A Certain Justice — P.D. James

"Venetia Aldridge is a criminal lawyer of large talents and small personal charm, working at a venerable London firm...As she tries to save a young lower-class tough who is accused of murdering his prostitute aunt, we learn that she is in a position to ruin a number of professional lives, and is of precisely the temperament to do it...Then the lawyer is murdered--discovered in her locked chambers in a particularly gruesome tableau...Dalgliesh...moves with grace and acumen through the blood-soaked crime scene, guiding his more volatile staff through the interviews that unweave the tangled web of multiple deceit and mixed motive." -- The Washington Post Book World