Cover Her Face
- 254
- Pages
- about 4.5 h
- Reading time
- Series 1985
- On screen
Affiliate link: buying through it supports BookRank at no extra cost to you.
Our view
“Cover Her Face” is a carefully built debut mystery about the death of an ambitious young maid in a household with motives to be rid of her. P. D. James moves the viewpoint among the suspects, so the crime is seen from several sides. Some readers find it stiff, preoccupied with class and short of likeable characters, with Dalgliesh not yet at its centre.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Cover Her Face is the debut 1962 crime novel of P. D. James. It details the investigations into the death of a young, ambitious maid, surrounded by a family which has reasons to want her gone – or dead. The title is taken from a passage from John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi: "Cover her face. Mine eyes dazzle; she died young," which is quoted by one of the characters in the novel.
Reading order · Adam Dalgliesh
Full order & progress →- Cover Her FaceThis book
7.47.4 / 10 - Unnatural Causes
–Not ranked yet - A Mind to Murder
–Not ranked yet - Shroud for a Nightingale
–Not ranked yet - The Black Tower
–Not ranked yet - Death of an Expert Witness
–Not ranked yet - A Taste for Death
–Not ranked yet - Devices and Desires
–Not ranked yet - Original Sin
–Not ranked yet - A Certain Justice
–Not ranked yet - Death in Holy Orders
–Not ranked yet - The Murder Room
–Not ranked yet - The Lighthouse
–Not ranked yet - The Private Patient
–Not ranked yet
On screen
This book has been adapted for the screen once.
- SeriesCover Her FaceIMDb
Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 6.9 across 80 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 35% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Crime & mystery average of 7.6. That is how 7.4 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.6 | 10 | 13% |
| Hardcover | 6.8 | 70 | 88% |
Frequently asked
How long is Cover Her Face?
It has 254 pages — shorter than 91% of the ranked books in Crime & mystery.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Crime & mystery — and a score of 7.4, the closest to this book.
