Rating: 
Summary: An outstanding, traditional mystery
Review: Although the trappings of the tale are very much 1990's -- sexism and "queen bee" behavior in a law firm, financially stretched two-income families, a career woman who has no satisfactory personal relationships, etc. -- this book felt very "old-fashioned" to me. The plot is well constructed and well thought out, but some devices (e.g., a letter mailed by someone just before she is killed) are awfully Agatha Christie. I didn't think that "coincidence" was overused; what seems at first to be coincidence often turned out to be deliberate behavior by someone with an agenda. And the violence in the subplot wasn't gratuitous -- it made perfect sense given the characters involved. I felt that the "whodunit" aspect was the least interesting part: the murderer HAD to be one of a limited set of people, so the element of surprise was missing (I figured it out long before the conclusion!).
To me, the chief pleasure of James' novels is how she creates an entire "world" peopled with believable, memorable individuals, then uses a crime as the force that disrupts the orderly motion of everyone's lives and brings out hidden aspects of their characters. She's excellent at conveying the atmosphere of a firm or an institution -- every one she's written about in her novels is unique. And her ability to convey the "feel" of someone's life with a few well-chosen details is unsurpassed. From this standpoint, I found the book just about perfect, and I enjoyed it immensely.
Rating: 
Summary: A very fine lawyer
Review: The murder victim was a barrister, Venetia Aldridge. It was necessary to change the head of chambers. Venetia was more senior than Laud. If a vote were to be taken following Langton's retirement it may have turned out that Venetia had secured the victory, thereby disturbing Laud. Venetia's father had been head of a school. As a school girl Venetia had learned about the law from one of the teachers at her father's school. She learned that advocacy could create an atmosphere without scenery, without a curtain, of someone's life.
Langton, age seventy-three, experienced an episode in a trial when words deserted him. Venetia's last case had been the defense of a would-be country gentleman. There had been an altercation concerning a protest against fox hunting. Venetia had a not quite bright and unsuitable daughter, Octavia. Octavia had a friendship with a former criminal client of Venetia, someone who had been charged with murdering his aunt. Venetia felt the man for whom she had obtained an acquittal felt contempt for her, not gratitude. He would gladly humiliate her.
There is something very bracing about a P.D. James book. She writes that actions have consequences. She does a wonderful job of describing lawyers and explaining the appeal of law, the dream of an orderly existence. A scene with Drysdale Laud and Hubert Langton and Venetia unfolds. A matter of contention is the selection of two new members of chambers. Venetia supports male candidates for both of the slots which is contrary to the position of Laud and Langton.
There is a heaviness in P.D. James books. She writes of tragedy. Pain in people's lives often cannot be alleviated because they are faced with circumstances not subject to change. Venetia asks Laud to contact the nearly criminal man with whom Octavia is involved to ask him how much money he would require to leave her alone. Laud declines to undertake such a mission. Piers Tarrant, the possessor of an Oxford degree in theology, and Kate Miskin assist Adam Dalgliesh in the investigation of the murder of Venetia Aldridge. One of the barristers in Venetia's chambers accuses Adam Dalgliesh of a sort of inverted conceit because he is a police officer. It is learned that that Venetia had been difficult in chambers. All of the witnesses agreed that she had been a very fine lawyer.
The minor characters are well-described. For example there is Valerie, a secretary, with a mentally ill mother. Mental illness is treated in the round from the perspective of the persons who have to live with it. P.D. Jamers is really at the top of her form in this book. It is certainly understandable that a murderer cannot be prosecuted for a lack of proof. The story is both complex and deeply satisfying.
Rating: 
Summary: Practically hate speech
Review: If "A Certain Justice" had been written by a man, pickets would have gone up, politicians would have denounced it and the author would probably have ended up on police watch lists. P.D. James's strange obsession with doing violence to professional women reaches a low point in this book, with yet another caricatured, manipulative, nymphomaniac career gal who meets a much-deserved end. James doesn't even try to make Venetia Aldridge believable or bring the setting to life, she just tries to stoke the reader's hatred of Venetia to the point that her death is practically a good deed. And she's a bad mother, too! Not that the setting of a fancy London law firm is particularly compelling - an American reader will find it almost impossible to figure out what's going on at many points thanks to a blizzard of British legal jargon and traditions that are never explained. Several key plot points don't make much sense if you've never sat through a British trial. Do yourself a favor, stay away from this book.
Rating:
Summary: Like most James books, more novel than mystery
Review: I believe P.D. James is misunderstood by most reviewers and readers. She's not really a mystery novelist, she's a novelist who happens to write mysteries. The current book, A Certain Justice, certainly highlights this circumstance, because the characters are more interesting than the plot, and by the end of the book my reaction, anyway, was indifference towards the solution. I give the book high marks in spite of that because the characters themselves are interesting, and it's their interplay that the book revolves around.
The story revolves around Venetia Aldridge. She's a barrister (a British lawyer who works in courtrooms: those who don't are called solicitors) who specializes in getting criminals off when their crimes would otherwise dictate convictions. She also boasts an abrasive personality, to the point that she has no close friends, and even her lover is somewhat distant and unsure of her. No one really likes her, she abuses her position when she can get away with it, and she has a wonderful ability to antagonize people. And then she gets killed, and of course everyone's a suspect.
Though this is a strangely constructed mystery novel (the killing takes place about 75 pages into the 350+ page book) it's still interesting to see how the detectives go about their job, led by the redoubtable and seemingly unflappable Adam Dalgliesh. The other characters are interesting, though several aren't explored as intimately as you might like. In some ways I think when James wrote her longer books, and explored everyone involved in the crime in detail, she was actually a bit better, but I can see how others would think this had slowed the book down. Regardless, this is a good novel, and is recommended on that level, though not really as a mystery.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing Story and Characters but a Tad Slow
Review: Venetia Aldridge is a top notch criminal lawyer. She hardly ever looses a case and is able to find the holes in any argument. Her personal life isn't so rosy, however. She is basically estranged from her daughter and considered a problem by her co-workers. Her life really begins to unravel when her daughter announces her engagement - to a man Venetia has recently gotten off for murder. But when Venetia is found dead in her office two days later, it's up to Adam Dalgliesh and his team to figure out who killed her. And with all these motives and suspects, it won't be easy.I'd heard much about P.D. James, but this was the first time I'd actually read one of her books. I found the writing style engaging and would have a hard time putting it down once I started. On the other hand, I'd have a hard time picking it up again. The beginning especially seems to give us too much background on our characters, stuff we don't need to learn until later if at all. This really slowed the story down for me. The more I got into it, the better I enjoyed it, however. There were some nice twists along the way with an intriguing sub-plot. The last couple of chapters did seem a little anti-climatic considering what had gone before, but I was surprised by who the killer turned out to be. Using multiple view points greatly added to the story most of the time, although it did confuse me some as far as timeline goes. I can understand why P.D. James has such a fine reputation. She can paint a picture with words like few other writers currently writing. While she may be a tad too slow for my normal taste, I'm certainly glad to see what all the talk is about. Her reputation is well earned.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliantly Written, But Poor Pay Off
Review: 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
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