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Cover Her Face
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Cover Her Face
Unavailable
Cover Her Face
Audiobook9 hours

Cover Her Face

Written by P. D. James

Narrated by Penelope Dellaporta

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

P. D. James is "the greatest living mystery writer." -People

Headstrong and beautiful, the young housemaid Sally Jupp is put rudely in her place, strangled in her bed behind a bolted door. Coolly brilliant policeman Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard must find her killer among a houseful of suspects, most of whom had very good reason to wish her ill.

Cover Her Face is P. D. James's electric debut novel, an ingeniously plotted mystery that immediately placed her among the masters of suspense.


From the Compact Disc edition.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateNov 18, 2008
ISBN9781415959398
Unavailable
Cover Her Face
Author

P. D. James

P. D. James (1920–2014) was born in Oxford in 1920. She worked in the National Health Service and the Home Office From 1949 to 1968, in both the Police Department and Criminal Policy Department. All that experience was used in her novels. She won awards for crime writing in Britain, America, Italy, and Scandinavia, including the Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster Award and the National Arts Club Medal of Honour for Literature. She received honorary degrees from seven British universities, was awarded an OBE in 1983 and was created a life peer in 1991.

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Reviews for Cover Her Face

Rating: 3.602661501267427 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

789 ratings51 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This introduction to the Adam Dalgliesh series is a cross between an English country house mystery and a police procedural. It tends to feel more like the former since the detective is mostly absent and the family members seem central. Sally Jupp, a household employee with a secretive past, dies at the hands of a killer in an apparently locked room. Neither Sally nor the family members were likable. I would prefer more involvement from the police detective. I listened to the audio version read by Penelope Dellaporta who did a good job capturing family voices.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Typical English cozy--entertaining, nothing offensive. This is the first of P.D. James many Adam Dalgliesh novels and I understand they get better from here so I look forward to reading--or listening to--more.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It seems that books in this series were said to be shorter than the later ones...less than 300 pages. Also a great deal of story space was taken up delving into the psychology of each of the characters. As far as I could see this was way too much unnecessary information that took up a lot of space that could have been used to expand the plot. As for the story itself...the characters were varied and fairly interesting but I believe Ms. James bore some prejudices and perhaps some very biased views that came through in her writing in spades. However she is obviously a skilled writer that sets up a very complex, worthwhile mystery story.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    P.D. James began writing while still working as a civil servant. Her husband, a doctor, returned from WWII with mental illness and she became the family breadwinner. This is her first book and became the first in the Adam Dalglicsh mystery series. Published in 1962, it was also developed for PBS Mystery. I have liked P.D. James books and was curious about the first. A classic mystery, a young woman is found murdered in a bedroom behind a locked door. There are several people staying in the house who would be happy to see her dead. The only problem I have is that the Dalglisch character lacks development but that will change as she writes more. Overall, an enjoyable read from the classic mystery shelf.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It was a little slow. I am not a huge fan of this style of mystery. More of a cozy hybrid mystery. Very slow pacing. Not sure if I will read the next one.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is PD James debut crime novel from 1962 and it has been stated by her that this was her least favorite of her books. After reading this series out of order (gasp!!) I can see that this is not the best book in the series but it was a great start! I really enjoyed this one but not as much as A Certain Justice . I will continue with this series (in proper order now!).
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Set in the English countryside, Cover Her Face is a book about deception, murder, and blackmail. Chief Inspector Adam Dalgliesh is assigned to investigate the murder of Sally Jupp, an unmarried mother who was working as a maid in the home of the Maxies. Sally herself was a conundrum, which made the story even more intriguing as the plot played out. P.D. James crafted a tale that was spellbinding. I look forward to reading more by this author.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    While I enjoyed this book on some levels, there were things about it that disturbed me a good deal. Shea's best friend is someone she has grown up with, and she is closer to that family than her own complicated family. Her friend's mother dies, and that's where everything begins. First, you must understand that Shea is a rabid football fan for a small fictitious Texas college who competes with Division 1 schools. I could have cared less about all the football talk, feeling that it took away from the story. The friend, Lucy, is someone I wanted to shake a few times, and Shea falls for men she shouldn't, for a variety of reasons. Parts of the ending were good, but others not so much. All in all, it was entertaining, aside from the times I wanted to throw the book on the floor.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I read this book a long time ago, so I can't recall exactly what impression it made on me, but I can tell you that it introduced me to the drama of John Webster. Because of this book, I read "The Duchess of Malfi," which is one of my favorite dramas.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I love the way she wrote about people, with compassion and careful distance that allows us to better see the characters, their strengths and weaknesses, their humanity.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I decided to read this because I'd never read any P.D. James, and I thought I'd give her a shot. She's said she thinks of this as a lesser effort, and she's right. The novel is structured like a game of Clue--Miss Scarlett in the buttery with a soup tureen, all the suspects gathered in the dining room for the big denouement--which can be amusing if *extremely* well-written, but this is clearly a practice run. (See, for example, A.A. Milne's The Red House Mystery, which isn't very mysterious, but remains stylistically fresh.) The characters were stereotypes, and I got to only about the middle of the book before reading ahead. Ho hum.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I became interested in PD James back in the early 80s when I used to evaluate the Mystery/masterpiece Theater programs for PBS. Cover Her Face was the first episode, and I was immediately entranced. That led to finding PD James, the author of the Adam Dalgliesh detective series. Very different pacing than the usual detective books.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    My first James and I'm disappointed. Besides sloppy use of pronouns and commas, with awkward transitions and thoughts bouncing from character to character, the plot was subservient to showing off the acting chops of each character. But this is not a script. Tolerable if you have to read something for a long flight because you've already seen the inflight movie.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Sally Jupp, an unwed mother from St. Mary’s Refuge for Girls, has been given the position of house-parlourmaid at Martingale. She and her baby have housing and income from this recent change. Besides her ability to perform her job well, she also brought some secrets.Eleanor Maxie, owner of Martingale, thought she was giving Sally a start on a better life. Stephen Maxie, Eleanor’s son, developed feelings for her – Sally’s feelings for him were about social climbing. Catherine Bowers had hopes and dreams of becoming the wife of Stephen and mistress of the manor — Sally worried her. The housekeeper, Martha, welcomed the extra pair of hands, but didn’t trust Sally.When Sally is found strangled in her room, and her baby crying in his crib, Sally’s secrets start coming out. It is up to Chief Inspector Adam Dalgliesh to sort these secrets and find the murderer.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Good book, but a little dry for my current tastes. I honestly had a little trouble keeping the characters straight in my mind and I didn't like a single one of them, including Dalgliesh. I enjoyed this more back in the day. I suppose my tastes have changed.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Rather stolid and but I was intrigued by the structure. Plus it's the first Dalgliesh. I've read her before, but only sporadically over the years, so it'll be interesting to see how her style unfolds.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    St. Bart's 2015 #4 - My first P. D. James, and hers as well! Slower paced mystery about the murder of a saucy little unwed mother brought in to help out at Martingale as a maid. The Maxie family is as dysfunctional as one would expect in an English manor house slightly past its prime. Enter Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard to calmly and methodically sort out the tangle of 'whodunnit'. I very much enjoyed the steady influx of facts that further confused things and the number of possibilities grew and grew, certainly driving my interest. Thrilling?? No. Gripping?? No. I cannot really put my finger on it, but I really enjoyed it! And there are many more to follow....
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was my first PD James. Since I'm a fan of mystery, I thought it was time I read the mistress of the genre. I decided to start at the beginning with first in the Adam Dalgliesh series written in 1962. It took me a while to get used to the style.Cover her Face was quietly English. I enjoyed the slow rise of the detective work, no crescendo, but complete with novel twists and turns that kept me guessing. I'll read more of James, not in place of my typical escape mysteries but when I want to wrap my mind around murder.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A classic detective novel. With all the positives and negatives that go with that. In some ways the first fifty pages -- before the murder -- were a better written, more interesting novel than what followed which relied on the typical devices of a locked room, an English manor house, and a solution that ultimately involved three different people involved in different aspects of the murder -- all unbeknownst to each other -- in a manner that strains credulity, to say the least. That said, I did keep reading with interest to the end and the coda, like the opening, renewed interest in the characters and their relationships.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I 've had 'Cover Her Face' on my to read list for a long time but it isn't at a local library and it seemed to be out a lot. Well at long last I got it on loan and was wondering if the long waited anticipation would turn out to be a dud. It wasn't. I'm not as hyped on Adam Dalgliesh as I am Ian Rutledge but I'll be checking for number two in the series 'A Mind to Matter' in my local library soon and hopefully it will be available.

