Adam Dalgliesh

Adam Dalgliesh is a fictional character who has been the protagonist of fourteen mystery novels by P. D. James. Dalgliesh first appeared in James's 1962 novel Cover Her Face and has appeared in a number of subsequent novels.

Character

Dalgliesh is introduced in Cover Her Face, as a Detective Chief-Inspector and eventually reaches the rank of Commander in the Metropolitan Police Service at New Scotland Yard in London. He is an intensely cerebral and private person. He writes poetry, a fact about which his colleagues are fond of reminding him. Several volumes of his poetry have been published. Dalgliesh lives in a flat above the Thames at Queenhithe in the City of London. In the early novels he drives a Cooper Bristol, and later a Jaguar. He was described as being "tall, dark and handsome" by some women, alluding to Mr. Darcy from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

His father was the rector of a Norfolk country parish. His sole family relation was his aunt, Jane Dalgliesh, whom he held in high esteem. After her death, Dalgliesh inherits, among other bequests, a converted windmill located on the Norfolk coast. In his lengthy career, he has been quite astute and successful and now heads a squad of CID officers working on only the most sensitive cases.

Dalgliesh is a widower. He lost his wife in childbirth 13 years before A Mind to Murder, and was reluctant to commit himself ever since. His relationship with Deborah Riscoe ended because of this. During his time at St. Anselm's in Suffolk, he meets Cambridge lecturer Emma Lavenham and later asks her to marry him. The wedding takes place at the end of The Private Patient, published in 2008.

Dalgliesh is a late example of the gentleman detective, a staple of British detective fiction. A number of parallels may be drawn between Dalgliesh and another contemporary fictional detective, Inspector Morse.

DCI Dalgliesh was named in honor of the author's English teacher at Cambridge High School; years later she learnt that by mere chance, Miss Dalgliesh's father had in fact been called Adam.

Rank and cars

Novel	Published	Rank	Car	Poems
Cover Her Face	1962	Detective Chief Inspector
A Mind to Murder	1963	Superintendent	Cooper Bristol	3rd reprint of first book
Unnatural Causes	1967	Superintendent	Cooper Bristol	2nd book finished
Shroud for a Nightingale	1971	Chief superintendent
The Black Tower	1975	Commander	Cooper Bristol, Jensen Healey
Death of an Expert Witness	1977	Commander
A Taste for Death	1986	Commander	Jaguar XJS
Devices and Desires	1989	Commander	Jaguar
Original Sin	1994	Commander	Jaguar
A Certain Justice	1997	Commander	Jaguar
Death in Holy Orders	2001	Commander	Jaguar
The Murder Room	2003	Commander
The Lighthouse	2005	Commander
The Private Patient	2008	Commander	Jaguar

Recurring characters

Partners

Detective Sergeant Martin is Dalgliesh's partner in Cover Her Face and A Mind to Murder. In Shroud for a Nightingale he partners with Detective Sergeant Masterson. Detective Chief Inspector Massingham, moody and arrogant, is Dalgliesh's first permanent partner. Detective Inspector Kate Miskin serves with Dalgliesh and Massingham in Scotland Yard's Special Investigation Squad. In The Lighthouse, Miskin takes over running the investigation when Dalgliesh contracts SARS. She is still a member of Dalgliesh's team in The Private Patient (2008).

Detective Inspector Daniel Aaron replaces Massingham when Massingham leaves Scotland Yard to succeed his late father in the House of Lords. Aaron is presumably suspended after the events of Original Sin; Detective Inspector Piers Tarrant is his replacement. When Tarrant is then transferred to Special Branch, Detective Sergeant Francis Benton-Smith replaces him. (Miskin has a short romantic relationship with Piers Tarrant after he leaves the Squad.) Benton-Smith, the ambitious and good-looking son of English and Indian parents, is at first resented by Kate Miskin, but they develop a good working relationship.

Relatives, friends, and romances

Jane Dalgliesh is Adam Dalgiesh's aunt and his sole living relative until her death prior to Devices and Desires. Introduced in Unnatural Causes, she is described as a very private and cerebral person, not unlike Dalgliesh himself. She is fond of bird watching and possesses a cottage in Suffolk which she later sells and buys a converted windmill in Norfolk, which Dalgliesh inherits upon her death.

