Unnatural Causes Audiobook By P. D. James cover art

Unnatural Causes

 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.

Unnatural Causes

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 $18.00

Buy for $18.00

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

Award-winning author P. D. James third mystery in her best-selling series featuring Scotland Yard investigator Adam Dalgliesh is now available on CD!

Maurice Seton was a famous mystery writer - but no murder from his imagination could equal the ghastliness of his own death. When his grotesquely mutilated corpse is found in a drifting dinghy, ripples of horror spread among his bizarre neighbors: the cruel and cynical drama critic, the celebrated recluse, and the rakish young heir. It is up to Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh and his extraordinary aunt to discover the shocking truth about Seton's past - before the plot takes another murderous turn.

©2001 P.D. James (P)2008 Books on Tape Mystery Police Procedurals Suspense Thriller & Suspense Traditional Detectives Women Sleuths

Critic reviews

“P. D. James scores with understated humor, stately yet unpretentious prose, psychological insights…plus, above all, fundamental warmth and wisdom in every line she writes." (Kirkus Reviews)

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
Beautiful Descriptions • Intricate Plot • Exquisite Narration • Surprise Ending • Interesting Detectives
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  
love everything P.D.James writes. and this one is no exception.and I admire this narrator

great read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
One of PD James’ weakest efforts. Very slow moving with many plot holes. “Hit him hard enough to knock him out but not leave a mark.” Really?

Many plot holes.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The first murder was labeled natural causes, but it was totally unnatural. The novel was eminently readable. Not a detective, I could not ferret out the murderer for myself. P. D. James led me through the plot with exquisite narration.

Ugly Murder Beautifully Related

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
P. D. James is absolutely reliable in producing excellent classic murder mysteries. The team of detectives are interesting.

I just don't enjoy Penelope Dellaporta's narration much. I prefer more of a reading of a book, rather than an 'acting.' There's always some soul-searching and facing of the problems of realities in the Adam Dagliesh series. Ms. Dellaporta's narration make it into a dirge. I find myself picturing the characters slumping and dragging themselves through the story, sighing and hand-wringing; it's all just sooooooo hard, so bleak and depressing for them. I'm not sure if another narrator would leaven the heaviness or not. I also find Ms. Dellaporta's voice quite grating; several of character's voices are shrill.

It's enough that I think I'll be passing on anymore recordings of this series with this narrator and trying reading the books instead.

P. D. James always good; not as fond of narrator

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Not the best PD James novel. . . a little too talky amongst characters that weren't all that appealing or interesting. Still she manages to sustain the tension through an intricate plot and her note worthy attention to detail, and she wraps it all-up with a typical P D James surprise ending

Not the best, but close enough

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is my second or third time through the Inspector Dalgliesh series -- they are wonderful fiction. First time for the audio versions, and it's becoming an increasingly difficult listen.

Honestly, this narrator reads like she has a group of four- and five-year-olds seated in front of her for "story hour." Every sentence is exaggerated and dramatic. It's almost condescending. At the same time, outside of the dialogue, she uses the same tone and cadence for each sentence, creating a soporific effect. It's like being lulled to sleep and then abruptly woken whenever a character speaks.

It was less pronounced in the previous two books and therefore only mildly irritating. I'm at the junction of the two parts and wondering if I can finish this. It's a shame because the books themselves are top notch.

ETA: I returned this and moved on to the later books narrated by Charles Keating. Very enjoyable!

Painful narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I made it through 2 hours and 45 minutes of this book before I couldn't take any more. Most of that time was character development...of some really boring characters, and a few minutes of a murder that had taken place. I found myself going back many times because I had drifted off while listening. I'm not sure if it was just because it was so boring or the reader's voice was monotonous. I feel sorry for the author to have put so much time and effort into a project that ended up not good. I'm just glad Audible offers a return of bad books.

I tried....I really tried

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
With such a catchy opening, I was excited for the remainder of this novel. But the characters were bland, even Dalgliesh's aunt. The solution to the mystery was awful - totally improbable, even down to the way the solution was revealed. I was not expecting such poor quality from such a wonderful author. The only redeeming qualities about this book are James' beautiful, vivid descriptions of the countryside in Sussex and the affection Dalgliesh has for his aunt.

One of her worst

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
ok, well this was a big waste of money. horrible, simply horrible...i couldn't get past the first 2 hrs...i tried i really did...but the narrator was so bad and the storyline jumped around so much i didn't know what was going on. i had just listened to a book by P.D. James so couldn't wait to dive into this one. i'm back here now to download another book, i just can't finish this one.

Dear God make it stop!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
There is just so much needless, uninteresting detail here. It slows the book down tremendously and makes it boring. But this is how I have found all the books I’ve read in this series. Life is too short to listen to boring, unnecessary details and annoying characters. I wanted to love PD James, but now I’m too bored to even care to finished the ones I have left in my library. I suspect these MIGHT be better in book format than audio.

If ever a book needed unabridged, this is it…

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