    The story centers around the murder of a young servant in the Maxi household. She wasn't liked by most if any so the suspects are a plenty but Inspector Dalgliesh solves the case and in typical mystery fashion the suspects are all gathered and revealed
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I came late to the P.D.James party, but I'm glad I got here. The head of a local book shop spoke at a meeting with such enthusiasm and fondness for the character of Adam Dalgliesh that I just HAD to try the books. This is the first one - and it's a first-rate "locked room" murder mystery. Very fine writing, and keeps you guessing right to the end. NOTE: In Sept 2008 I read this again because I didn't realize I had read it before until I was half-way through. Still kept me entertained!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was an old fashioned mystery. Kind of like Columbo. Didn't really guess who the murderer was. Found her writing to be good but not really my style.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Who could have guessed that this relatively straightforward crime novel was the start (1962) of a career that led to PD James becoming one of the most prolific and successful English crime writers of the late 20th century, with many TV and film adaptations and lots of honours and awards, culminating in her creation, in 1991, as Baroness James of Holland Park. The seeds are here, however, with good plotting and characterisation, and a classically English setting that would become the hallmark of her poet-detective Adam Dalgliesh. Later books would reflect here working background, first in the health service and subsequently at Scotland Yard.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    “The cultured cop! I thought they were peculiar to detective novels.”In “Cover Her Face” by P. D. JamesSometimes people just like to talk about the books they're reading. Not boast. Just talk. I realise such plebeian behaviour may not be acceptable in the rarefied circles some people move in, but for the rest of us mere mortals it happens quite a lot. Given that reading is becoming less and less common, one would think you'd be happy people are reading at all, without feeling the need to bitch about the fact that they happened to have enjoyed something so much they might want to read it again. Unless you think reading should just be restricted to the real intelligentsia, among whom some people obviously count themselves. So, unless those people have evidence that re-reading causes cancer or blows up the WC, why not back off and let the rest of us do what we like. Or better, why not direct that scathing anger at something that really matters? "Oh, I'm re-reading ‘Cover Her Face’.” Yes, there are people who like to brag about re-reading the Shakespeare plays, but most of us are just trying to be accurate. If you say, "I'm reading such-and-such," people assume you mean "reading for the first time." I'm not sure why this applies to books and not movies, but it doesn't seem like that hard a thing to accept. As for our being too stupid to understand books the first time around -- sure! Fine! I admit it! I didn't even begin to understand “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” when I read it at fifteen or sixteen. But strangely enough, I wasn't too ashamed of my terminal idiocy to read it again in college and loving it. Plenty of books need a second or third reading, not because we're stupid, but because they're complex. But as almost everyone has said, this is all so painfully obvious that I can't believe I'm actually bothering to point it out. “Cover Her Face” was one of the first books I discovered at the British Council’s library. Fond memories. Some of them I’m not allowed to state here…But I loved re-reading it although it’s not that good. It's so trite and boring how family and witnesses ALWAYS complain when asked questions... And always having the same depressed, desperate, selfish and despondent characters and family members ... And every character always deciding not to tell what they know...like life really. And then getting killed just when they decide to tell (this part I’m not particularly fond of.) I, for one, think Katherine is pitiful; the character is so clingy to that man-child doctor it’s a cause for the vomit police. And Doctor Stephen needs a kick up the arse as well! It did surprise me upon this re-reading what a nasty piece of work Dalgliesh can be denying lawyers and bullying witnesses. I always knew Dalgliesh had a mean streak...Bottom-line: It’s all about Memories after all.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Where I got the book: Audiobook on Audible.I thought it was about time I listened to the entire Adam Dalgleish series—I’ve read some of them but certainly none of the early ones. In this 1962 story you can see the tradition that goes back to the Golden Age of the detective story in the 1930s. All the clichés are there: the stately home, the nerve-ridden war hero, the lower classes kowtowing to the upper, the vicar a sort of go-between in terms of social status. Except that it wasn’t, of course—James updated her stately home mystery to portray a society shaken by (another) War and by the social upheaval that followed it. The staff at Martingale is reduced to a sort of housekeeper, Martha, with no butler in sight to do the dirty deed. Martha is aided by a housemaid, Sally Jupp, an unmarried mother who seems to take lightly what would once have been a cause of shame. The lower classes are decidedly uppity, with their carefully tended council houses and a distinct touch of attitude toward their betters. The money is all gone, the master of the house is dying, and standards are always just a step away from slipping disastrously down the cliff face. And yet the Maxies struggle on, holding the village fête in their grounds, giving dinner parties and doing good wherever they can—such as taking in Sally and her child, whose father is unknown.Manipulative Sally announces that she’s marrying into