Six 'vengeful' P D James stories coming this October

Faber is to publish Sleep No More, a new collection of short stories from the late "Queen of Crime" P D James.

Set to be released in October in time for the Christmas market, the six "murderous" short stories all have the "dark motive of revenge" at the heart of them, Faber said. They feature bullying schoolmasters, unhappy marriages, a murder in the small hours of Christmas Day, and an octogenarian exerting "exquisite" retribution from the safety of his nursing home.

Faber c.e.o. Stephen Page acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to the collection excluding Canada from Carol Heaton at Greene and Heaton.

"The acknowledged 'Queen of Crime', P. D. James, was a past master of the short story, weaving together motifs of the Golden Age of crime-writing with deep psychological insight to create gripping, suspenseful tales," said the publisher. 

Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales will be a companion to The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories, first published last year but set to be released in paperback this October.

Page said: "Publishing The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories last Christmas became a celebration of P. D. James's prodigious talents. It was such a terrific success that we're delighted to be able to follow up with a second volume of her superb stories, all of which carry her trademark brilliance with character, plot and literary style."

Sleep No More includes a foreword by the Sunday Times chief fiction reviewer, Peter Kemp, and will be published on 5th October priced at £10. Faber will also release an unabridged audiobook read by Daniel Weyman.

Faber is also to reissue Devices and Desires, one of James' "best-loved" mysteries featuring the detective Adam Dalgliesh, in September.

James died in November 2014 in her home in Oxford aged 94. Her first novel Cover her Face, was published in 1962, and featured her most famous creation, criminal investigator Adam Dalgliesh. She went on to write 14 Dalgliesh novels, as well as several other fiction and non-fiction titles, including dystopian novel The Children of Men, which was turned into a major Hollywood film.

Before she died she released Death Comes to Pemberley (Faber) which was later adapted for television.

She was made a life peer in 1991, and served as president of the Society of Authors from 1997 to 2013.