Dalgliesh, who holds the high position of Commander in the Metropolitan Police Service at New Scotland Yard in London, is an intensely cerebral and private person. He writes poetry, a fact which his colleagues are fond of reminding him. Several volumes of his poetry have been published. Dalgliesh lives in a flat above the Thames at Queenhithe in the City of London and drives a Jaguar. He's singular and even perhaps quirky in his methodology but seldom does he fail to get his man - a modern day Sherlock Holmes, one might say.