Evidently James liked the title and used it for this eighth, and she repeats the phrase several times throughout the book: “Here the past and present fused and her own life, with its trivial devices and desires, seemed only an insignificant moment in the long history of the headland.” Reading A Taste for Death, I noticed that Book Four is called ‘Devices and Desires’. I wonder how far ahead James planned her books.

It is thoughtful, considered, and very moving: about death, love, and all the big human emotions. But it is not just James’ talent at plotting which sets this book aside from its predecessors. This is a magnificent mystery, I challenge anyone to work out the plot twists and turns. And, of course, a few pages into the book, The Whistler kills. Meanwhile, the community on the remote coastal headline is being terrorized by a serial killer, The Whistler.

Dalgiesh’s Aunt Jane has died and he visits her house, which he has inherited, both as a break after the Berowne murder and as an opportunity to consider the house and decide whether to sell it or keep it. The power station’s staff, its purpose and existence are at the centre of this murder mystery. The East Anglian coast: a bare, windswept, desolate landscape, its coastline dominated by Larksoken nuclear power station, it is a tight-knit community where there are few secrets and no hiding places. Perhaps of all the Adam Dalgliesh books so far, and this is the eighth in the series by PD James, this is the one with the strongest sense of place.

Devices and Desires by P.D. James