Children of Men. Poster of the 2006 movie and cover of the 1992 book, The Children of Men
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The Children of Men
P.D. James, 1992
movie vs book
Alfonso Cuarón, 2006

In 2027, after 18 years of total human infertility and global depression, the world is on the brink of collapse and humanity faces extinction. Theo Faron, a former activist turned cynical bureaucrat, is kidnapped by the Fishes, a militant immigrants’ rights group.


A Taste for Death. Poster of the 1988 TV series and cover of the 1986 book
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A Taste for Death
P.D. James, 1986
TV series vs book
John Davies, 1988

When the quiet Little Vestry of St. Matthew’s Church becomes the blood-soaked scene of a double murder, Scotland Yard Commander Adam Dalgliesh faces an intriguing conundrum: How did an upper-crust Minister come to lie, slit throat to slit throat, next to a neighborhood derelict of the lowest order?


Dalgliesh. Poster of the 2021 TV series and cover of the 1962 book, Cover Her Face
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Cover Her Face
P.D. James, 1962
TV series vs book
Lisa Clarke, Jill Robertson, Andy Tohill, Ryan Tohill, 2021-

Centred on the cases of P. D. James’ gentleman detective Adam Dalgliesh from 1970s in England to the present day. In addition to his career as a policeman, Dalgliesh is also a published poet and an intensely private man.


Cover Her Face. Poster of the 1985 TV series and cover of the 1962 book
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Cover Her Face
P.D. James, 1962
TV series vs book
John Davies, 1985-

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.


The Black Tower. Poster of the 1985 TV series and cover of the 1975 book
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The Black Tower
P.D. James, 1975
TV series vs book
Ronald Wilson, 1985

Commander Dalgliesh is recuperating from a life-threatening illness when he receives a call for advice from an elderly friend who works as a chaplain in a home for the disabled on the Dorset coast. Dalgliesh arrives to discover that Father Baddeley has recently and mysteriously died, as has one of the patients at Toynton Grange. Evidently the home is not quite the caring community it purports to be.


Shroud for a Nightingale. Poster of the 1984 TV series and cover of the 1971 book
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Shroud for a Nightingale
P.D. James, 1971
TV series vs book
John Gorrie, 1984

The young women of Nightingale House are there to learn to nurse and comfort the suffering. But when one of the students plays patient in a demonstration of nursing skills, she is horribly, brutally killed. Another student dies equally mysteriously, and it is up to Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard to unmask a killer who has decided to prescribe murder as the cure for all ills.


Death of an Expert Witness. Poster of the 1983 TV series and cover of the 1977 book
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Death of an Expert Witness
P.D. James, 1977
TV series vs book
Herbert Wise, 1983

Dr. Lorrimer appeared to be the picture of a bloodless, coldly efficient scientist. Only when his brutally slain body is discovered and his secret past dissected does the image begin to change. Once again, Chief Inspector Adam Dalgliesh learns that there is more to human beings than meets the eye — and more to solving a murder than the obvious clues.


An Unsuitable Job for a Woman. Poster of the 1997 TV series and cover of the 1972 book
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An Unsuitable Job for a Woman
P.D. James, 1972
TV series vs book
Ben Bolt, John Strickland, David Evans, Mary McMurray, 1997-1999

Handsome Cambridge dropout Mark Callender died hanging by the neck with a faint trace of lipstick on his mouth. When the official verdict is suicide, his wealthy father hires fledgling private investigator Cordelia Gray to find out what led him to self-destruction. What she discovers instead is a twisting trail of secrets and sins, and the strong scent of murder.


Death in Holy Orders. Poster of the 2003 TV series and cover of the 2001 book
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Death in Holy Orders
P.D. James, 2001
TV series vs book
Jonny Campbell, 2003

In the bleak coast of East Anglia, smothered beneath a fall of sand, lies the body of one of the school’s young ordinands. He is the son of Sir Alred Treves, a hugely successful and flamboyant businessman who is accustomed to getting what he wants—and in this case what he wants is Commander Adam Dalgliesh to investigate his son’s death.


Original Sin. Poster of the 1997 TV series and cover of the 1994 book
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Original Sin
P.D. James, 1994
TV series vs book
Andrew Grieve, 1997

The literary world is shaken when a murder takes place at the Peverell Press, an old-established publishing house located in a dramatic mock-Venetian palace on the Thames. The victim is Gerard Etienne, the brilliant new managing director whose ruthless ambition has made him many enemies. Adam Dalgliesh and his team are confronted with a puzzle of extraordinary complexity and a killer who is prepared to strike again.


Devices and Desires. Poster of the 1991 TV series and cover of the 1989 book
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Devices and Desires
P.D. James, 1989
TV series vs book
John Davies, 1991

Commander Dalgliesh has just published a new book of poems and has taken a brief respite from publicity on the remote Larksoken headland on the Norfolk coast in a converted windmill left to him by his aunt. But he cannot so easily escape murder. A psychotic strangler of young women is at large in Norfolk, and getting nearer to Larksoken with every killing.


The Murder Room. Poster of the 2004 TV series and cover of the 2003 book
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The Murder Room
P.D. James, 2003
TV series vs book
Diarmuid Lawrence, 2004-2005

The Dupayne, a small private museum in London devoted to the interwar years 1919 — 1939, is in turmoil. As its trustees argue over whether it should be closed, one of them is brutally and mysteriously murdered. Yet even as Commander Dalgliesh and his team proceed with their investigation, a second corpse is discovered.