Much of what I love about the Dalgleish series was present in Death in Holy Orders - the leisurely, descriptive writing; the strong sense of atmosphere; the brooding Dalgleish himself. Bizarrely, though, we were clearly supposed to accept that a priest groping children wasn't a serious crime, and the one character who did believe it was a serious issue was treated like someone who was unreasonable, vengeful, disloyal and hysterical. As a reader, it made me feel uneasy and distrustful of PD James and complicit in the world she'd created. While the rest of the book was as compelling and absorbing as every other book in the Dalgleish series, this attitude towards sexual abuse made Death in Holy Orders ultimately distasteful.