I remembered a few PD James novels that I had read in college as part of my independent crime fiction studies and decided to start the series. Goodreads#1: Back to basics! I went from modern cozies and detective fiction to a supposed blast from the past.It was quite satisfying to sink my teeth into a book full of layers and complexities due to the author’s good command of the language. But the writing was obviously superior to most books I’ve read. Even so, I struggled to keep up with the characters, and didn’t solve the mystery until near the end, which is better than my usual track record of not solving the mystery at all since injury. Plus, the story is reminiscent of some Agatha Christie mysteries (which I kept rereading after my brain injury), making the plot feel familiar in many ways.

And so I probably would have re-read Cover Her Face a few years ago. I had started reading PD James as a teenager, an age when I was still re-reading books (in my twenties I stopped re-reading them because as soon as I read the first paragraph the whole book came back into my memory). And so I went back to the first Dalgliesh book by James. I followed the advice of my rehabilitation therapists: reading a book that I had already read is easier. I felt my cognitive abilities change and suddenly realized that I was reading more. And then I was enrolled in a drug research trial in March. Too many characters to follow, plots that meandered beyond my ability to follow, writing at a higher level than I had reached… It was kind of disappointing to see his new books come out over the years and to know that I would do not read them. After my injury however, with my reading ability fried, I could no longer read any of his books.

Before the injury, I read each of his books and enjoyed them immensely for their good writing and good stories. Goodreads: After my brain injury, PD James became a marker for me in my reading progress.Since then, author James has featured him in more than a dozen other mystery series novels.Adam Dalgliesh’s first appearance was in 1962 in the first book in the series called Cover Her Face.At 42, his first book, Cover Her Face introducing readers to Scotland Yard detective hero Adam Dalgiesh, was published.James published Cover Her Face, his first murder mystery starring Chief Detective Inspector Adam Dalgleish of Scotland Yard. At the time, Agatha Christie was still the dominant voice in the field, selling millions of mysteries each year and releasing new novels on an annual basis.

Adam dalgliesh cover her face