P.D. James has a knack for getting better with each novel she writes. Though I left this mystery feeling unsatisfied with the ending, I was blown away by how great it is in its entirety. Gorgeous and gritty writing, it's a must-read for any mystery fan. ( )

A well-known barrister is found murdered in chambers. Is the motive greed or revenge? It's revenge this time (it seldom is greed in a P.D. James novel). A good story, well-written, of course. ( )

Quite a good read, but the daughter is irritating as all get out. I don't know how many times I wanted to slap some sense into her. Ending was a bit predictable, but the rest was very interesting. ( )

Dalgliesh and his team solve three murders but justice is not always served even if the murder is solved. Three murder victims are eventually linked through personal mysteries each tries to hide. Who killed the successful criminal lawyer whose brilliant defenses often delayed justice for the criminals she defended? Who placed a judge’s wig on the victim’s head and dumped blood on her after her death? Who killed the law firm’s cleaning woman? And why does a young man, accused of murdering his aunt, and defended by the dead lawyer want to marry the lawyer’s daughter? Great mystery with lots of time spent developing the characters of the victim/s and murderer/s rather than on the personal lives of the detective team. ( )

Another classic murder mystery from P.D. James. I enjoy how James takes the time to flesh out the incidental characters and the dead-ends of the inquiry. Here the victim is, to me, particularly easy to empathize with, human and flawed (so many murder mysteries kill off either villains or saints.) The daughter subplot keeps the tension up. Inspector Kate Miskin (Dalgliesh's second) got on my nerves a bit this time, but that's no huge matter. ( )

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/node/... ( )

One of James' better mysteries, helped I think by the fact that my edition was one of Penguin's newly issued 'old style' covers that evokes a certain nostalga for a world that is passing.

As such it's a fitting cover for this book. Temple Chambers his the professional home of some of London's leading barristers. An arachic place, where the aging populace resist the modern intrusions. Apart of course from some. Venetia Aldridge the highest ranked women and therefore likely to suceed as Head of Chambers is looking to appoint modern practises to the dismay of many. Prickly and aloof, her realtionship with her daughter was never going to be strong, but it rapidly deteriorates even further, when the daughter (Octavia) takes up with an innocent boy. Innocent only because Venetia brilliantly defended him some weeks earlier. Venetia knows he committed murder, the evidence was not sufficient. She is far from pleased to see him again with her daughter.

And so proceeds the opening third of the book, stately in the manner of all barristers charging by the minute, the life and times of Venetia are displayed, she disagrees with many people, all of whom become suspects when she is found grotesquely murdered in Chambers. Enter Adam Dalgliesh and team. The remaining two thirds of the book,,a re a far more standard procedure, as alibi's are checked and suspects questioned. There are so many suspects that its tricky to keep all the names straight.

As is oftne the case, Adam actually takes a back seat in the narrative to Kate Miskin, and it should really be her series. As she struggles to maintain her professionallism, and grasps the chances life puts in her way with both hands. Growing up on a crime riddled estate has marked her in many ways.

The ending is sudden, with no real explanation given for how Dalglish arrived at the conclusions he drew.

An enjoyable, stately mystery, with a salutery reminder at the end, as to what justice is, and what it is not. ( )

I had to read it from start to finish. It had ending I did not expect. ( )

A murder of a successful but not much-liked criminal lawyer, Venetia Aldridge, occupies the attention of Scotland Yard Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his cohorts Detective Inspectors Kate Miskin and Piers Tarrant. Venetia's fellow law firm partners are all under suspicion, adding a bit of fun since, as lawyers, they know well how to manipulate a criminal investigation procedure. Complications arise when a murderer whom Venetia got acquitted, one Garry Ashe, suddenly takes up romantically with Venetia's daughter Octavia. The book doesn't end neatly - a definite breath of fresh air for the genre, allowing one of the characters to make the observation from which the book's title arises: "It is good for us to be reminded from time to time that our system of law is human, and, therefore, fallible and that the most we can hope to achieve is a certain justice." (JAF)

Well…it started off with a bang. I liked Venitia. I liked her style and her piercing intelligence. And when she died I wanted someone to pay. But no one did. It ended with a whimper. The killer cannot be proven to be the killer and Dalgliesh has to give it up. So unlike him in the past.

James gave us so many suspects, too. My head was spinning to keep them all straight. ( )