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Author P.D. James, whose publisher
says died at age 94. Ulla Montan/AP
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British mystery and crime novelist P.D. James, whose
best-known works featured poet and Scotland Yard detective Adam Dalgliesh as a
protagonist, has died at age 94, her publisher says. The author of books such
as "The Children of Men" and "Innocent Blood" died at her
home in Oxford, England.
NPR reports Phyllis Dorothy James, a baroness and award-winning
writer of such books as Shroud for a Nightingale, The Black Tower and The
Murder Room, was born in Oxford began writing in her late 30s and published her
first novel, Cover Her Face, in 1962.
A statement from publisher Knopf quoted Charles
Elliott, her longtime editor, as saying: "Phyllis broke the bounds of the
mystery genre. Her books were in a class of their own, consistently entertaining
yet as well-written and serious as any fiction of our time. She was, moreover,
a delight to be around and work with, beloved by readers and her publishers
around the world. We will all miss her."
Biography.com says James took up writing as a means to
support her family after her husband, a World War II veteran, was incapacitated
by mental illness. Cover Her Face was written in the evenings and during her
commute to a job in Britain's National Health Service, the website says.
In 2011, James was interviewed
by NPR's Linda Wertheimer for the release of what became her final novel, Death
Comes to Pemberley.
"I had this idea at
the back of my mind that I'd like to combine my two great enthusiasms,"
James told Wertheimer. "One is for the novels of Jane Austen and the
second is for writing detective fiction."
On the definition of a
mystery novel, she said:
"What we have is a
central mysterious crime, which is usually murder. We have a closed circle of
suspects, with means, motive and opportunity for the crime. We have a detective
who can be amateur or professional who comes in rather like an avenging deity
to solve it. And by the end, we do get a solution."
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