemed to take an age to get going so a bit more action at the start would be good
As for having everyone in one room at the end to explain things deliberately left out along the way bit of a cliche but I guess I should have expected it

Has Cover Her Face put you off other books in this genre?

Not really but I think there are better ones

Was Cover Her Face worth the listening time?

Just about. It wasn't a page turner though and I had no trouble putting it down.
The biggest plus was the narration. This was excellent and probably why I stuck out the first couple of hours

Any additional comments?

I think the fact that most of the characters even the victim were not likeable is always a problem for me in these type off books. I will probably try another in a few books time but won't be downloading the next straight away.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Dated...

The servant problem has become so acute post-war that the Maxies of Martingale are reduced to taking on a “delinquent” as housemaid – Sally Jupp, a young woman with an illegitimate child. But Sally refuses to be as humble, penitent and grateful as a fallen woman should be, and various members of the household soon have reasons to resent her presence. So when she is found strangled in her room one morning, the field of suspects is wide. Enter Inspector Adam Dalgleish – full-time policeman and part-time poet…

I mentioned when I put this on my reading list that I used to love PD James but had found her last few books a struggle because it had felt to me that her style had dated badly. I hoped by going back to the beginning of her long-running Dalgleish series that my love might be revived, but I fear not. Sadly her class snobbery is too much for me to take now. It’s odd – I can put up with snobbery and other ’isms in the older authors of the Golden Age much better than from post-war authors. I suspect I feel they should have known better, although my own love for this series back in the day suggests I didn’t know better myself at that time! Whatever, I find I now have no tolerance for passages in post-war novels like the following, describing an elderly maid…

“Dagleish had met a number of Marthas in his time and had never supposed them to be complicated people. They were concerned with the comfort of the body, the cooking of food, the unending menial tasks which someone must carry out before the life of the mind can have any true validity. Their own undemanding emotional needs found fulfilment in service. They were loyal, hardworking and truthful and made good witnesses because they lacked both the imagination and the practice necessary for successful lying. They could be a nuisance if they decided to shield those who had gained their loyalty but this was an overt danger which could be anticipated. He expected no difficulty with Martha.”

I shall remain grateful to PD James for the enjoyment her books once gave me, but sometimes it’s best to leave the past undisturbed. 2½ stars for me, so rounded up.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Cover Her Face

Good story, but a bit dated now. Definitely a product otherwise decade in which it was written.

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1 person found this helpful