Book description
An Adam Dalgliesh Mystery Venetia Aldridge QC is a distinguished
barrister. When she agrees to defend Garry Ashe, accused of the brutal
murder of his aunt, it is one more opportunity to triumph in her
career as a criminal lawyer. But Regina v. Ashe initiates events both
frightening and unpredictable ... Just four weeks later, Miss Aldridge
is found dead in her Middle Temple chambers. Commander Adam Dalgliesh,
called in to investigate, finds motives for murder among the clients
Venetia has defended, her professional colleagues, her family - even
her lover. As Dalgliesh and his team narrow the field of suspects, a
second brutal murder draws them into greater complexities of intrigue
and evil. 'Fiendishly clever ... An accomplished performance by a
leader in her field.' Sunday Times
P. D. James was born in Oxford in 1920 and educated at Cambridge
High School for Girls. From 1949 to 1968 she worked in the National
Health Service and subsequently in the Home Office, first in the
Police Department and later in the Criminal Policy Department. All
that experience has been used in her novels. She is a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Literature and of the Royal Society of Arts and has
served as a Governor of the BBC, a member of the Arts Council, where
she was Chairman of the Literary Advisory Panel, on the Board of the
British Council and as a magistrate in Middlesex and London. She has
won awards for crime writing in Britain, America, Italy and
Scandinavia, including the Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster
Award and the National Arts Club Medal of Honor for Literature (US).
She has received honorary degrees from seven British universities, was
awarded an OBE in 1983 and was created a life peer in 1991. In 1997
she was elected President of the Society of Authors. She lives in
London and Oxford and has two daughters, five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
