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The Skull Beneath the Skin

About The Book

Private detective Cordelia Gray is invited to the sunlit island of Courcy to protect the vainly beautiful actress Clarissa Lisle from veiled threats on her life. Within the rose red walls of a fairy-tale castle, she finds the stage is set for death.
"Richly intricate and literate," James's second Cordelia Gray mystery "shows James at the height of her storytelling powers" (San Francisco Chronicle).

About The Author

Photograph by Ulla Montan

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.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Scribner (April 17, 2001)
  • Length: 448 pages
  • ISBN13: 9780743219563

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Raves and Reviews

“One of the finest, most absorbing craftsmen of the profession.”

– The Washington Post

“One of the most chilling crime writers around.”

– Observer

"The greatest contemporary writer of classic crime."

– The Sunday Times (London)

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More books from this author: P.D. James

More books in this series: Cordelia Gray Mystery