Conrad Ackroyd is one of Dalgliesh's personal friends. He is a member of the Cadaver Club, a private club of crime enthusiasts featured in Unnatural Causes as well as other novels. He is editor and publisher of The Paternoster Review. Ackroyd's connections in the London establishment are often an asset to Dalgliesh.

Deborah Riscoe is one of Dalgliesh's romantic interests; they first meet when a murder shakes Riscoe's home in Cover Her Face; their relationship develops over the course of A Mind to Murder. However, because of Dalgliesh's reluctance to commit, Riscoe ends their relationship via a letter at the conclusion of Unnatural Causes, accepting a transfer to the United States of America.

Emma Lavenham is a lecturer in literature at Cambridge University. She and Dalgleish meet in Death in Holy Orders, develop a relationship during The Murder Room, and, following Dalgliesh's convalescence from SARS on Combe Island (in The Lighthouse), decide to marry, which they do at the end of The Private Patient.

Dalgliesh makes several small appearances in the two novels in the Cordelia Gray series, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman and The Skull Beneath the Skin. Cordelia Gray is a private detective and runs a detective agency in Kingsly Street. Dalgliesh is asked to look into the death of Sir Ronald Callender in Cambridge and acquits Gray of any charges. Gray and Dalgliesh stayed in contact, as evidenced by the congratulations card Dalgliesh receives from Gray while convalescing after a successful operation at the beginning of The Black Tower. Gossiping Conrad Ackroyd also remarks on Dalgliesh's being seen dining out with Cordelia in A Taste for Death.

Media adaptations

All of James's novels featuring Adam Dalgliesh up to and including The Murder Room have been adapted for television, beginning with Death of an Expert Witness in 1983. The first ten novels (in the order shown below) were adapted by Anglia Television for transmission on the ITV network and starred Roy Marsden as Dalgliesh. The BBC took over the series in 2003, and Martin Shaw played the role in Death in Holy Orders and The Murder Room. Opinion amongst fans of both portrayals of Dalgliesh generally agrees that Roy Marsden's portrayal of Dalgliesh emphasises the cold-fish, aloof and peremptory side of his character, and is more faithful to James's novels, whereas Martin Shaw's portrayal adds a more likeable human warmth to these character traits. The television adaptations have not always been faithful to the novel they dramatise, partly because they are out of chronological order.

• Death of an Expert Witness: Dalgliesh leads the hunt for an elusive strangler in the Norfolk Fens.
• Shroud for a Nightingale: Dalgliesh becomes entangled in a deadly murder hunt inside a training home for nurses.
• Cover Her Face: Dalgliesh follows a young girl and a trail of death to a beautiful country home.
• The Black Tower: A reckless move in the drugs trade turns into a dice with death for Dalgliesh.
• A Taste for Death: Dalgliesh sets up the Sensitive Crimes Squad and faces an immediate challenge.
• Devices and Desires: Holidaying in Norfolk, Dalgliesh is caught up in a series of murders when he discovers a body.
• Unnatural Causes: Dalgliesh is drawn into a macabre murder case during his investigations into a currency scam.
• A Mind to Murder: Dalgliesh is called in following the grotesque murder of a middle-aged woman.
• Original Sin: Dalgliesh discovers a body whilst investigating a series of alarming hate mail attacks on a poet.
• A Certain Justice: Dalgliesh becomes involved in the death of criminal barrister Venetia Aldridge.
• Death in Holy Orders: Dalgliesh investigates an apparent suicide at Saint Anselm's seminary, which is run by an old friend, Father Martin Petrie; the coincidence of another death leads to a murder investigation; Dalgliesh meets Emma Lavenham and they subsequently begin a relationship.
• The Murder Room: Dalgliesh investigates a murder on the grounds of the Dupayne Museum of one of the Dupayne heirs; at the end of a mad dash to the train station, he proposes to Emma Lavenham.

Five of the Dalgliesh novels have been dramatised by Neville Teller for BBC Radio 4. Robin Ellis played Dalgliesh in Cover Her Face (1993; miscredited as Robert Ellis by the BBC announcer) and Devices and Desires (1998). Phillip Franks played the role in A Certain Justice (2005). Dalgliesh was then played by Richard Derrington in A Taste for Death (2008) and The Private Patient (2010).