What if you're hurt shopping?

Black Friday may be the most publicized -- and puzzling -- commercial day of the year, Danny Cevallos says.

• Danny Cevallos: Black Friday may be the most crazy commercial holiday of the year


• He says it's odd that large retailers invite this chaos, and personal-injury lawsuits


• How do we evaluate a sales event that is more like running the bulls in Pamplona? he asks


• Cevallos: Maybe the Black Friday retailer deserves the Black Friday shopper

Editor's note: Danny Cevallos is a CNN legal analyst, criminal defense attorney and partner at Cevallos & Wong, practicing in Pennsylvania and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Follow him on Twitter: @CevallosLaw. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) -- One of the biggest holiday weeks is upon us. Thanksgiving is a favorite day for football fans, close-knit families, families who can't stand each other, and of course, amateur competitive eaters. But what's really interesting about Thanksgiving is the day after -- known as Black Friday. It may well be the most publicized -- and puzzling -- commercial day of the year.

According to the National Retail Federation, last year's Black Friday attracted more than 90 million online and in-store shoppers. Online shoppers can buy things from the comfort and safety of their homes. But what about those who succumb to mass hysteria at local megastores? We have all seen the "shopacalypse" on the evening news, which appears constrained only by the flimsy protection of a few Tensabarriers and some security guys.

When you step back and think about it, it seems strange that in an era of increasing civil liability, large retailers would invite this bedlam, and the likely personal-injury lawsuits that follow. There's even a website, http://ift.tt/1bwctDw, which tracks and compiles statistics on injuries and deaths.

Are we really surprised people get hurt on Black Friday? Granted, it's an open invitation to every nudnik, whose only qualifications are: 1) They don't have to be at work; and 2) they are willing to wake up at 5 a.m. to elbow their way to saving $3 on a Sony Discman or a Cabbage Patch Doll.

So how do we evaluate the liability of a store for injuries on its premises during Black Friday?

Tempers flare on Black Friday

Why Black Friday is turning red

Let's take a look at common law. Once a person steps onto private property, the law traditionally considered him one of the following: 1) trespasser; 2) licensee; or 3) invitee.

Everyone knows what a trespasser is. If you enter (or remain) on someone's property without his consent, you are a trespasser. Deadly force can be used on an intruder in one's home, but that's based on defense of self, not defense of property. You can use a gun to defend yourself at home against an intruder. On the other hand, if you own an abandoned barn, you cannot install trip wires attached to shotguns, poison darts, snake pits or any of the traps from the Indiana Jones movies.

You might think an "invitee" is someone who is just invited on to the property, say, for a cocktail party, but that's not it. If your buddy invites you over for a Super Bowl party, you're just considered a "licensee." This means you are on the property with permission. You're not providing your pal any business benefit, other than emotional support for his team, and divesting him of his chips and salsa. The only obligation your host has to licensees is to inform of the known danger on the property, and any not so obvious danger your host would expect you wouldn't know about.

View my Flipboard Magazine.

An "invitee," on the other hand, is someone who enters the land for a purpose connected with or benefiting the business owner. When you shop at a store, you're considered an "invitee." Historically, a landowner owed the invitee the highest duty of care, to inspect or warn of defects on the premises.

In modern times, states and courts alike have increasingly rejected these antiquated distinctions and applied a more universal "reasonable" standard to landowners, sometimes even to trespassers.

However, whether applying the traditional common law or a modern rule, if you are on someone's property for the purpose of spending money, courts will hold the landowner to the highest applicable standard of care.

Even the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has acknowledged the sometimes fatal injuries suffered on Black Friday, and has published crowd management safety guidelines for retailers. OSHA and the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 focus primarily on employers providing workers with safe and healthy workplaces, but their guidelines speak to preventing all injuries at retail sales events, with a specific nod to Black Friday.

The OSHA guidelines offer suggestions about where a court might look for the standards of care. According to the guidelines, there should be adequate security, and sufficient crowd control measures. A store is not automatically liable if a customer sucker-punches another customer over an X-Box, but it may be liable if the assault were foreseeable and the failure of security measures contributed to the assault.

The bottom line is that stores will be liable if people are injured by known, unsafe and nonobvious conditions on their property on Black Friday, especially if stores take no special safety or security precautions, and treat the day like any other day.

