return to home
 
 
Member Login
Library Login
BookBrowse Mobile facebook      twitter      Bookmark and Share      mail to a friend  Email
 
  This Week's Recommendations    |     Hardcovers Coming Soon    |     Paperbacks Coming Soon    |     Recent Hardcovers    |     Recent Paperbacks
   Genres   |    Settings   |    Time Periods   |    Themes   |    Favorites   |    Award Winners   |    Book Finder   |    Surprise Me!   |    Tag cloud
   Recent Interviews    |     All Interviews    |     Author Bios    |     Author Websites    |     Pronunciation Guide
   Free Newsletters   |    Wordplay   |    Book Giveaway   |    BookBrowse Polls   |    Literary Quotes   |    Personality Quiz   |    Gift Membership
   Recent Membership Magazines    |     Magazine Archives     |     Invite the Author    |     My Reading List    |     First Impressions    |     My Account
   Editor's Blog    |     Best Reader Reviews    |     Book News    |     Meet the Reviewers    |     Stay In Touch
   About Us   |    Tour   |    Member Benefits   |    Join   |    Gift Memberships   |    Library Subscriptions   |    FAQ   |    People Say   |    Contact Us
PLA 2010
Search BookBrowse
Suggested Links
This Book's Themes:
Free Twice-Monthly Newsletters
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand
The Wild Things

Win This Book!


The Last Child jacket

The Last Child
by John Hart


'An early masterpiece in a career that continues to promise great things.' - Washington Post

Enter To Win Now!


wordplay
Solve this clue:
"I A Small W"

and be entered to win....
New Author
Interviews
S.J. Parris
S.J. Parris writes about her inspiration for Heresy, which masterfully blends true events with fiction into a page-turning murder mystery set on the sixteenth-century Oxford University campus.
John Hart
In a letter to his readers, John Hart talks about becoming a writer and the challenges he faced in writing The Last Child.
Adam Haslett
A conversation with Adam Haslett, author of Union Atlantic, a deeply affecting portrait of the modern gilded age, the first decade of the twenty-first century.
Sarah Blake
Sarah Blake talks about her inspiration for The Postmistress, set in Europe and Cape Cod in 1940.
No Stars
   Summary and Book Reviews

The Lighthouse: Summary and book reviews of The Lighthouse by P.D. James, plus links to an excerpt from The Lighthouse and a biography of P.D. James.

The Lighthouse The Lighthouse
by P.D. James
Hardcover: Nov 2005,
352 pages.
Paperback: Oct 2006,
352 pages.

Publication information
Read an Excerpt
Write the First Review!

Author Biography
Books by this Author
Critics' Opinion:   very good
Readers' Rating:  Not Rated
About BookBrowse Rankings
Buy This Book
Themes Members Only Read-Alikes Members Only Add to Reading List  Members Only BookBrowse Review Members Only
Book Summary

Combe Island off the Cornish coast has a bloodstained history of piracy and cruelty but now, privately owned, it offers respite to over-stressed men and women in positions of high authority who require privacy and guaranteed security. But the peace of Combe is violated when one of the distinguished visitors is bizarrely murdered.

Commander Adam Dalgliesh is called in to solve the mystery quickly and discreetly, but at a difficult time for him and his depleted team. Dalgliesh is uncertain about his future with Emma Lavenham, the woman he loves; Detective Inspector Kate Miskin has her own emotional problems; and the ambitious Sergeant Francis Benton-Smith is worried about working under Kate. Hardly has the team begun to unravel the complicated motives of the suspects than there is a second brutal killing, and the whole investigation is jeopardized when Dalgliesh is faced with a danger more insidious and as potentially fatal as murder.

Book Reviews


Average  Publishers Weekly
The solution.... is less than fully satisfactory and also borrows elements from some of James's recent plots. Devotees more interested in her hero's personal growth than his deductive technique will find much to enjoy.

Good  Kirkus Reviews
Although the story is briefer than James's recent double-deckers, readers will still revel in her matchless fullness of characterization. A stay on Combe Island really is tonic.

Very Good  Booklist - Bill Ott
Starred Review. It's what happens between the lines that gives James' stories their punch.... Each new Dalgleish novel should be treated as a gift by mystery fans everywhere.

Very Good  The New York Times - Janet Maslin
The Lighthouse is too rooted in genre conventions to count originality as its strong suit. But it has deviousness to burn, and it also offers other enticements. It's the kind of book that boasts a wryly humorous Scrabble scene, not to mention a Scrabble-lover's vocabulary: Ms. James makes ready use of words like abseil, belay, symphysis and meiosis. It's a book that serves up figurative red herring as well as melon balls in orange sauce. Not a menu goes unmentioned ... it is a sturdy installment in a well-honed series, which is a concept that even its characters understand.

Very Good  Times Literary Supplement
James's gifts animate and transform the armature into something exceptional. Her disciplined conventions, her observation of social and class niceties, renew the traditional Franco-British drama of domestic crime. She is a very superior writer of detection.

