|
by: P. D. James
List Price: $13.95Amazon.com's Price: $11.16 You Save: $2.79 (20%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780345425324
ISBN: 0345425324
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 464
Publication Date: November 04, 2003
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Release Date: November 04, 2003
Sales Rank: 40762
Studio: Ballantine Books
Related Items:
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
When distinguished criminal lawyer Venetia Aldridge defends a young man for the brutal murder of his mother, she views the case as simply another opportunity to demonstrate her brilliance in the courtroom. But within weeks of the trial Aldridge is found dead at her desk, a bloodstained barrister’s wig on her head. And as Commander Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard attempts to make sense of events, the murders continue, inexorably spiraling into fresh complexities of horror.
“Gripping.”
–The Wall Street Journal
“A compelling tale of pride, deceit, and revenge.”
–St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Shocking . . . fascinating . . . A Certain Justice sucks the reader in right from the dramatic first line.”
–Los Angeles Times
“This is a P. D. James case to shiver through and revel in–dark page by dark page.”
–Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Enthralling . . . [P. D. James’s] stories always captivate.”
–Associated Press
“Taut, suspenseful, and deeply penetrating.”
–Baltimore Sun
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.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Better than most, but not the best Dalgliesh
I've read most of James' Dalgliesh mysteries and this was by far my least favorite. Which is not to say that it wasn't good - I have yet to read a P.D. James mystery that isn't engaging and well written. It's just to say that compared to her other mysteries, this one was lacking. It seemed like the main plot (the death of a criminal attorney) was lost in the subplot about the attorney's daughter. The denouement of the subplot was great, in my opinion (well-paced, exciting), but the denouement of ... Read More
Rating:  - An exciting listen.
The story line is great with a really surprising twist at the end. My experience was not that of reading the book but rather listening to the book. Michael Jayston, narrator, is wonderful. His presentation of the author's words makes the characters come to life. It's an enjoyable story. Good for a long car trip.
Rating:  - An Injustice to the reader
Another extremely long P D. James novel, of the sort she has been writing since A Taste for Death, with more emphasis on loving descriptions of room interiors and architecture than on an ingenious puzzle plot. Here the plot if especially disappointing, with one element evidently borrowed from Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution (the eyeglasses of the trial witness) and very little emphasis on ratiocination on the part of her detectives. Part of the solution is handed to Dalgleish in a ... Read More
Rating: - Ghastly Tragic Reality Packaged in Mystery Writing
This book illustrates an exciting era where meritocracy, equality, tradition and status quo collide with one another each with undeniable force and most unequivocally where the idea of "tyranny of majority" put forward by an English author John Stuart Mill is viciously challenged by an idea put forward by Korean psychology experts who believe "the tyrannized minority is giving people above them what they want because those below believe that they 'know' what those traditionally held power want." P.D. ... Read More
Rating: - Just average
Like most of James's books, this one was a bit slow to start. There are a bunch of characters all introduced and it takes a bit of time to sort them all out. And, I admit, I thought the middle of this story dragged a bit more than a lot of the others. It just didn't grab me in quite the same way, perhaps because I had no feelings one way or the other about many of the characters - including the deceased. Still, the story came together in the end, even though it was a little bit of a stretch plot-wise. ... Read More
|