If a store knows it is expecting several times its normal traffic, it must anticipate the problems attendant to the increased foot traffic, and the potential for riffraff. It's true that no store can ever prevent a meteor landing on the roof. No store can guarantee that another customer won't suddenly go mad and punch another person in the head. No amount of security can prevent the unpredictable -- it's the same problem often encountered by stadiums when drunken sports fans attack.

But, if a store is deliberately indifferent to security problems, then it may be liable where it knowingly ignores the behavior of that riffraff. The sweet spot of security is somewhere between the extremes of razor wire and pepper spray, and the minimal effort of a "no shoes, no shirt, no service" sign.

A simple rule is that stores should be held liable for the increased risk they create -- especially when that risk creation is tied to a direct economic benefit. If a Black Friday sale devolves into the running of the bulls in Pamplona, and the store knowingly allowed dangerous conditions on the property, it's likely that the store will be held liable for injuries on the premises.

It's interesting that if you want to hold a rally or protest a grand jury, you might need a permit to exercise your First Amendment rights. But if you are a big-box retailer holding a big-box sale, it seems that as long as you are generating revenue and paying taxes, you can host the retail equivalent of Bonnaroo with nary a complaint. Ultimately, if a mall encourages this behavior, maybe it gets exactly what it deserves. Maybe the Black Friday retailer deserves the Black Friday shopper.

So the next time you make fun of people who set out on Christmas Eve for the mall, remember this: The smattering of losers like me may have waited until the last minute to get our shopping done, but at least no one gets hurt in the process.

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Briton killed in suicide attack

• NEW: In a separate incident, insurgents attacked a nonprofit organization in Kabul


• Security firm G4S says Briton killed in the blast was one of its staff


• Another victim was an Afghan national working at the British Embassy, UK says


• The Taliban claim responsibility for the suicide attack

(CNN) -- A suicide attack in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Thursday morning killed five people and wounded 33 others, including at least four children, said Hashmat Stanikzai, a police spokesman said.

An explosive-laden car was detonated as a foreign embassy convoy was passing in the 9th District police zone, said Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi.

The UK Foreign Office said two of those killed worked for the British Embassy.

One of the dead was a British national, a civilian security team member, and the second was an Afghan national working for the embassy, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said in a statement.

A second British member of the security team was injured, he said.

Attack kills 45 at volleyball game

U.S. expands combat role in Afghanistan

"I condemn this appalling attack on innocent civilians supporting our diplomatic activity," Hammond said.

"This outrage brings home to us once again the courage and perseverance of the people of Afghanistan and members of the international community who support them, who have lived together through decades of conflict."

British security firm G4S confirmed in a statement that the security workers caught up in the blast were its staff and offered its condolences to their families and friends.

"An investigation into the incident is under way and therefore we are unable to comment further at this time," it said. "Next of kin have been informed and we will continue to provide them with support."

Police in Kabul had earlier said that at least one British diplomat was killed after a large explosion damaged a convoy of foreign embassy cars in the capital.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pictures from Mustafa Deveci, a witness at the scene, showed at least five vehicles damaged at the site of the blast with their windows blown out.

In a separate incident, armed insurgents attacked the office of a nonprofit organization in Kabul late Thursday. Security forces killed two of the three attackers, Stanikzai said.

A Nepalese national was injured, the police spokesman said. The Taliban issued a statement claiming responsibility for that attack, too.

CNN's Laura Perez-Maestro in London; Yousuf Basil in Atlanta; and Ehsan Popalzai in Kabul contributed to this report.

Crime novelist P.D. James dies

Click through to see people who died in 2014.

British crime novelist P.D. James died November 27 at her home in Oxford, England. She was 94.

Lebanese singer and actress Sabah, one of the Arab world's most prolific entertainers with a career spanning more than six decades, died November 26 in Beirut, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported. She was 87.

Former Washington Mayor Marion Barry has died at the age of 78, a hospital spokeswoman said November 23. Barry was elected four times as the city's chief executive. He was once revered nationally as a symbol of African-American political leadership. But his professional accomplishments were often overshadowed by drug and personal scandals.

Acclaimed director Mike Nichols died on November 19. Nichols, pictured with his wife, journalist Diane Sawyer, was best known for his films "The Graduate," "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "The Birdcage." He was 83.

Jimmy Ruffin, silky-voiced singer of the Motown classic "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted," died November 19 in Las Vegas. He was 78.

