Original Sin Audiobook By P. D. James cover art

Original Sin

Adam Dalgliesh, Book 9

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

Original Sin

By: P. D. James
Narrated by: Penelope Dellaporta
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $21.60

Buy for $21.60

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

Adam Dalgliesh takes on a baffling murder in the rarefied world of London book publishing in this masterful mystery from one of our finest novelists.

Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his team are confronted with a puzzle of impenetrable complexity. A murder has taken place in the offices of the Peverell Press, a venerable London publishing house located in a dramatic mock-Venetian palace on the Thames. The victim is Gerard Etienne, the brilliant but ruthless new managing director, who had vowed to restore the firm's fortunes. Etienne was clearly a man with enemies - a discarded mistress, a rejected and humiliated author, and rebellious colleagues, one of who apparently killed herself a short time earlier. Yet Etienne's death, which occurred under bizarre circumstances, is for Dalgliesh only the beginning of the mystery, as he desperately pursues the search for a killer prepared to strike and strike again.

©1995 P.D. James (P)2013 Random House Audio Crime Fiction Detective Fiction Mystery Police Procedural Traditional Detectives Crime Murder England

Critic reviews

"Complex and compelling.... James is writing in full mastery of her craft." (The New York Times Book Review)

"One of James's best novels.... James transcends literary classification." (Chicago Sun-Times)

"The queen of the British murder mystery demonstrates why the crown is hers." (Newsday)

Featured Article: The Best Cozy Mysteries to Keep You Warm This Holiday Season


We’ve rounded up a list of some of the best cozy mystery audiobooks to help brighten up your winter listening. Here you'll find contemporary and historical cozies, classic whodunits and ingenious heist stories. While varying in tone, plot, and setting, these picks all share an irresistible holiday atmosphere. You'll find snowstorms galore, bakeries full of tasty holiday treats, glittering get-togethers, and picturesque English villages decked out in their holiday finest.

Featured Article The Best Cozy Mysteries to Keep You Warm This Holiday Season

People who viewed this also viewed...

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman Audiobook By P. D. James cover art
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman By: P. D. James
The Children of Men Audiobook By P. D. James cover art
The Children of Men By: P. D. James
Original Sin Audiobook By Jake Tapper, Alex Thompson cover art
Original Sin By: Jake Tapper, and others
Intriguing Storyline • Twisted Plot • Different Character Voices • Moral Dilemmas • Beautiful Prose • Unique Setting
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  
I had to turn up the speed, because the narration was very slow as it was the rest of the recording. The narrator was very good about different voices, but there were so many characters. It was a long, dark story about a long, dark time along time ago.

A long story with a very long back stories.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is personal preference but the narrator’s voice made it very difficult to listen to the book. I love PD James but I hope that Another narrator is chosen for future books.

Narration was grating! Story is classic PD James - reliably enjoyable

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

What did you like best about this story?

The philosophical elements, such as the exploration of what personal identity means and how it is expressed in life.

What does Penelope Dellaporta bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

She expresses the characters in different accents that I would not even know about let alone be able to imagine as I read the book.

Any additional comments?

One very disturbing thing about this audio book was that every 30-40 minutes a sentence or two would repeat. It bacame very disturbing by the end of the book

as always PD James is good

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Too many passages were repeated twice. This was very annoying . The narrator of the private patient created a better Dalgleish.

Needs better editing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Almost the first 6 hours are building up to the murder. So it's not really an edge of the seat type book. The nice thing is you do know all the characters. I somehow missed this one when I started reading P. D. James. I like the stories and I know what I'm getting.

Any additional comments?

The story like others of P. D. James is great though it did take a while to get started. I just wish there was more attention paid to the audio file. Every so often lines are repeated. It seems that an tape version was converted. At least we don't get the side 2 message.

Good book, still needs some work on the audio thou

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
...left me with a sense of deep feelings for all the characters...well done! Narrator outstanding and a comfortable companion on the novels journey.

Again an extraordinary mystery with humam emotion

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Struggled to finish as descriptions(too many) just too wordy. Storyline very unique .The mystery very deep a.nd surprising. Normally really enjoy author but this one just too too many long descriptions that instead of interesting begin to get boring.At times,the Narrator saved the day. I will still try another book by James as she has very unique plots but hope she stays away from long,, long descriptions. Looking forward to reading (listening to) the next book. More of AD please and less descriptions.

Quiet Different=unexpected

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Too many descriptions? Maybe, but those descriptions allow the reader to see the characters, the locations and the action. I was there all along the way and feeling the emotions of every character. There was less of Adam, but his influence was strongly felt.

No complaints

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Although the ending was weak, the whole book of wonderful words describing everything was incredible.

Descriptions are so beautiful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Sometimes the narrator is hard to understand, but all in all a great production and a great story!

Great!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews