Just recovered from a grave illness, Commander Adam Dalgliesh is called to the bedside of an elderly priest. When Dalgliesh arrives, Father Baddeley is dead. Is it merely his own brush with mortality that causes Dalgliesh to sense the shadow of death about to fall once more?

"Splendid, macabre," wrote the

London Sunday Telegraph

.

"

The Black Tower

is a masterpiece," the

London Sunday Times

concurred.

Review

Time:

The reigning mistress of murder.

People

: P. D. James is "the greatest living mystery writer."