One Of Best Of Dalgliesh On Pbs' `Mystery!' Series

P.D. James is no Agatha Christie - but then you already knew that if you are a fan of PBS' "Mystery!" series. No genteel country houses for James, no vicars coming to tea - and Commander Adam Dalgliesh is a far cry from Inspector Poirot.

"Original Sin" is James' ninth novel to be dramatized on "Mystery!" and I found it one of the best yet. (I also suggest you tape the three separate hours and watch them in one sitting because (A) you won't want to wait to unravel the mystery if you watch the first episode tonight at 9 on KCTS-TV, and (B) James' stories are complicated, so seeing it all at one time makes it easier to remember what's happening to whom.

And there's a lot happening in "Original Sin." It begins in an elegant riverside "palace" in London, a copy of one in Venice, a building with a past and the ambiguous name of Innocent House, now headquarters for Peverell House, a prestigious publishing house.

As Dalgliesh fans know, he's a detective who savors poetry, and one of his favorite poets, an elderly gentleman who has written poems about World War II, is Gabriel Dauntsey, played by Ian Bannen. When Dalgliesh visits with Dauntsey after a poetry reading, the poet tells him that things are not going well at Innocent House, that Peverell Press has a new managing director and that several staff members, Dauntsey included, have received hate mail suggesting they resign before they have to be fired.

But before Dalgliesh can even investigate the letters, one of the senior editors, who had been dismissed, is found dead, a probable suicide. And then the real action begins.

There's a stuffed snake that plays an important part - an apt symbol of the kind of relationships going on at Innocent House. And as more letters - and more dead bodies - turn up, we (and Dalgliesh) get a clearer picture of the denizens of Innocent House.

There's the new director, a nasty piece of work, played by James Wilby; his sister-partner, played by Cathryn Harrison, isn't much better. Then there's Frances Peverell, a descendant of the original owners of Innocent House. Her hang-up is she's convinced she'll be killed in a tunnel. One of the liveliest characters is colorful Esme Carling, played by Sylvia Syms, an author of bestsellers who has just been told the firm will not publish her latest manuscript - and she's hopping mad about it.

In the best P.D. James tradition, you probably won't deduce who the real killer is until about the same time Dalgliesh does.

As always, Roy Marsden is perfectly cast as Dalgliesh, and "Original Sin" adds up to a very satisfying three hours of mystery.

John Voorhees' column appears Sunday, Monday and Thursday in The Times.