'Knight Rider," "Battlestar Gallactica" producer Glen A. Larson passed away on November 14 at the age of 77 after a battle with cancer.

MTV reality star Diem Brown died November 14, at age 32 after a long battle with cancer.

Actress Carol Ann Susi, best known for voicing the unseen Mrs. Wolowitz on "The Big Bang Theory," died November 11, after a fight with cancer. She was 62.

A member of the Sugarhill Gang, Henry 'Big Bank Hank' Jackson, whose pioneering hit "Rapper's Delight" brought hip-hop to mainstream audiences 35 years ago, died November 11 of complications from cancer.

Tom Magliozzi, left, half of the "Click and Clack" team of brothers who hosted NPR's "Car Talk" radio show, died November 3. He was 77.

"House of Cards" actress Elizabeth Norment passed away at the age of 61, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed October 28 via Norment's sister Kate. According to the star's obituary in The Washington Post, Norment died of cancer on October 13 at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York.

Jack Bruce, bassist for the legendary 1960s rock band Cream, died October 25 at age 71.

Ben Bradlee, the zestful, charismatic Washington Post editor who guided the paper through the era of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate and was immortalized on screen in "All the President's Men," died on October 21. He was 93.

Fashion designer Oscar de la Renta died on October 20, close friends of the family and industry colleagues told CNN. He was 82.

"August: Osage County" actress Misty Upham was declared dead by a Washington coroner after her body was found along a river in suburban Seattle on October 16.

Actress Elizabeth Pena died October 14, according to her manager. She was 55.

Isaiah "Ikey" Owens, the keyboardist in Jack White's backing band, died October 14. The musician also played with bands such as Mars Volta and Free Moral Agents. He was 38.

Mark Bell, who founded the highly influential techno-music duo LFO and later collaborated with Bjork on several iconic albums, died of complications from a surgery, his record label said October 13.

Actress and comedian Jan Hooks died in New York on October 9. Her representative, Lisa Lieberman, confirmed the death to CNN but provided no additional information. According to IMDb.com, Hooks was 57.

Geoffrey Holder, a versatile artist known for his ability as a dancer, actor and a pitchman for 7Up, died from complications due to pneumonia, his family's attorney said on October 6. Holder was 84.

Paul Revere, leader of the 1960s rock band Paul Revere and the Raiders, died October 4 at his home in Idaho, according to the band's website. He was 76.

Emmy-winning actress Polly Bergen, whose TV and movie career spanned more than six decades, died on September 20, according to her publicist. She was 84, according to IMDb.com.

Singer George Hamilton IV, known as the "International Ambassador of Country Music," died at a Nashville hospital on September 17 following a heart attack, the Grand Ole Opry said in a press release. He was 77.

Northern Ireland's former first minister and former Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley has died, his wife, Eileen, said in a statement on September 12. He was 88.

Richard Kiel, the actor best known for playing the James Bond villain "Jaws," died September 10 at a California hospital, St. Agnes Medical Center spokeswoman Kelley Sanchez said. He was 74.

Joan Rivers, the sassy comedian whose gossipy "can we talk" persona catapulted her into a career as a headlining talk-show host, best-selling author and red-carpet maven, died September 4. She was 81.

Jimi Jamison, lead singer of the 1980s rock band Survivor, died at the age of 63, it was announced September 2.

Acclaimed actor-director Richard Attenborough died on August 24, the British Broadcasting Corporation reported, citing his son. Attenborough was 90.

Don Pardo, the man whose voice introduced the cast of NBC's "Saturday Night Live" for decades, died at the age of 96, the network announced August 19.

Skateboarding legend Jay Adams died of a heart attack August 14 while vacationing in Mexico with his wife. He was 53.

Ed Nelson, best known for playing a doctor in the 1960s nighttime soap opera "Peyton Place," died on August 13, his family said. He was 85.

Actress Arlene Martel, whom "Star Trek" fans knew as Spock's bride-to-be, died in a Los Angeles hospital August 12 after complications from a heart attack, her son said. Martel was 78.

Actress Lauren Bacall, the husky-voiced Hollywood icon known for her sultry sensuality, died on August 12. She was 89.

Actor and comedian Robin Williams died at his Northern California home on August 11. Williams apparently took his own life, law enforcement officials said. He was 63.

JJ Murphy, an actor who was set to join the "Game of Thrones" cast, died August 8, his agent said. He was 86.

