The year is 1803, and Darcy and Elizabeth have been married for six years. There are now two handsome and healthy sons in the Pemberley nursery, Elizabeth's beloved sister Jane and her husband, Bingley, live within seventeen miles, the ordered and secure life of Pemberley seems unassailable, and Elizabeth's happiness in her marriage is complete.
But their peace is threatened and old sins and misunderstandings are rekindled on the eve of the annual autumn ball. The Darcys and their guests are preparing to retire for the night when a chaise appears, rocking down the path from Pemberley's wild woodland, and as it pulls up, Lydia Wickham, an uninvited guest, tumbles out, screaming that her husband has been murdered.

P. D. James was born in Oxford in 1920 and educated at Cambridge High School for Girls. From 1949 to 1968 she worked in the National Health Service and subsequently in the Home Office, first in the Police Department and later in the Criminal Policy Department. All that experience has been used in her novels. She lives in London and Oxford and has two daughters, five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

P. D. James: P. D. James, die eigentlich Phyllis White heißt, schrieb unter ihrem Mädchennamen. Die 1920 in Oxford geborene Schriftstellerin war mit einem Arzt verheiratet und lange Zeit in der Krankenhausverwaltung tätig. Nach dem Tod ihres Mannes arbeitete sie in der Kriminalabteilung des britischen Innenministeriums. Mit ihren Kriminalromanen erwarb sie sich international große Anerkennung.