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: Murder and Mayhem in the Court
Review: I thouroughly enjoyed 'A Certain Justice.' Being a huge PD James fan, I was very anxious to read her new book and I wasn't disappointed with her effort. James is, without a doubt, one of the finest mystery novelists living today.
The victim is Venetia Aldridge, a top-notch criminal lawyer. She gets stabbed with a letter-opener and Dalgleish and his sidekicks must find out who killed her.
This book is a must-read for mystery fans and even people who don't particularly like mysteries will most likely enjoy this one. For no one understands the dark workings of the human heart as well as PD James does.
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: 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
Rating: 
Summary: Overly complicated, with little payoff
Review: P.D. James has populated this Adam Dalgleish (AD) outing with a large cast of largely unsympathetic characters. The first quarter of the novel is spent setting up the murder and establishing motives for over half a dozen could-be killers. In the middle half of the book, AD and team (Detective Inspectors Kate Miskin and newcomer Piers Tarrant) explore these suspects and discover a few more, without making any real progress in the case-and the progress they do make is due to evidence being (literally) handed to them, rather than the result of any actual detecting. Almost the entire final quarter of the book is devoted to a second murder and its fairly-straightforward resolution, with the first murder all but forgotten. When AD comes up with the identity of the first murderer in the final chapter it seems arbitrary and feels unsatisfying. Enjoyment of the mostly fruitless investigation is hampered by DI Miskin's near-constant interior monologue alternately ruing the privations of her lower-class upbringing and feeling superior to the middle- and upper-class characters she encounters. DI Tarrant's green naïveté and arrogance don't help the portions of the book told from his point of view. And while James gives the reader the opportunity to see behind AD's emotionally-detached façade, it seems that what Miskin and Tarrant need to fully develop their personalities (and James her characters) is this same understanding of their Commander. (To be fair, Miskin may learn a little of this at the end of the book, but like the denouement, it seems tacked on rather than being part of her inherent growth.) The book isn't all bad; James' writing is able to shine through her tarnished characters. Unfortunately, the uneven pacing and victims and suspects the reader cares little to nothing either for or about results in a novel that fails to satisfy.
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: Deliciously complicated
Review: This book is delightfully complicated and devious, with twists and turns to keep a person riveted and guessing throughout. Venetia Aldrige is a successful and demanding barrister, called to defend a man accused of murdering his aunt. She successfully gets him acquitted, then soon afterward is dismayed and fearful when he turns up in her daughter's life. She tries to get some one to help her get rid of him, but she has a personality that hasn't made many friends and no one will help. Then, one morning she is found dead in her chambers. Chief Inspector Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard is summoned to the case and he and his team set out to unravel the mystery of who killed Venetia and why. As suspects are interviewed and backgrounds checked, several plausible motives are uncovered. In which direction does the truth lie? P. D. James is one of today's top-notch mystery writers. Her stories are complex and riveting. So complex, at times, that you wish you had taken notes in the first part of the book to keep all characters straight. Several of her books have been made into movies for the "Mystery" series on PBS. Although the story was so complicated at times that my head hurt, I am still giving this book a high recommendation. Ms. James writes books that are held together with a strong story line, not the flimsy sex-violence-vulgar language "fillers" of many modern writers. I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.
Rating:
Summary: No There There
Review: This is a mystery concerning love and hate and all the shades of emotion in between. London criminal lawyer Venetia Aldridge is not particularly likeable, and indeed, she is not-so-cordially loathed by quite a few people: her lover, her daughter, other lawyers, and certainly some criminals. No surprise, then, that someone plans to kill her.
Rating:
Summary: A Dagliesh novel back to top form
Review: This is one of the best Adam Dagliesh novels P. D. James has written in years, and is a fine return to the halcyon days on novels like A MIND TO MURDER. James seems much more interested in this novel in character development and interaction than she has in recent years, and she thankfully eschews her obsession with architecture which all but overwhelmed A TASTE FOR DEATH and ORIGINAL SIN. Starting the novel by describing the last few weeks in Venetia Aldridge's life allows the reader to be caught up in Aldridge's world, to respect her if not to like her, and to feel a certain stake in solving the mystery of her murder. It isn't hard to figure out who did it, but that's almost always the case with James's novels: the pleasure is in seeing the complicated web of petty hatreds and resentments drawn out among an interesting group of people. And James in this novel is much more sympathetic to her characters than she has been in recent years: you feel that while Octavia, Mrs. Buckley, and Venetia Aldridge herself are pretty objectionable, you don't feel they are as irredeemable as the loathsome aristocrats in A TASTE FOR DEATH.
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.
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