The Lighthouse (novel)
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| Author | P. D. James |
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| Language | English |
| Series | Adam Dalgliesh Mystery |
| Genre(s) | Crime/Mystery |
| Publisher | Faber & Faber |
| Released | November 22, 2005 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) |
| Pages | 352 (hardcover) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-307-26291-X |
| Preceded by | The Murder Room |
The Lighthouse is a novel by P.D. James, and the most recent book in the Adam Dalgliesh mystery series.
[edit] Plot overview
Adam Dalgliesh is brought in to investigate mysterious death of a famous writer on a remote and inaccessible island off the Cornish coast.
Combe Island is a discreet retreat operated by a private trust, where the rich and powerful find peace and quiet. Famed novelist Nathan Oliver, who was born on the island and thus is allowed to visit as he wishes, arrives with his daughter, Miranda and his copy-editor, Dennis Tremlett, who, unbeknownst to Oliver, are having an affair. When they break the news, Oliver reacts with fury and orders them to leave the island the next day.
Several people on the island find Oliver an unpleasant guest. The writer is pressuring the manager of the Combe Island Trust, Rupert Maycroft, to allow him to live in a cottage used by the sole remaining member of the family that owned the island for many years. The manager's secretary, a disgraced Anglican priest named Adrian Boyde, blames Oliver for forcing him to "fall off the wagon." Oliver also is confronted at dinner by a scientist, Dr. Mark Yelland, who believes he was the model for an unpleasant character in one of Oliver's books.
The reader is introduced to all the residents of the island, including Jago Tamlyn, the boatman, and Daniel Padgett, a handyman who is planning to leave after the recent death of his mother, who also worked on the island. Oliver is angry at Padgett, who dropped a vial of the author's blood into the sea while taking it to a doctor on the mainland for some medical tests.
The next morning, Oliver is discovered hanging from the island's historic lighthouse. Dalgliesh and his team arrive to investigate. The pathologist, Dr. Edith Gleinster, determines Oliver was throttled to death before a rope was tied around his neck and his body thrown over the side of the lighthouse railing.
Dalgliesh learns that a visiting dignitary from Germany, Dr. Raimund Speidel, is the son of a Nazi officer who died under tragic circumstances while visiting the island during World War II. He further learns that Nathan Oliver's father, Saul, and Jago's grandfather, Tom, played a role in the man's death.
The German falls ill and is diagnosed with SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), and Dalgliesh worries he, too, has been exposed. Health authorities put the island under quarantine to contain the spread of disease.
As Dalgliesh grows ill, he discovers that Adrian Boyde has been murdered. Dalgliesh takes to the sickroom and leaves his colleagues, Kate Miskin and Francis Benton-Smith, to work the case. Benton risks his life to climb down a cliff to find the rock used to beat Boyde to death.
Dalgliesh has a feverish vision that helps him "connect the dots." He orders Kate and Francis to search Padgett's cottage, where they discover the phial of Oliver's blood that he had allegedly dropped into the sea. They also find Padgett's birth certificate and a book written by Oliver in which a young girl is seduced by an older man. We learn Oliver was actually Padgett's father; Padgett wanted the blood for a DNA test to confirm paternity so he could seek money from Oliver. Padgett killed Oliver in a fit of anger after confronting him in the lighthouse. He killed Adrian Boyde because the priest knew Padgett wasn't telling the truth about his whereabouts the day Oliver was killed.
Before Kate and Francis can arrest Padgett, he takes a co-worker, Millie Tranter, hostage and threatens to throw her from the lighthouse. Kate bravely insists she be pushed through a narrow window so she can unlock the lighthouse door. Francis climbs to the top, confronts Padgett, and convinces him to surrender.
Dalgliesh recovers from SARS and agrees to marry Emma, his long-suffering girlfriend.
Template:Dalgliesh series
