THE BLACK TOWER

This is another of P. D. James' perfectly appointed and surpassingly interesting stories of life and death--she writes equally well about both, within the frame of the traditional mystery story where she has already outstripped the grand beldames. Adam Dalgliesh comes down to Toynton Grange, an 18th century monstrosity devoted to strange kinds of love and healing at the request of a Father Baddeley, dead and buried by the time Adam gets there. A handful of physically and psychically disabled people also reside there and in the dramatic, bleak locale you will be enclosed in a world of godliness and evil, sexual ambivalence and the exploitation of the sick. A classic performance in the modern mode.