A Certain Justice With A Certain Story

By Someone Who Did Not Provide a Byline

I picked up A Certain Justice from the Free section of the library back in early November, 2016. It looked somewhat interesting, and so I took it. This is the tenth book of the Adam Dalgliesh series, a character made by P.D. James to be the protagonist of most of her stories (a series now done since she died in 2014).  After going through it in about a week, it's a story for sure. The story revolves around the death of a lawyer named Venetia Aldridge, who, after proving a murder suspect "not guilty," suddenly is murdered exactly four weeks, four hours, and fifty minutes later, which also begins to lead to a seemingly unending spiral of people being murdered. Now, her colleagues, daughter, and other random idiots in the story have to find out who killed her, though all the suspects seem to have perfect alibis.

The story is dark and gives quite a bit of backstory to most of the relevant characters (also dark). Everything about the story (and, for the most part, P.D. James's writing) is dark and harshly realistic, which might be interesting for some. The harsh reality of some of the writing makes her crime dramas much less bright and friendly unlike some T.V. shows which would work in other ways. Another caveat of the story is that the law system is depicted very accurately, due to the author's experience in the British legal system. Nothing about the story is completely straightforward, either; a sign of a good crime drama.

My main problem with the story is how seemingly forgettable it is. Although it's a good crime drama, it doesn't really stick well. It also begins very slowly, only gaining real momentum midway through the story. Some of the darkness in the characters' backstories seem almost forced at some points, though this might be how much I'm used to lighter novels. In general, P.D. James was a fantastic author, and, although her works might not reach the top of the totem pole when it comes to being memorable stories, they are still good crime dramas. I would recommend reading it if you want to get into much darker novels or if you want a good crime drama to read, though the meticulousness of some sections might make reading a bit more difficult than you'd expect.