Once again, it may be 1997, but in PDJ-land it's always the 1950s with women in offices using typewriters (a typewriter!) and word processors rather than computers - a later mention of Dalgleish actually using a mobile feels jarringly modern given the low-tech nature of the world - no internet here! But even after the first day he was beginning to suspect that it could turn into one of those cases which all detectives abhor: the inquiry in which the murderer is known but the evidence is never sufficient in the eyes of the DPP* to justify prosecution. And the police team was, after all, dealing with lawyers. They would know better than most that what condemned a man was the inability to keep his mouth shut. - * DPP = Department of Public Prosecutions. Like most British mysteries, the situation is so claustrophobic (is that because everyone is conscious of England being an island?) that you wonder why more of the ants in this particular literary bottle (in this case, a group of lawyers) aren't killing one another. It’s now clear that in the wake of her personal tragedies, Janet moved to London to get close to Venetia. Did she hire a hitman to kill her? As our novel opens, attractive, divorced, successful, hard-edged, unmaternal, unsympathetic barrister Venetia Aldridge is defending above nephew on the charge of murdering said aunt. She obtains an acquittal, and shortly thereafter finds that her 18-year old daughter has become engaged to the sociopathic young man. They've just met, and it hardly seems coincidental: someone is trying to piss Venetia Aldridge off. Quite a few people's lives would be made easier if Venetia were to pass from this earth, and we meet them, one by one. Soon Venetia meets her maker at the office, courtesy of a stiletto-sharp letter opener between the ribs. Enter the preternaturally lovely Commissioner Adam Dalgliesh - a man utterly at home in all situations - and his underling Kate Miskin, a woman continually pestered by her impoverished, urine-scented childhood - and we are off to the races.

Review of the Vintage Canada Kindle eBook (2010) of the Faber & Faber (UK) original hardcover (October 1, 1997). A Certain Justice is P.D. James at her strongest. In her first foray into the strange closed world of the Law Courts and the London legal community, she has created a fascinating tale of interwoven passion and terror. As each character leaps into unforgettable life, as each scene draws us forward into new complexities of plot, she proves yet again that no other writer can match her skill in combining the excitement of the classic detective story with the richness of a fine novel. In its subtle portrayal of morality and human behavior, A Certain Justice will stand alongside Devices and Desires and A Taste for Death as one of P.D. James's most important, accomplished and entertaining works.Dalgliesh, Miskin and Tarrant uncover a tragic web of association between the victims and witnesses. But time is running out to save Octavia from a terrible fate. Richard Goulding (The Windsors) as Lord Martlesham - he's interviewed by Dalgliesh after his name crops up b camera focus puller / a camera focus puller / b camera first assistant camera (9 episodes, 2021-2023) The book also explores the psyche of a pathological criminal, the moral dilemmas of the defence lawyer and the repercussions of a successful defence of a murderer on those who are alive, including the victim's survivors and the defence lawyer herself. It is also a comment on the limitations of the criminal justice system.

a camera operator / b camera operator: dailies / steadicam operator / steadicam operator: dailies (3 episodes, 2021) One of the best PD James I have read. The twist at the end is brilliant. Venetia a QC is murdered in her chambers office and there is an awfully long list of suspects. Most if her colleagues, the murderer Ashe she recently got acquitted and who has mysteriously started a relationship with her estranged daughter Octavia. Kynaston and Dalgliesh deduce that Janet Carpenter’s death is a case of murder disguised as suicide.

Cast & Crew

Although it is clunky to put Janet's confession in a letter, with all the verbatim conversations etc, and the whole set-up is unbelievable, I still found it compelling. Once that scenario is established, however, PDJ seems to forget almost all the suspects and we barely see them again. Dalgleish and his team seem to have someone in mind based on alibis but they don't share their thoughts with us and I have no idea whether they had identified the right person or not. To be honest, the ending manages to be both overwrought and an anticlimax and I'd kind of lost interest by then. As was the case with the introduction of a Jewish detective in the last book, this time we open with Kate and new-boy Piers on a shooting range, so we know immediately how the book will end. Although Octavia feels bad about her mother’s death, she has her own issues. She felt that Venetia neglected her. Venetia always put her career before Octavia or her father. She knows that Garry isn’t perfect, but he feels like a kindred spirit. He knows what parental neglect feels like, and it doesn’t make him a bad person. However, Octavia admits that Venetia planned to stop the relationship, which now makes her another significant person of interest.