Certain Justice [Hardcover]

P D James (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 6, 1997

An Adam Dalgliesh novel. When Venetia Aldridge QC defends young Gary Ashe, accused of the brutal murder of his aunt, this is just one more opportunity for her to triumph in a distinguished career as a criminal lawyer. Then Miss Aldridge is found dead at her desk, and Dalgliesh is called in.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Although A Certain Justice begins with news of a murder, the victim isn't set to die for another four weeks. Publicly respected but privately loathed, Venetia Aldridge has far more enemies than a brilliant London criminal lawyer should--and at least one of them is determined to do her in. Venetia plies her superior trade in courts that harbor "the illusion that the passions of men were susceptible to order and control," but her past and private life are exceedingly unruly. Her married lover is intent on giving her up; her daughter loathes her; her fellow barristers are determined that she not become the next head of chambers. Even the cleaning women seems to have something on her.

The outline alone of this complex novel would take pages (as would the eclectic inventory of players), but P. D. James makes us admire far more than her brilliantly developed plot. James in fact creates a crowded gallery of surprisingly decent suspects, along with one suitably vile creature--who happens to be Aldridge's last client.

A superior murder mystery, A Certain Justice is also a gripping anatomy of wild justice. James's characters can be overcome by hate, but she is equally concerned with love's manifestations--human, divine, destructive, and healing. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA?Venetia Aldridge, a brilliant barrister, has "four weeks, four hours and fifty minutes left of life." By the time her murder is discovered, readers have not only met most of the suspects, but have also begun to sympathize with whomever might have done her in. Everyone in the victim's life, from her 18-year-old daughter to the retiring head of chambers, from her former lover to the cleaning woman, has cause to have wished her ill. Adam Dalgleish, James's poetry penning sleuth, and his assistants, especially Kate Miskin, investigate the many possible suspects. After much examination of the past and present, the murderer is discovered and A Certain Justice is meted out. As with many of the author's mysteries, psychology and motivation are as important as whodunit and the conundrum presented here is thought-provoking. Much of the action centers around the rebellious daughter and there is a suspense-filled scene in which she and her psychopathic boyfriend try to evade Dalgleish, only to have young Octavia discover that she needs to evade the boyfriend instead. YAs who enjoy James and those ready for a bit of a fright with their English mysteries will surely take to this adventure.?Susan H. Woodcock, Kings Park Library, Burke, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Faber and Faber; First edition (October 6, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0571191649
• ISBN-13: 978-0571191642
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,489,106 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

P. D. James is the author of twenty previous books, most of which have been filmed and broadcast on television in the United States and other countries. She spent thirty years in various departments of the British Civil Service, including the Police and Criminal Law Departments of Great Britain's Home Office. She has served as a magistrate and as a governor of the BBC. In 2000 she celebrated her eightieth birthday and published her autobiography, Time to Be in Earnest. The recipient of many prizes and honors, she was created Baroness James of Holland Park in 1991 and was inducted into the International Crime Writing Hall of Fame in 2008. She lives in London and Oxford.

Photo credit Ulla Montan

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best P.D. James mystery in years, January 22, 2000

By 

RolloTomasi (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Certain Justice (Adam Dalgliesh Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Venetia Aldridge, a bitchy, brilliant criminal attorney with a talent for getting guilty clients off the hook, is brutally murdered in her Chambers. Once again, Commander Adam Dalgliesh steps in to unravel a mystery that, as is the case in almost all James' finest novels, lies buried in the past.

Though A CERTAIN JUSTICE is not P.D. James' most intricately plotted or fast-paced novel (that distinction belongs to the brilliant SHROUD FOR A NIGHTINGALE), it's a great throwback to her early days, during which some of her most compelling books were written. The central character, Venetia, nearly upstages Dalgliesh here, and with good reason: she is probably the most enthralling, fascinating character James has ever created. She is eminently respectable and thoroughly unpleasant, and because of this she has naturally surrounded herself with a gallery of suspects, all of whom have reason to do her in. The way in which James reveals the true murderer, however, is nothing short of brilliant. In fact, the entire plot is a marvel of construction, with every clue scrupulously laid out for the reader. As always, however, the relatively simple details of the crime belie the emotional and psychological turmoil boiling beneath the surface.

What distinguishes A CERTAIN JUSTICE from her more recent books is the quality of the writing. James' technique is as stylish and literate as ever, but so much more readable; she wastes few words on unnecessary details about architecture (as one reviewer aptly pointed out below). The novel is much shorter than A TASTE FOR DEATH, DEVICES AND DESIRES, or ORIGINAL SIN, fine mysteries that were undermined by excessive rambling. At under four hundred pages, A CERTAIN JUSTICE is leaner and cleaner, and also has a thrust and energy lacking in its predecessors. This is truly P.D. James at the peak of her form--an exquisite, beautifully crafted novel that also shows a tremendous amount of grace and restraint.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Excellently written... other than the end, December 8, 2005

By 

Blaine A. Simpson (VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Certain Justice (Adam Dalgliesh Mystery Series #10) (Paperback)

No reason for me to duplicate what other reviews have adequately described.

