P. D. James The Private Patient BBC Radio 3 CDs unabridged audio book

Reader: A full cast

This is a BBC Radio drama based on P. D. James' bestselling novel, starring Richard Derrington and Deborah McAndrew. In the seventeenth century, a witch is burned in a stone circle. Three hundred and fifty years later, an investigative journalist arrives at a nearby clinic to have cosmetic surgery - and a week later, she is dead. Dalgliesh and his team, called in to investigate the murder and later a second equally horrific death, find themselves confronted with problems even more complicated than the question of innocence or guilt. Family secrets, witchcraft, illegitimacy and the connections between past and present all come to the fore in this gripping, fast-paced adaptation of P. D. James' acclaimed novel, starring Richard Derrington as Adam Dalgliesh, Deborah McAndrew as Kate Miskin and narrated by Carolyn Pickles.

Cheverell Manor is a lovely old house in deepest Dorset, now a private clinic belonging to the famous plastic surgeon George Chandler-Powell. When investigative journalist Rhoda Gradwyn arrived there one late autumn afternoon, scheduled to have a disfiguring and long-standing facial scar removed, she had every expectation of a successful operation and a pleasant week recuperating.

Two days later she was dead, the victim of murder.

To Commander Adam Dalgliesh, who with his team is called in to investigate the case, the mystery at first seems absolute. Few things about it make sense. Yet as the detectives begin probing the lives and backgrounds of those connected with the dead woman—the surgeon, members of the manor staff, close acquaintances—suspects multiply all too rapidly. New confusions arise, including strange historical overtones of madness and a lynching 350 years in the past. Then there is a second murder, and Dalgliesh finds himself confronted by issues even more challenging than innocence or guilt.

P. D. James has gained an enviable reputation for creating detective stories of uncommon depth and intricacy, combined with the sort of humanity and perceptiveness found only in the finest novelists. The Private Patient ranks among her very best.

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