It is sad to read this. P.D. James, as a writer, stood squarely and firmly atop a very large pyramid of writers. This is my own humble opinion. You are free to disagree, but many who have read her work are probably nodding about now.
There is an elegance about Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard, as well as the countryside she viewed, or the city. You saw the good with the bad in her novels because in looking around you really must take in the good and the bad because the park may be beautiful with picnics and children playing on swings, and an old hobo in the tree-line asleep or drinking from something in a brown paper bag.
I am trying to catch up on my series reading this year, and am going to continue it through the next year so I can be caught up on everything. P.D. James has now jumped from position 5 to the second position underneath the Stephanie Plum series. Yeah, I know, something serious against fluff, but, sometimes, you need the fluff above the serious. Rarely, of course, but true all the same.