Actor Charles Keating, who had been fighting lung cancer for several years, died on August 8, his son Sean Keating said. Charles Keating was known for his role of villain Carl Hutchins on the daytime drama "Another World." He was 72.

James Brady, the former White House press secretary who was severely wounded in a 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, has died, the White House said on August 4. He was 73. Later in the week, authorities told CNN they are investigating it as a homicide.

Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk, the last crewman of the U.S. plane that dropped the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945, died of natural causes on July 28, according to his daughter Vicki Triplett. He was 93.

James Shigeta, a prolific and pioneering Asian-American actor whose 50-year career included the movies "Die Hard" and "Flower Drum Song," died in his sleep in Los Angeles on July 28, his agent said. He was 81.

Skye McCole Bartusiak, who played Mel Gibson's youngest daughter in "The Patriot," died July 19, at her home in Houston, her mother said Sunday. She was 21. While investigators didn't immediately determine a cause of death, Bartusiak had been suffering from epileptic seizures, according to her mother.

James Garner, the understated, wisecracking everyman actor who enjoyed multigenerational success on both the small and big screens, died of natural causes on July 19. He was 86.

Broadway legend Elaine Stritch died July 17. According to her longtime friend Julie Keyes, Stritch died at her home in Birmingham, Michigan, surrounded by her family. She was 89 years old.

Blues guitarist and singer Johnny Winter died July 16 in a Swiss hotel room, his representative said. He was 70.

Nadine Gordimer, a South African author who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, died on July 13, according to her family. She was 90.

Renowned conductor Lorin Maazel died from complications of pneumonia on July 13, according to his family. He was 84.

Grammy-winning jazz bassist Charlie Haden, whose music career spanned seven decades and several genres, died July 11, according to his publicist. He was 76.

Drummer Tommy Ramone, the last living original member of the pioneering punk band The Ramones, died on July 11, according to the band's Facebook page. He was 65.

Eileen Ford, who founded the Ford Model Agency 70 years ago, died July 9 at the age of 92, the company said.

Richard Percy Jones, the actor who gave Pinocchio his voice in the 1940 Disney movie, died at his California home on July 8. He was 87.

David Legeno, known for playing Fenrir Greyback in the "Harry Potter" movies, was found dead July 6, by hikers in a remote desert location in Death Valley, California. He was 50. "It appears that Legeno died of heat-related issues, but the Inyo County Coroner will determine the final cause of death," read a press release from the Inyo County Sheriff's Department. "There are no signs of foul play."

Rosemary Murphy, an Emmy Award-winning actress known for her roles in the movie "To Kill a Mockingbird" as well as TV soap operas "All My Children" and "Another World," died July 5 at the age of 89. The New York Times cited cancer as the cause of death.

Olympian and World War II hero Louis Zamperini, the subject of the book and upcoming film "Unbroken," died July 2 after a recent battle with pneumonia. The 97-year-old peacefully passed away in the presence of his entire family, according to a statement.

Walter Dean Myers, a beloved author of children's books, died on July 1 following a brief illness, according to the Children's Book Council.

Paul Mazursky, a five-time Oscar nominee who directed and wrote such films as "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice," "An Unmarried Woman" and "Down and Out in Beverly Hills," died at the age of 84, his agent said July 1.

Actor Meshach Taylor died June 28 at his Los Angeles-area home, his agent, Dede Binder, said. He was 67. Taylor had fought a terminal illness and faded markedly in recent days, Binder said. His wife, children, grandchildren and mother surrounded him as he passed away.

Legendary soul singer Bobby Womack died June 27, according to Womack's publicist. He was 70.

Character actor Eli Wallach, seen here in "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," died on June 24, according to a family member who did not want to be named. Wallach was 98.

Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn died June 16 at the age of 54, according to a release from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Gwynn, who had 3,141 hits in 20 seasons with the San Diego Padres, had cancer.

Radio personality Casey Kasem died June 15. He was 82 and had been hospitalized in Washington state for two weeks.

Former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Chuck Noll died June 13. He had suffered from Alzheimer's and heart disease. He was 82.

Ruby Dee, an award-winning actress whose seven-decade career included triumphs on stage and screen, died June 12. She was 91.

Former baseball star Bob Welch passed away on June 9 after suffering a heart attack, according to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He was 57.

British actor and comedian Rik Mayall, who appeared in the TV series "Blackadder," died June 9 at the age of 56, his agent said. The cause of death was not immediately reported.

