Devices and Desires cover art

Devices and Desires

Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Devices and Desires

By: P. D. James
Narrated by: Daniel Weyman
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £18.99

Buy Now for £18.99

Only £0.99 a month for the first 3 months. Pay £0.99 for the first 3 months, and £8.99/month thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Start my membership

About this listen

THE MULTIMILLION-COPY BESTSELLING ADAM DALGLIESH SERIES FROM THE 'QUEEN OF ENGLISH CRIME' ( Guardian)

'A legend. VAL MCDERMID
'P. D. James took the classic crime novel and turned up the dial.' MICK HERRON
'Perhaps her greatest novel.' Guardian

PERFECT FOR FANS OF VAL MCDERMID, RUTH RENDELL AND ELLY GRIFFITHS

Dalgliesh thought he was inured to horror - but this was the first time he'd stumbled upon a murdered body.

When Commander Adam Dalgliesh visits Larksoken, a remote headland community on the Norfolk coast in the shadow of a nuclear power station, he expects to be engaged only in the sad business of tying up his late aunt's estate. A serial killer known as 'the Whistler' has been terrorising the area - but it isn't his case. He isn't going to get involved.

Then, not far from his aunt's home, he stumbles on a body. Unable now to keep his distance, he must navigate not only the looming weight of the power station's influential leaders but his aunt's friends and neighbours - all of whom could be suspects - if he wants to help the local police understand this latest crime.

But could there really be more than one murderer here?

'Magnificent . . . a compelling human drama.' Evening Standard

'P. D. James is the crème de la crème of crime writers. Her books are shrewd puzzles, full of wit and depth.' IAN RANKIN

'Nobody can put the reader in the eye of the storm quite like P. D. James.' SUNDAY EXPRESS

'One of the literary greats. Her sense of place was exquisite, characterisation and plotting unrivalled.' MARI HANNAH

'James manages a depth and intelligence that few in her trade can match.' THE TIMES

'There are very few thriller writers who can compete with P. D. James at her best.' SPECTATOR
'The queen of English crime.' GUARDIAN

©2014 P. D. James (P)2014 Faber & Faber
Crime Detective Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Murder Mystery Police Procedural Suspense Thriller & Suspense Traditional Detectives Exciting

Listeners also enjoyed...

Hero: A Simon Serrailler Short Story cover art
Last Bus to Woodstock cover art
Rebus cover art
A Man Lay Dead cover art
A Long Time Dead cover art
The Woman in White cover art
A Great Deliverance cover art
Shake Hands For Ever cover art
Wycliffe and the House of Fear cover art
The Dry cover art
The Dispatcher cover art
Talking to Strange Men cover art

Critic reviews

"Her storytelling is as consummate and fiendish as ever." ( Independent on Sunday)
"The characters are vibrant, the writing distinguished, the descriptions of mood and landscape perfect, the ironic ending nicely cynical. And over it all, a haunting Norfolk mist of dread, loneliness and ancient history." ( Sunday Express)
All stars
Most relevant
excellent telling of plot/exposition of ideas/philosophical/ psychological
therein- thoroughly enjoyed content and narration PDJ at her best !

first rate

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Superb as always. I felt as though I had been transported to the Norfolk headland, lost in the Author's wonderful detail.

Pure brilliance.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I am so enjoying revisiting PDJames. I read them all a long time ago but listening to them is almost better. Daniel Weyman makes the whole experience an absolute joy. He is definitely one of the best narrators around. Anything read by him would sound good.
She is wonderful with her descriptions of people..Something I missed, or didn’t appreciate first time round, was her humour.
I really like Adam Dalgliesh as a character, even though he is a very private man. It’s what makes him attractive

One of her best

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Good classic British detective drama. Intricately drawn characters, weaving plots & an air of poignancy make this a thoughtful, quite moving listen.

Set on a bleak, isolated coast of Norfolk, watched over by a Nuclear power station, Larksoken is the perfect setting for misfits & the disenchanted. This is Pre-Skandi Noir! The depressing landscape & the inertia of life, exacerbated by the British inability to communicate on an emotional level results in a psychological depth not usual in detective fiction. But it's not hard going! There's enough humour & light to keep it entertaining. And enough characters that you won't guess who did it, well you might but only after thinking it was a dozen others first.

Although this book is one of the Inspector Adam Dalgliesh series it works as a stand alone novel. If you like Morse you'll like this. It's not cosy crime but it's not overtly violent or gruesome so it's also fine for the squeamish.

Pre-Skandi Noir... Norfolk Noir

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I loved this from beginning to end. An exciting storyline and great characters and not predictable so it keeps you guessing. Excellent narration.

Loved it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews