The Lighthouse: P.D. James

Combe Island off the Cornish coast has a bloody history of piracy and cruelty, but now, privately owned, it offers respite to the over-stressed in positions of high authority who require privacy and guaranteed security. But the peace of Combe is violated when one of the distinguished visitors is bizarrely murdered. Adam Dalgliesh is called in the solve the mystery quickly and discreetly, but it's a difficult time for him and his depleted team. Dalgliesh is uncertain about his future with Emma Lavenham, his lover, D.I. Kate Miskin has her own emotional problems and Sergeant Francis Benton-Smith is worried about working under Kate. Hardly have the team begun to unravel the complicated motives of the suspects than there is a seond brutal killing, and the investigation is jeopardised when Dalgliesh is faced with a danger more insiduous and as potentially fatal as murder. Cover art by Lee Gibbons.