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  • Innocent Blood

  • By: P. D. James
  • Narrated by: Kaite Scarfe
  • Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (262 ratings)
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Innocent Blood cover art

Innocent Blood

By: P. D. James
Narrated by: Kaite Scarfe
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Summary

Innocent Blood is a standalone thriller and chilling mystery from P.D. James, the best-selling author of Death Comes to Pemberley and Children of Men.

Philippa Palfrey, adopted as a child, believes herself to be the motherless, illegitimate daughter of an aristocratic father. At eighteen she exercises her right to find out the truth. What she discovers will change her life forever. Philippa enters a new and terrifying world and soon comes to realize she is not the only one interested in her parents' whereabouts.

Innocent Blood is both a mystery and a thriller, a superb novel that explores the themes of self-identity and the meaning of life.

P. D. James was a best-selling and internationally acclaimed crime writer. She was the creator of Adam Dalgliesh and Cordelia Gray and their long and successful series of mysteries. Her works include Cover Her Face (1962), An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1972), Innocent Blood (1980),Children of Men (1992), and the Jane Austen-inspired Death Comes to Pemberley (2011).

James was born in Oxford in 1920. She won awards for crime writing in Britain, America, Italy, and Scandinavia, including the Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster Award. She received honorary degrees from seven British universities, was awarded an OBE in 1983, and created a life peer in 1991.

In 1997 she was elected president of the Society of Authors,and stood down from this role in 2013.

©1980 P.D. James (P)2015 Faber Audio

Critic reviews

"A fascinating psychological study of blood ties, guilt and revenge." ( Sunday Telegraph)
"As a crime novel it is a peak of the art." ( The Times)
"I found my heart racing as the climax neared." ( Evening Standard)
"As suspenseful and tautly written as any of her detective stories – the psychological twists and turns will tantalize the reader as cunningly as a well-placed clue." ( New York Times)
"Remarkable...could be read as a mainstream novel, and a considerable one." ( The Times)

What listeners say about Innocent Blood

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Intelligent and riveting story

This book kept me awake until the early hours as I couldn't bear to turn it off! Quite a different type of story from the usual P D James fare and hasn't dated (apart from the rents in London), although written in 1980.

Actually, I didn't like any of the characters- especially the principal, Philippa, a real cold fish - so it's a tribute to the quality of the writing that I was riveted by their fate.

The narrator is simply excellent in an understated way that fits the style of the novel to perfection. It's a complex story, told from various points of view, about dreadful past acts, revenge and deceit (I told you I didn't like them) but also forgiveness and hope.

An original book and one I thoroughly recommend to anyone who enjoys a well-plotted absorbing psychological novel.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Innocent Blood

Utterly absorbing, exquisitely written, brilliantly narrated. A full house of five stars doesn't do it justice!

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent and well read.

I have been completely absorbed in this story from beginning to end. Each character have their secrets and every secret links with another, to eventually make a whole!

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Disappointing!

Firstly, I'm a great PDJames fan. I've read and re-read the Dalglish and Grey books but I couldn't read all the way through this, I just found the main character too irritating. Admittedly she was an adolescent but she was so self-obsessed and naive I wanted to slap her! I confess I did something never done before and skipped the last third of the book just 'peeking' at the last few chapters to see how things were resolved, hurriedly I felt!

To be fair the narrator was better than competent, I couldn't give her four stars but definitely 3.75.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

INNOCENT BLOOD

Listening to this audio book it in made me think about the all the adopted children and if they thought anything like this girl.
it was an intriguing book with some amazing twists

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting and inventive story

Though populated by unlikable or pathetic characters I did enjoy the book with some caveats. At times the text is overly polemical with characters giving long speeches on philosophical topics and there are too many allusions to English literature and art. Despite this, it is an inventive and engaging story that kept me listening keen to find out what happens. I found the ending less satisfactory and an unnecessary sexual event in the epilogue diminished the book for me.
The narrator is generally good at bit screechy at times which adds to the unlikability of the main character.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Leave the past in the past

Main story 4/5 Epilogue -3/5

This has a good idea, a young adopted woman goes looking for her birth mother and discovers that the past was not how she remembered it. The main story is solid al bit it very very slow paced but I found it hard to connect with the characters and empathise with their situation but I stuck it out.

Sadly something happens in the epilogue which I found unnecessary, it added nothing to the story and made me dislike the characters even more, it turned my stomach. Yes it's just a story but this was too far for me and that's after a story with a shocking horrifying set up, which was why I rate the end of the book minus 3. It's put me off reading more P.D James.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

great story

great story spoiled by monotonous narrator... there were times I had to stop listening...
you can't go wrong with a good P D James

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

An unusual story

After listening to various books from this author this is the one I've least liked, not as captivating as others, but worth a read!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Safe in the hands of a good writer

Really enjoyed this. It's not going to change your life but it's absorbing from start to finish.

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1 person found this helpful