Chester Nez, the last of the original Navajo code talkers credited with creating an unbreakable code used during World War II, died June 5 at his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Navajo Nation President said. Nez was 93.

Ann B. Davis, who played Alice the maid on "The Brady Bunch," died from a subdural hematoma on June 1. She was 88.

Maya Angelou, a renowned poet, novelist and actress, died at the age of 86, her literary agent said on May 28. Angelou was also a professor, singer and dancer whose work spanned several generations.

Australian racing legend Jack Brabham died on May 19, according to Brabham's son David. Brabham, 88, was a three-time Formula One world champion.

Malik Bendjelloul, the Oscar-winning director of "Searching for Sugar Man," died suddenly on May 13, police said. He was 36.

H.R. Giger, the Swiss surrealist artist whose works of sexual-industrial imagery and design of the eponymous creature in the "Alien" movies were known around the world, died on May 12. He was 74.

Former professional tennis player Elena Baltacha died at the age of 30 after losing her battle with liver cancer on May 4. Before retiring in November, she had reached a career high of 49th in the world rankings.

Al Feldstein, who guided Mad magazine for almost three decades as its editor, died on April 29, according to a Montana funeral home. He was 88.

Oscar-nominated British actor Bob Hoskins, known for roles in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and "Mona Lisa," died April 29 at age 71, his publicist said.

Hall of Fame basketball coach John "Dr. Jack" Ramsay, who became a television analyst years after winning a league championship with the Portland Trail Blazers, died on April 28, according to his longtime employer ESPN. Ramsay was 89.

Former Barcelona soccer coach Tito Vilanova, who had been battling cancer, died at the age of 45, the club announced April 25.

Country singer Kevin Sharp died from "complications due to cancer" on April 19, his mother told CNN. He was 43.

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, the middleweight boxing contender who was wrongly convicted of a triple murder in New Jersey in the 1960s, died April 20 at the age of 76, according to Win Wahrer, the director of client services for the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the influential, Nobel Prize-winning author of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Love in the Time of Cholera," passed away on April 17, his family and officials said. He was 87.

Jose Luis "Cheo" Feliciano, a giant of salsa music and a Puerto Rican legend, died in a car crash April 18 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, according to police. He was 78.

Days after being inducted into World Wrestling Entertainment's Hall of Fame, WWE superstar Ultimate Warrior died April 8. Born James Hellwig, he legally changed his name to Warrior in 1993. He was 54.

Comedian John Pinette, 50, was found dead in a Pittsburgh hotel room on April 5. Pinette died of natural causes stemming from "a medical history he was being treated for," the medical examiner's spokesman said. An autopsy will not be done because his personal doctor signed the death certificate.

Mickey Rooney, who started as a child star in vaudeville and went on to star in hundreds of movies and TV shows, died April 6 at the age of 93.

DJ Frankie Knuckles, a legendary producer, remixer and house music pioneer, died March 31 at the age of 59.

Kate O'Mara, the British actress best known for playing Joan Collins' sister on the 1980s show "Dynasty," died March 30. She was 74.

Ralph C. Wilson Jr., the founder and longtime owner of the NFL's Buffalo Bills, died at age 95, the team announced March 25.

Gwar lead singer Dave Brockie died March 23 at the age of 50, his manager said. The heavy-metal group formed in 1984, billing itself as "Earth's only openly extraterrestrial rock band." Brockie performed in the persona of Oderus Urungus.

James Rebhorn, whose acting resume includes a long list of character roles in major films and TV shows, died March 21, his representative said. Rebhorn was 65.

L'Wren Scott, a noted fashion designer and girlfriend of musician Mick Jagger, was found dead of an apparent suicide March 17, according to a law enforcement official. She was 49.

Drummer Scott Asheton, who co-founded and played drums for the influential proto-punk band The Stooges, died March 15. He was 64.

Comedian David Brenner, a regular on Johnny Carson's "The Tonight Show," died after a battle with cancer, a family spokesman said March 15. He was 78.

Actress Sheila MacRae, who portrayed Alice Kramden in a 1960s revival of "The Honeymooners" on "The Jackie Gleason Show," died on March 6, according to her family. She was 92.

Spanish guitarist Paco de Lucia, seen here in 2006, died February 25 of an apparent heart attack. He was 66. De Lucia transformed the folk art of flamenco music into a more vibrant modern sound.

