Other editions of book The SKULL BENEATH THE SKIN

From P.D. James, one of the masters of British crime fiction comes the second novel to feature the famous female detective Cordelia Gray of the Pryde Detective Agency. Set on the sinister Courcy Island, The Skull Beneath the Skin is a thrilling murder mystery. Clarissa Lisle hopes to make a spectacular comeback in a production of The Duchess of Malfi, to be played in Ambrose Gorringe's sinister castle at Courcy Island. Cordelia is there to ensure her safety following the appearance of a number of poison-pen letters. But it soon becomes clear that all are in danger. Trapped within the walls of the Gothic castle, the treacherous past of the island re-emerges, and everyone seems to have a motive for sending Clarissa 'down, down to hell'. Marking the return of the private detective Cordelia Gray, The Skull beneath the Skin is the sequel to An Unsuitable Job for a Woman. P.D. James is Britain's pre-eminent crime writer and the author of many bestselling titles including Death Comes To Pemberley, Children of Men and Death in Holy Orders.

P. D. James is "the reigning mistress of murder." -- "Time" 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 story telling powers" (Amazon review).