Very Good  The Daily Express
James has proven that she deserves her reputation as our leading 'literary' crime writer. The Lighthouse confirms that she is also the most enjoyable.

Good  The Globe & Mail
An elegant and perceptive writer - rich drifts of prose pile up on the page, descriptive passages are Dickensian in length, ornament and power.... James's many fans will relish The Lighthouse, for all its poise and narrative familiarity.

Very Good  The Toronto Sun
With her trademark blend of subtle characterization, vivid sense of place and deceptively simple plot, James pulls off another triumph. A beautifully written page-turner from the queen of the genre.

Write a Review
This Book's Themes:
Read-Alikes:
Other books by this author
Buy This Book:
Addall Logo

Become a Member
Advertisement
Editor's Choice
  •  Mar 14 
  •  Mar 12 
  •  Mar 10 
Heresy
S.J. Parris
Heresy Jacket Masterfully blending true events with fiction, this blockbuster historical thriller delivers a page-turning murder mystery set on the sixteenth-century Oxford University campus.
The Swan Thieves
Elizabeth Kostova
The Swan Thieves Jacket Kostova's masterful new novel travels from American cities to the coast of Normandy, from the late 19th century to the late 20th, from young love to last love. The Swan Thieves is a story of obsession, history's losses, and the power of art to preserve human hope.
36 Arguments for the Existence of God
Rebecca Goldstein
36 Arguments for the Existence of God Jacket A hilarious, heartbreaking, and intellectually captivating novel about the rapture and torments of religious experience in all its variety.
The Unnamed
Joshua Ferris
The Unnamed Jacket What drives a man to stay in a marriage, in a job? What forces him away? Is love or conscience enough to overcome the darker, stronger urges of the natural world? The Unnamed is a deeply felt, luminous novel about modern life, ancient yearnings, and the power of human understanding.
The Bricklayer
Noah Boyd
The Bricklayer Jacket Someone gives you a dangerous puzzle to solve, one that may kill you or someone else, and you're about to fail... And there is no other option. No one who can help. No one but the Bricklayer.
The Birthday Present
Recent Reader Reviews
Coal by Barbara Freese
I was sorry to see that there were so few reviews. I started reading COAL and could not stop. The only thing I am going to say is that I wish ... read more
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
The tragedy, the sorrow, the loss, is almost too much for me to recommend this; on the other hand Mistry made me believe I knew these characters. I ... read more
America's Queen by Sarah Bradford
The challenge of writing a biography on Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis is that everyone knows the basic plot: a love of horses, suffered from her ... read more
RSS RSS feed More...  
Most Viewed This Week
1. Brooklyn Bridge
Karen Hesse
2. Three Cups of Tea
David O. Relin, Greg Mortenson
3. The Glass Castle
Jeannette Walls
4. The Notebook
Nicholas Sparks
5. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
John Boyne
More...
Book Club Recommendations
When Will There Be Good News?
by Kate Atkinson
Paperback (Jan/10)
Remarkable Creatures
by Tracy Chevalier
Hardback (Jan/10)
Summertime
by J M Coetzee
Paperback (Oct/10)
Raven Summer
by David Almond
Hardback (Nov/09)
More...
First Impressions
Members read and review books often months before they're published. See what they think in First Impressions!
The Journal Keeper
by Phyllis Theroux
4.5 Stars            (Mar/10)
The Man From Saigon
by Marti Leimbach
4.5 Stars            (Feb/10)
Secret Daughter
by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
4.5 Stars            (Mar/10)
Still Life
by Melissa Milgrom
3.5 Stars            (Mar/10)
Heresy
by S.J. Parris
4.5 Stars            (Feb/10)
Arcadia Falls
by Carol Goodman
Four Stars            (Mar/10)
More...
   Most Recent Blog Entries
Author as Advocate
The Story Behind "The Forty Rules of Love" by Elif Shafak
A Warm Welcome to Major Pettigrew
How Becoming Published Changed My Life (in ways I did not expect)
rss  RSS   rss  subscribe
  Latest BookBrowse News
Samsung introduces eReader (Mar 10 2010)
Yesterday, Samsung announced the Samsung eReader, a $299 device which allows you to take notes in the margins and share content with other Samsung eReaders.... Full Story
Books overtake games as most numerous iPhone apps (Mar 10 2010)
The electronic book passed another milestone this month, with the number of books available on the iTunes App Store passing the number of games for the first... Full Story
rss RSS feed More...
BookBrowse Poll
Q: Which of these four elements do you tend to remember most in the books you read:
The characters
The plot
The setting
The dialogue/way characters interact
Parts of all of these
HOME Submissions | Advertising | Showcase | Library Subscriptions | Media Inquiries | Reviewers | Contact Us |   Email this page to a friend
addall.com - external link
Visit AddAll.com to compare and save at 41 bookstores!
Searching for used books? Search 20,000+ dealers!
 
Compare music prices  |  Compare movie prices
One Percent