Actor, writer and director Harold Ramis, seen here on the far left with fellow "Ghostbusters" Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray, died at his Chicago-area home on February 24. He was 69. Other popular Ramis films include "Stripes," "Groundhog Day" and "Analyze This."

Maria von Trapp, seen here posing with a photo of her family, was the last of the singing siblings immortalized in the movie "The Sound of Music." She died February 18 of natural causes at her Vermont home, according to her family. She was 99.

Journalist Garrick Utley died at age 74 following a long battle with cancer, his wife of 40 years said in February. Utley worked for CNN after his 30-year career at NBC News.

Devo guitarist Bob Casale, known by fans as "Bob 2," died February 17, his brother and band mate announced. Casale was 61.

John Henson, the son of Jim Henson who is perhaps most notable for his portrayal of Sweetums on "The Muppets," died after a "sudden, massive heart attack," his family's company said on February 15.

Veteran actor Ralph Waite died at 85 on February 13, according to an accountant for the Waite family and a church where the actor was a regular member. Waite was best known for his role as John Walton Sr. on 'The Waltons."

Sid Caesar, whose clever, anarchic comedy on such programs as "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour" helped define the 1950s "Golden Age of Television," died on February 12. He was 91.

Hollywood child star Shirley Temple, who became diplomat Shirley Temple Black, died February 10 at her Woodside, California, home. She was 85.

Joan Mondale, the wife of former Vice President Walter Mondale, died on February 3, according to a statement from the family's church.

Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead in his Manhattan apartment of an apparent drug overdose, law enforcement sources said February 2.

Maximilian Schell died on February 1 in a Austrian hospital with his wife by his side, his agent Patricia Baumbauer said. He was 83. Schell was nominated for an Oscar three times. He won in 1962 for "Judgment at Nuremberg."

Legendary folk singer Pete Seeger, known for classics such as "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" and "If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)," died of natural causes in New York on January 27, his grandson told CNN. He was 94.

Ruth Robinson Duccini, who played one of the Munchkins in the 1939 classic "The Wizard of Oz," died on January 16. She was 95.

Former Playboy centerfold Cassandra Lynn Hensley was found dead at a friend's home in Los Angeles, the coroner there said on January 17. Hensley was 34. Her cause of death was not immediately known.

Hiroo Onoda, center, salutes after handing over his military sword on Lubang Island in the Philippines in March 1974. Onoda, a former intelligence officer in the Japanese army, had remained on the island for nearly 30 years, refusing to believe his country had surrendered in World War II. He died at a Tokyo hospital on January 16. He was 91.

Russell Johnson, center, stands with Alan Hale Jr., left, and Bob Denver in an episode of "Gilligan's Island" in 1966. Johnson, who played "the professor" Roy Hinkley in the hit television show, passed away January 16 at his home in Washington state, according to his agent, Mike Eisenstadt. Johnson was 89.

Ariel Sharon, whose half century as a military and political leader in Israel was marked with victories and controversies, died on January 11 after eight years in a coma, Israeli Army Radio reported. Sharon was 85.

Franklin McCain, seen center wearing glasses, one of the "Greensboro Four," who made history for their 1960 sit-in at a Greensboro Woolworth's lunch counter, died on January 10 after a brief illness, according to his alma mater, North Carolina A&T State University.

Larry Speakes, who served as President Ronald Reagan's press secretary, died January 10 at his home in Cleveland, Mississippi, following a lengthy illness, according to Bolivar County Coroner Nate Brown. He was 74.

Poet Amiri Baraka, who lost his post as New Jersey's poet laureate because of a controversial poem about the 9/11 terror attacks, died on January 9, his agent said. Baraka was 79.

Sir Run Run Shaw, the media tycoon who helped bring Chinese martial arts films to an international audience, died at his home in Hong Kong on January 7 at age 106, the television station he founded said.

Stage, TV and film actress Carmen Zapata, who founded the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts as a means of of introducing "the rich and eloquent history of the diverse Hispanic culture to English-speaking audiences," died on January 5 at her Los Angeles home. She was 86.

Portugal football legend Eusebio, who was top scorer at the 1966 World Cup, died from a heart attack on January 5 at age 71, said his former club, Benfica.

Alicia Rhett, who had been one of the oldest surviving cast members of the classic film "Gone With the Wind," died on January 3 in her longtime hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, a retirement community spokeswoman said. She was 98.

