The Private Patient (Export - Airside ed)

When the notorious investigative journalist, Rhoda Gradwyn, booked into Mr Chandler-Powell's private clinic in Dorset for the removal of a disfiguring and long-standing facial scar, she had every prospect of a successful operation by a distinguished surgeon, a week's peaceful convalescence in one of Dorset's most beautiful manor houses and the beginning of a new life.

She was never to leave Cheverell Manor alive. Dalgliesh and his team are called in to investigate the murder, and later a second death, which are to raise even more complicated problems than the question of innocence or guilt.

A new detective novel by P D James is always keenly awaited and "The Private Patient" will undoubtedly equal the success of her world-wide best-seller, "The Lighthouse".

It displays the qualities which P D James' readers have come to expect: a masterly psychological and emotional richness of characterisation, a vivid evocation of place and a credible and exciting mystery. "The Private Patient" is a powerful work of contemporary fiction.