The Murder Room is a 2003 detective novel by English writer P. D. James, the twelfth in the Adam Dalgliesh series.

Emma Lavenham, a character from Death in Holy Orders, becomes important in this novel as a romance develops between her and Commander Dalgliesh.

Dalgliesh has a serious love interest", and wrote "This is a very busy mystery, full of traffic jams and ringing cellphones—[James] still manages to preserve the element of old-fashioned, hair-raising suspense.

), James creates another teeming world in which murder is only the symptom of a more pervasive mortality.

"[3] The BBC adapted the book for a two-part, three-hour TV production released in 2004, starring Martin Shaw as Dalgliesh and Janie Dee as Lavenham.