P. D. James; Or, Jane Austen Redux
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

P. D. James, the queen of mystery, found her writing directly influenced by Jane Austen, the queen of literature, primarily because she admired Austen's use of irony and control of structure. Austen created a distinctive world for her characters to inhabit, and James followed suit. For example, in "Death Comes to Pemberley," James's masterful sequel to Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", she replicates Austen's writing style and turns her story into a mystery, while in "Original Sin", one of her Adam Dalgleish mysteries, she uses the same irony, structure, and mood to heighten a puzzle of impenetrable complexity. James, like Austen, investigates the inner workings of her characters and constructs a carefully controlled and suspenseful narrative.