She eventually worked in the Crime Department (1972–79) in London.

James's work served as a basis for her novels, giving them backgrounds for both medical and police procedures (official ways of working). The settings of several of her mysteries, including A Mind to Murder (1962), Shroud for a Nightingale (1971) and Death of an Expert Witness (1977), are in medicine-related locations. In all of these novels she is just as interested in examining the relationships among people as she is in telling a mystery story.

James wrote some of her works in the tradition of the British crime storyteller as represented by such authors as Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) and Agatha Christie (1891–1976). These are stories that have sometimes been referred to as "polite mysteries." However, James also wrote about motivations, explored relationships between people, examined ideas about guilt and innocence, and questioned both the legal system and religion.

Experimentation with the mystery form

James's work is distinguished (special) not only for its quality of plot, setting, and character, but also for its experimentation with the mystery form. Her first novel, Cover Her Face (1962), is similar to the stories written by Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, but James began to experiment with new plots and new types of characters. She has written about questions of social privilege (special rights), politics, aesthetics (the theory of beauty and art), and theology (the study of religion). In her novel The Children of Men (1993) she experimented with science fiction.

Because James brought such new ideas to the mystery story, many people have chosen to classify James not as a crime author, but as a novelist. James herself says that she uses the detective story to comment on men, women, and society. In an interview published in the New York Times in 1986, she said that she would "sacrifice … the detective element" in her work if it would make a better novel.

Some critics are unhappy with James's concern with the psychology (the science of how the mind works) of her characters. These people would rather have a book that simply tells a basic detective story and gives the solution.

Even so, the qualities condemned by one group are prized by another. James is well respected and she has received many awards for her literary achievements.

Main characters

Most of James's books involve one of two characters: Adam Dalgliesh, a police inspector in Scotland Yard (London's police headquarters) and a published poet; and Cordelia Gray, a young private detective introduced in An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1972). In addition to their own individual mysteries, Dalgliesh and Gray appear together in some of the books.

James today

To date P. D. James has published fourteen books and many short stories. She was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1983 and was made a baroness in 1991. She also served on the governor's board of the British Broadcasting Company (BBC). She continues to have loyal fans who enjoy both a good mystery and a well-written novel.