Shroud for a Nightingale by PD James

From the blurb: 

'Hailed as “mystery at its best” by The New York Times, Shroud for a Nightingale is the fourth book in bestselling author P.D. James’s Adam Dalgliesh mystery series.'

At Nightingale House, women learn to nurse and comfort the suffering. However, one young lady dies in a training procedure, and then another and Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard is called in to discover why.

PD James is a prolific author, who died in 2014. One of my favourite quotes of hers is:

“I love the idea of bringing order out of disorder which is what the mystery is about. I like the way in which it affirms the sanity of human life and exorcises irrational guilts.” 

Shroud for a Nightingale is a mystery, and a detection. It unravels at a steady pace. It is complex, and the characters flow beautifully from James’s skillful pen. When the resolution comes, you are left feeling satisfied. It is written in the tradition of an Agatha Christie – good old fashioned language, with strong stereotypical characters. I was intrigued enough to want to finish, but not captured enough to try to work it out, and, by the end, I was glad I hadn’t. It was much too complicated, despite all the crumbs left on my path.

A murder mystery that makes for perfect holiday reading.

ISBN:  9780743219600

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You may also enjoy Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer or Little Black Lies by Sharon Bolton.