Singer Phil Everly, left -- one half of the groundbreaking, smooth-sounding, record-setting duo the Everly Brothers -- died on January 3, a hospital spokeswoman said. He was 74.

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• P.D. James, noted crime novelist, dies at 94


• James created detective Adam Dalgliesh, one of most renowned in modern lit


• Among her other books: "The Children of Men," made into 2006 film

(CNN) -- P.D. James, the British novelist renowned for her crime novels featuring detective Adam Dalgliesh as well as such works as "The Children of Men," died Thursday. She was 94.

Faber & Faber, her UK publisher, reported her death on its website.

"It is difficult to express our profound sadness at losing P. D. James, one of the world's great writers and a Faber author since her first publication in 1962," the publisher said in a statement. "She was so very remarkable in every aspect of her life, an inspiration and great friend to us all. We will miss her hugely."

The Guardian reported that James died at her home in Oxford, England.

"Saddened to hear of the death of P.D. James, one of the UK's greatest crime writers, who thrilled and inspired generations of readers," tweeted British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Over a five-decade career as a published writer, James won countless honors for her thoughtful, probing mysteries featuring Dalgliesh, a Scotland Yard detective who was also a poet. She was named a Grandmaster by the Mystery Writers of America, earned the Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers' Association and received a life membership in the House of Lords in 1991, named Baroness James of Holland Park.

P.D. James created detective Adam Dalgliesh, a celebrated English sleuth.

She was nicknamed "the Queen of Crime" and described as the Dickens of crime writing.

Her famed protagonist, Dalgliesh, is a complex, withdrawn figure, "a dedicated professional policeman, supremely efficient, sensitive but with reticence verging on coldness in personal matters," The New York Times described him in 1986. He is widowed and childless. In his introspection and erudition, he was something apart from the usual British detective, even in a culture that created Sherlock Holmes and Father Brown.

"Dalgliesh is probably the most intelligent officer in modern detective fiction," Ruth Rendell, no mean detective writer herself, told the Guardian in 2001.

James was following in the British mystery tradition even as she longed to tweak it, she told the Guardian.

"If I was starting now, I would almost certainly have a woman professional police officer" as the main character, James said. "But when I began, in the late '50s, it was a very different world. Women in the police force mostly dealt with issues concerning women and children. I don't think they were even in the detective force, so I had no choice about sex."

The Dalgliesh mysteries include "The Black Tower" (1975), "A Taste for Death" (1986) and "Death in Holy Orders" (2001).

Her novel "Death Comes to Pemberley" (2011) continued Jane Austen's classic "Pride and Prejudice" as a murder mystery. It was adapted into a miniseries that aired on PBS in the United States.

Phyllis Dorothy James was born in Oxford in 1920. At 16, she left school and went to work as a civil servant in the tax office. She married Ernest Connor White in 1941. She became the family breadwinner when White returned from World War II with mental problems. After years in and out of psychiatric hospitals, he died in 1964. James worked her way up through the civil service, spending 10 years as an administrator in a forensics department.

James didn't publish her first novel, "Cover Her Face," until 1962 -- when she was 42 -- but she always knew she wanted to be a writer, she told the Paris Review in 1995.

"From an early age, I used to tell imaginative stories to my younger brother and sister. I lived in the world of the imagination, and I did something that other writers have told me they did as children: I described myself inwardly in the third person," she said. "I don't know whether this is significant, but I think writing was what I wanted to do -- almost as soon as I knew what a book was."

And her subject, she said, was a natural for her.

As she told the Paris Review, "I had an interest in death from an early age. It fascinated me. When I heard, Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, I thought, Did he fall, or was he pushed?"

Ironically, her breakthrough work was a non-Dalgliesh title, 1980's "Innocent Blood," which allowed her to retire to writing full time.

"At the beginning of the week, I was relatively poor, and at the end of the week, I wasn't," she told the Guardian.

Aside from the mysteries, her best-known work is probably "The Children of Men," which was made into a highly praised Alfonso Cuaron film in 2006. It is set in a near future in which a disease has rendered women infertile and humanity is slowly dying off, erupting in chaos in the process.

It was making sense of chaos that she found the heart of her mysteries, she said.

"I think the main attraction isn't the horror, it's the puzzle," she told the Guardian. "(It's) the bringing of order out of disorder."

James is survived by two daughters and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

People we've lost in 2014