The book is well written, engaging, and filled with interesting characters.

But the ending is no better than the work of an amateur.

I disagree with other reviewers on a couple items. A few reviewers say

that the writing is excessively descriptive. Several reviewers say that

she dwells too long with character descriptions which are irrelevant to

the plot. WRT the character descriptions, I entirely disagree. If any

character were described less, these same reviewers would be complaining

that the characters are stereotypes or shallow. These characters are

described as succinctly as possible if they are to be interesting and

believable. Most contemporary writers use the same number of pages to

describe uninteresting and unbelievable characters. The only other

descriptions which I think anybody could complain about would be her

descriptions of "rooms" (furniture, etc.). If you count up the pages, I

don't think they would add up to much. I treat these descriptions just

like observing a room in real life. I'm a typical man who doesn't pay

much attention to "interior decoration"-- so I read through these

paragraphs quickly and don't pay them much attention. I respect why

James writes the paragraphs though. Many readers are very interested in

interior decoration, and James herself obviously is. I wouldn't want a

book to be dummied down on my account. If you don't think getting

involved in interesting characters is a pleasurable experience in itself,

then James is not the writer for you-- television is probably much more

suitable to your tastes.

A couple writers wrote about the hurdle of learning intricacies of

the British legal system. I can agree with this only if the audience

is middle school level or below. I knew nothing about British law

before reading this book. An ounce of common sense, and looking up

about five words in a hand dictionary was all it took to completely

grasp everything alluded to. Once again, if you want entirely

mindless diversion, then James is not for you. If you are like me,

you will enjoy the freshness of experiencing things in an environment

which is new to you.

Some reviewers complained about the (moral) unattractiveness of

the principal characters. I stand with the great majority of readers

who agree that most of the characters are unattractive, but they are

also realistic and (most importantly) engaging. Some naive reviewers

criticize aspects of characters, for example, picking apart Miskin's

indignation. I have news for you... that is how real human beings

are. James is not trying to describe role models, but realistic

people. If you prefer your characters black-and-white, there are

plenty of other authors who can serve that up for you.

I did not like the denouement. Yes, it "made sense", but, as

capably noted by somebody else, it was not "solvable" by causal

reasoning. Trying not to give anything away here... What

disappointed me more than "who did it", was the unoriginal and

unrealistic way that everything was spelled out in the end.

I've seen very similar scenes in more than one Columbo ending. It

is really stupid to think that intelligent criminals would take the

trouble to disassociate themselves from their crime until a certain

date X, then all of a sudden they give every detail to the police

because they are certain they will never be convicted. Ridiculous.

Even if anybody could somehow know that no piece of evidence will

be found in the future, the police have ways to trouble people other

than getting one convicted... in this instance, it would take very

little trouble for the high ranking detective to turn the

murderers's associates against him (by just repeating what the

murderer himself has said). And to think that a lawyer would not

give any mind to these concerns... idiotic.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliantly Written, But Poor Pay Off, February 2, 2004

By 

Gary F. Taylor "GFT" (Biloxi, MS USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Certain Justice (Adam Dalgliesh Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

P.D. James has come a very long way from her 1962 debut novel COVER HER FACE, and her narrative skill has become increasingly powerful as the years have gone by. A CERTAIN JUSTICE is indeed a showcase for that skill, for her uncanny knack for creating believable characters seemingly out of midair, and for the grace and power of her prose. And it is extremely easy to become absorbed in the novel: although the paperback edition runs well over four hundred pages, I wolfed it down in less than twenty-four hours.

A CERTAIN JUSTICE concerns Venetia Aldridge, a criminal lawyer renowned for her skill at defense. But for all her professional renown, Venetia is something of a failure in her private life: high tempered, demanding, and determined to hold others to the same high standard for which she strives, she has a well deserved reputation for coldness and unkindness. Most specifically, she has a need to be in absolute control--and as a result she makes enough enemies both professionally and publicly to fill a telephone directory. And when she is found dead in her offices there are suspects galore.

Throughout the novel James revels in the details of the English court system, painting brilliant portraits of the individuals who move across the surface of the law--and sometimes under it. And as the novel progresses she draws us deeper and deeper still into their lives, their motivations, their worlds. It is a brilliant piece of writing. But it has a problem: the ending stinks. After having skillfully maneuvered us through this unique world and held our interest through two murders and a host of subplots, James essentially cops out by giving us a solution that her detective, Commander Adam Dalgliesh, cannot have logically reached--it is pure guesswork, and frankly James would have done better to simply leave Venetia's murder unsolved than to saddle the novel with such an uninspired conclusion.

One of the novel's several points is that murder cannot always be proven in a court of law and therefore cannot always be punished, and I certainly have no quarrel with that concept. But the person who "did the deed"--let us say that for all the logic involved, James could have just as easily selected another character and pinned it there. The final chapter is a tremendous let down, particularly in light of the exceptional work that precedes it. Four stars for James' impressive narrative style, but you're likely to be disappointed on the final page.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer