Shroud for a Nightingale

infobox Book |
name = Shroud for a Nightingale


image_caption =
author = P. D. James
cover_artist =
country = flagicon|UK United Kingdom
language = English
series = Adam Dalgliesh #4
genre = Crime novel
publisher = Faber and Faber
release_date = 1971
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 296
isbn = ISBN 0571097197
preceded_by = Unnatural Causes
followed_by = An Unsuitable Job for a Woman

"Shroud for a Nightingale" is a 1971 detective novel written by PD James in her Adam Dalgliesh series. Commander Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard is called in to investigate the death of two student nurses at the hospital nursing school of Nightingale House. The novel was adapted as a television miniseries by Anglia Television in 1984, with Roy Marsden as Dalgliesh and Joss Ackland as the surgeon, Stephen Courtney-Briggs.

Plot summary

Student nurses Heather Pearce and Josephine Fallon have died of mysterious circumstances in the hospital nursing school of Nightingale House. As Scotland Yard’s Commander Adam Dalgliesh uncovers sexual secrets and blackmail within the closed community of the hospital, he finds himself attacked and in mortal danger. Another Sister at the hospital, Ethel Brumfett, dies.

It turns out that a dying patient, Martin Dettinger, recognizes the extraordinarily beautiful Matron Mary Taylor as Irmgard Grobel, accused of murdering 31 Jews decades ago in Felsenheim, Germany. Nurse Pearce, tasked with caring for Dettinger, mistakenly thinks that Irmgard Grobel is Ethel Brumfett, and blackmails her. Fiercely loyal to Mary Taylor, and determined to protect her, Ethel Brumfett kills Nurse Pearce and Nurse Fallon too, to confuse the inquiry. Unwilling to live her whole life with the dull Brumfett constantly by her side, Mary Taylor kills her and covers up the murder with a fire. Mary Taylor cannot be found guilty but she resigns her position and commits suicide.