Cordelia Gray

Cordelia Gray is the main protagonist of P. D. James's An Unsuitable Job for a Woman and of The Skull Beneath the Skin. She is a strong and independent British woman who inherits a detective agency. She was first portrayed by Pippa Guard in the 1982 television adaptation of An Unsuitable Job for a Woman. When that novel was again adapted for a 1997 series, the character was played by Helen Baxendale. She likes order and knowledge and remains focused on her cases. In The Skull Beneath the Skin she becomes conscious of her appearance compared to that of her more privileged clients. At the conclusion of An Unsuitable Job for a Woman she meets James's other detective Adam Dalgliesh. In A Taste for Death it is mentioned that they have been seen dining together. Her name serves as inspiration for the fictional character Ai Haibara in Case Closed, and the pen name, Cordelia, adopted by Nancy Callahan in her letters to the imprisoned John Hartigan in Sin City.