85-year-old P.D. James is back with her latest installment in the Alex Dalgliesh series, The Lighthouse. When a notable novelist, Nathan Oliver, is murdered on the elite resort Combe Island off the Cornish coast, Scotland Yard dispatches Dalgliesh, just settled into his new romance with Emma, and his team consisting of Inspector Kate Miskin and Sargeant Francis Benton-Smith, to solve the case. The commander checks alibis and motives in his trademark unobtrusive manner, eventually solving the case through deduction, as is the formula in James’ previous novels. But what makes James’ novels stunning are her characters, from Dalgliesh and his attempts to balance his new romantic interest with his police duties, to the tension between Kate and Francis, to the individual personal lives of the other suspects.