the Maxie family, but is found dead the next morning and the chief constable calls in the Yard, in the form of Dalgleish. We learn little about the detective, who comes across as rather two-dimensional, prone to saying “yes, we know all about that,” when a new clue is revealed (and if the police knew all about it, why wasn’t the reader informed, I’d like to know?) Dalgleish is admired by his sergeant and clearly thought a Sexy Beast by the family’s attractive widow, but I never really got a clear impression of what made him such a striking figure. I guess it took James a while to build him into the Sensitive Loner Dectective that sent readers’ hearts a-fluttering.Two factors in particular made this story seem very dated to me. One was the omniscient narrator, popping happily into the suspects’ heads without warning and in a very erratic fashion, as if the writer occasionally became tired of doing the storytelling and handed the job over to someone else for five minutes. The other, alas, was the voice of audiobook narrator Penelope Dellaporta, which was standard BBC refined actress—I’ve become so unused to hearing this voice that its plumminess tends to get on my nerves. Furthermore, when I was listening to the audiobook without earbuds, there were odd popping noises as if people were playing ping-pong in the background. It didn’t happen when I put my earbuds in—very strange.And, oh my goodness, every upper class character in the story was a resounding snob. Except, perhaps, the vicar, and vicars are, socially speaking, neither fish nor fowl. The descriptions of the lower orders’ houses were spectacularly condescending—was James playing to the sensibilities of her supposed readership, or was this how she actually thought? It seems almost impossible that English society was that hidebound just fiftysomething years ago.The story wasn’t bad, apart from the tendency the characters had to explain their actions very carefully in chronological order, helpful if you’re the sort of mystery fan who loves the timetable aspect of investigation but not very realistic. There were some nice twists, and the whole thing culminated, very satisfactorily, with the great detective gathering all the suspects together in one room and methodically explaining what happened, with further twists in the tale being provided by timely interruptions. All very mechanical, really, but interesting—you can see the straight line going back to Dorothy L. Sayers and forward to the writer P.D. James would become in her later life. Development of the Mystery Story 101.This methodical method of building up a story was a bit on the slow side, of course. But it’s a true portrait, I think, of a world that was being swept away even as P.D. James was writing. I’m looking forward to seeing her move into the 70s . . . although, of course, if I remember anything of the Dalgleish stories I read, she tended to adopt the closed-community scenario where people were sort of stranded in time.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It's been a long time since I read a book by this author, but I think I remember having liked them. Maybe the other books were better or maybe I have just outgrown my interest in mysteries, at least the British variety with tea cups, jam jars, jumble sales and small gossipy villages. Whatever the reason, I was really unimpressed by this book. Most of the suspects were introduced in tedious detail in the first chapter, but the murder did not occur until about the 25% point of the book. At that time Detective Adam Dalgliesh arrived on the scene, but he did very little "detecting" thereafter. He was barely in the book other than to conduct long interviews with the suspects and then, in the ultimate cliché, gather them all together in one room to declare the crime solved. The solution involved secret relatives and missing limbs. I had not guessed the criminal, so that's something in it's favor. I didn't really dislike this book, I've just moved on.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    'Cover Her Face', P.D. James' first novel, lacks the originality and challenges to the traditions of the genre of the later Dalgliesh books. Instead this is very much a traditional British mystery, with a host of suspects ensconced in a country house when a murder takes place. The mystery is quotedian, but the book's strength is James' consistently excellent characterisation; even the most minor personages are fully rounded and believable. One of these is Dalgliesh himself, who remains in the background of the plot. Although the police case provides the frame around which the story develops, Dalgliesh is a foil to the actions and character development of the Maxies and their circle, rather than the captivating protagonist he becomes as the series develops. James' gentle probing of social prejudices and neuroses also provides an indication of themes which will be expanded in future works.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Not so great. I expected this -- the first book in a series usually is weak (but good enough) to allow the author to continue to develop as a writer. Maybe I shouldn't read these in order? I'll think about it.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Meh. P.D. James is a competent writer and puts together a reasonable mystery, but there's nothing exciting about it -- I felt like I'd read it before, honestly. The Kindle version has very bad formatting, too ("that" turns into "mat", for example); no one bothered to proofread it. None of the characters are particularly interesting to me -- again, I seemed to have read all about them before, in other crime novels.

    I think I had the same reaction to another P.D. James book, so maybe I just don't care for James' work.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Let me think, was I surprised during revelation? Um, it was much of an anticlimax, no thrill in end. Even though victim Sally's character was very promising and suspects around her pretty plausible. Only end did not live up to it.