Literary Project IBC Intermediate The Black Tower by P. D. James

Lic. María Fernanda Musante

The Black Tower is a novel by P.D. James, first published in 1975.

Believe it or not, there really is a black tower that inspired the title of this story. Shown in the image, Clavell Tower was constructed in 1830 for the Reverend John Richards Clavell, an eccentric clergyman. 

P. D. James first saw the tower in 1973 and, according to this article, she found inspiration for her story:

“The 87-year-old author said that when she first laid eyes on Clavell Tower she had this dark picture of a woman in a wheelchair being pushed over the top of the cliff and that formed the story of the Black Tower.”

Clavell Tower was recently dismantled and reconstructed a few feet from its original location, in an effort to prevent its collapse due to erosion of the coast.

Literary Elements

*Genre: Detective novel.

Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator (often a detective), either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.

*Narrator: First Person Narrator.

The narrator is within the story, so that he or she may not have knowledge of all the events. For this reason, first-person narrative is often used for detective fiction, so as the reader and the narrator uncover the case together.

*Main character: Adam Dalgliesh

  This fictional character has been the protagonist of fourteen mystery novels by P. D. James. Dalgliesh holds the rank of Commander in the Metropolitan Police Service at New Scotland Yard in London.  He is an intensely cerebral and private person. lives in a flat above the Thames at Queenhithe in the City of London and drives a Jaguar. He was described as being "tall, dark and handsome" by some women.

Plot:The story begins when Adam Dalgliesh, who is recuperating

from a severe illness, receives a letter from his old friend and mentor Father Baddeley, requesting that Dalgliesh visit him and hinting that he has something important he'd like to discuss. Father Baddeley resides at Toynton Grange, a quiet rest home on the Dorset coast, where he is chaplain. When Dalgliesh finally arrives at Toynton, he discovers that he is about a week too late and that his elderly friend has died of a heart attack. Dalgliesh's detective instincts immediately kick in, but he is repeatedly assured that Father Baddeley died of natural causes, and Dalgliesh remains at Toynton Grange for several days to sort out the details and to gather the books that the priest left him in his will.

With each day that passes Dalgliesh makes new discoveries that arouse his suspicions, but nothing is certain enough for him to pursue a formal investigation. He learns that only a few weeks before, a male patient had apparently committed suicide by rolling himself over the cliffside. Only a few days after Dalgliesh arrives, someone sets fire to the black tower, and the person within it is nearly killed. And then there are a few more deaths, each of them explainable but all of them suspicious, and Dalgliesh begins to realize that something much more sinister is going on at Toynton Grange than merely the day-to-day discomfort of invalids living in close quarters.

Lic. María Fernanda Musante

The Black Towerby P. D James