It's been a long time since I read anything by P. D. James and I was delighted to immerse myself in her intelligent writing again.

This book was published in 1997 and is probably set around that time. That means that it was before the time of ubiquitous mobile phones and googling for information. Even DNA science was in its infancy. So Adam Dalgliesh and his team have to do a lot of old fashioned detective work like searching through old paper files and questioning witnesses carefully. Dalgliesh isn't quite Hercule Poirot but he is certainly not one of the CSI franchise detectives using all sorts of forensic technology to solve crimes. I grew up reading detective stories of this type and I still like them better.

The murder victim is Venetia Aldridge, Q.C. and she is well acquainted with murder having defended many persons accused of that crime. She was found dead in her chambers by the head clerk early one morning after he received a phone call from Miss Aldridge's housekeeper worried because she had not come home. If it wasn't for the barrister's wig soaked in blood on her head the clerk might have thought she had died a natural death because she was just slumped in her chair. However, the bizarre headwear made it obvious this was a suspicious death and the Head of Chambers decided to call in Scotland Yard, specifically Adam Dalgliesh with whom he was acquainted. Venetia was divorced but her daughter, Octavia, was living in the basement suite in her house. Octavia had recently become engaged to Garry Ashe much to her mother's disapproval as Ashe was a former client that, through her efforts, had been found not guilty of his aunt's murder. Venetia well knew that not guilty is not the same as innocent and she knew too much about Ashe to think him a suitable match for her daughter. And she had not minced words when she told Octavia so. But Garry Ashe has an alibi for the time of the murder and besides it seems that the perpetrator almost had to be someone within chambers. Venetia Aldridge was not liked by many of her colleagues and certainly some of them had the opportunity to murder her. It's up to Dalgliesh and his team to figure out which one actually committed the murder.

Lots of action takes place in and around the Inns of the Court, specifically the Middle Temple, which is described to great advantage by Ms. James. One could almost imagine the locale was a country village, not an historic enclave in the middle of London. I was drawn down a bit of a rabbit hole reading about the Middle Temple on line. We upstart colonials may say we derive our justice system from English common law but I suspect lawyers in Canada will never have the mystique of English barristers. ( )

Murders in Law
Review of the Vintage Canada Kindle eBook (2010) of the Faber & Faber (UK) original hardcover (October 1, 1997).

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.

The 10th Adam Dalgliesh novel finds the poet detective and his team of Kate Miskin and new assistant Piers Tarrant from Scotland Yard CID investigating the murder of lawyer Venetia Aldridge who is found dead in her office of a stab wound with her body grotesquely displayed in a judge's wig and doused in blood which is not her own. There are no lack of suspects as there were rivalries within the lawyer's chambers and Aldridge was notorious for defending and obtaining acquittals for clients who were likely guilty of their crimes.

See cover at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/aa/ACertainJustice.jpg
The cover of the original Faber & Faber hardcover published in 1997. Image sourced from Wikipedia.

The conclusion of the book did flirt with an Unsatisfactory Ending Alert™, but I honestly can't used that tag for P.D. James as the novel was completely satisfactory otherwise. In the end, A Certain Justice is still achieved.

He asked: “Any news? You haven’t come to make an arrest, I take it. Of course not, there would be at least two of you. There should be a Latin tag about it. Vigiles non timendi sunt nisi complures adveniunt. I leave the translation to you.” - The Latin translates as "Don't fear the police, unless several of them arrive together."

I read A Certain Justice as a 2023 new read, continuing on from my 2022 binge re-read of the early P.D. James novels. I started the re-reads when I discovered my 1980's P.D. James paperbacks while clearing a storage locker. The later books are new reads for me.

See photo at https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FSug6xHWYAERmYI?format=jpg&name=medium
My early P.D. James paperbacks as rescued from storage. Most of these were published in the 1980s by Sphere Books.

Trivia and Links
A Certain Justice was adapted for television in 1998 as part of the long running Dalgliesh TV-series for Anglia Television/ITV (1983-1998) starring actor Roy Marsden as Commander Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard. You can watch the 3 episodes of the 1998 adaptation starting with Episode 1 on YouTube here. This was Roy Marsden’s final performance as Adam Dalgliesh, as the role was taken over by Martin Shaw when the TV rights moved to the BBC for a short run of adaptations (based on Books #11 & 12) in 2003-2004.

The new Acorn TV-series reboot Dalgliesh (2021-2023-?) starring Bertie Carver as Adam Dalgliesh adapted A Certain Justice as Season 2 Episodes 3 & 4. Season 1 adapted books 4, 5 & 7. Season 2 adapted books 6, 10 & 12. The reboot series has been renewed for a Season 3, but the source books for that have not been announced. A trailer for Season 2 can be seen here and an alternative trailer (with some different scenes) can be seen here. ( )

PD James certainly captures the complexities of human relationships in this book. ( )

I am sure I read this book before, but i remembered almost none of it. It has been a while since I last read a PD James, so I am more aware than previously. This book has a very subtle theme of women in the workplace and the shifting of gender roles. I wondered if James is lamenting the end of the stay-at-home mother or if she was happy about women taking their earned place in the work force. it was difficult to say. There is a also a theme of the importance of love in a child's life, because both Ashe and Octavia experience a lack of love.
And of course James sneaks in theology and religion in the most neutral of ways, seemingly indifferent. But the message is there, if you are searching. ( )

This book served as my introduction to P.D. James and it certainly lived up to all of the praise for her novels I have read over the years from multiple sources. One of the notable aspects of this novel was that the lead character, at least nominally in a novel that is part of the Adam Dalgliesh series, does not make an appearance until nearly a third of the way through the story.

James does an excellent job with the portraits of all her characters, police as well as suspects and innocent bystanders. She had me coming and going throughout, unable to pinpoint anyone as the prime suspect in this whodunnit. The randomness of human existence is underscored, and the role of coincidence in the plot and the lives of the characters is a major theme. The problems of love and its absence, the nature of evil and the struggle to achieve something worthwhile in life, to hold onto one's place until reaching the finish line will resonate with most people who spend the better part of their lives pursuing success, security, the respect of peers and the love of family.

And in the end the system achieves the certain justice which gives this novel its title and the caution that in human affairs this is sometimes all that can be expected or hoped for. ( )