Original Sin

Original Sin by P.D. James is #9 is the Adam Dalgliesh mystery series. I know I've read this one before, but it was long ago.

from the back of the book:

Innocent House, a mock Venetian palace occupied by Britain's oldest book publisher. Here, after a spate of malicious pranks, someone killed Gerard Etienne, the ruthless managing director, and jammed the office mascot, a stuffed snake, in his mouth. Who wanted Etienne dead? Everyone on staff and several authors too. Now Dagliesh and his two junior detectives begin uncovering the dark private tragedies in the lives of Etienne's mistress and colleagues. But the mystery at Innocent House might prove more primal still - and too deep, too old, too evil to stop at just one death.

Mentions of Methodism:

Delicate Meissen plates were ranged in incongruous proximity to Victorian ribbon-decorated souvenirs bearing pictures of Brighton and Southend-on-Sea; a toby jug which looked like a fairground trophy stood between a Victorian Staffordshire flatback, obviously original, of Wesley preaching from a double-decker pulpit, and a fine Parian bust of the Duke of Wellington. (from a description of a display in a club in which Dalgliesh was lunching)

Here, surely was the epitome of every mother's favourite son: fresh-faced, ambitious without being ruthless, a devout Methodist, engaged, so it was rumoured, to a girl in his church. (from an Inspector's description of one of the police officers)

Entertainment Weekly says, "Original Sin is high-caliber popular fiction with a literary veneer, but it's also oddly juiceless. Still, this is an entertaining read for cold winter nights."

I have blog posts on the following books in the series:

#2 A Mind to Murder
#5 The Black Tower
#7 A Taste for Death

and An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, which features an appearance by Dalgliesh.