Murder she wrote

Sometimes actions in the past can have a severe influence in the future. Marcus Ulrick was a 12 year old boy when he hanged himself. The boarding school he attended closed. The death of young Marcus also changed Venetia Aldrige's life. Her father owned the boarding school. In the future Venetia is schooled as a lawyer. She defends a man accused of murdering and raping a young girl. Venetia gets him free: too little evidence to directly link the man to the girl's death. A year later the man murders and rapes another girl. This time the man is not defended by Venetia. It didn't happened in London and she never defends the same man twice for the same crime. This time the man is found guilty. The mother of the young girl he raped and murdered committed suicide, her father already had died and the grandmother, mrs. Jane Carpenter, relocates to London.

In London Venetia Aldrige defends another young man, named Ashe. He's accused of murdering his aunt. And although he is guilty, Venetia gets him off. But, this case has a switch. Ashe seduces Venetia's daughter, the young and naïve Octavia. He convinces her to marry him.
And then, Venetia gets murdered. A judge's wig is placed upon her head and a load of blood is poured over her head. The job for finding her murderer lies with Adam Dalgliesh and his team. Strangely enough they only thing they discover is how good a lawyer she was. It is like she never had a private life. So the investigation continues. They don't make much progress. Octavia and Ashe aren't cooperative and neither are the members of Chambers.


Then Dalgliesh receives a visited from a man from Venetia's past. Mr. Frogget. He taught a young Venetia the first principles of criminal law. After her father fired him, he followed Venetia's career. He even made a whole scrapbook. Dalgliesh makes a surprising discovery: in the book is a picture of mrs. Jane Carpenter, waiting in line for Old Bailey. Before they have time to question her, Dalgliesh and Kate find her dead. The likely suspect: Ashe. Near mrs. Carpenters house is a church. Dalgliesh knows the parish priest. And tada, mrs. Carpenter went for confession. The kindly priest says she wrote him a letter, a letter Dalgliesh is more than willing to read. The whole thing started with mrs. Carpenter willing to take revenge for the murder of her granddaughter. If Venetia hadn't exonerated her murderer the first time, her granddaughter would still be alive. So, mrs. Carpenter wanted Venetia to suffer like she suffered. And she had a plan. The plan was to make Venetia suffer through her daughter. Mrs. Carpenter convinced Ashe to seduces Octavia. 10.000 pound when he seduces her, 15.000 pound when they get married. And after Venetia's murder, Ashe has another reason to stay: Venetia is wealthy. Marrying Octavia is access to that wealth. Growing up poor, this is an excellent opportunity. But mrs. Carpenters regrets her decision. She wants Ashe to back down. And as response he kills her.


Then, Ashe makes a mistake. He runs and takes Octavia along. Dalgliesh and his team follows them. In the mean time, Octavia gets doubts. Ashe realizes this. In a final stand down between Ashe and Dalgliesh, Ashe used Octavia as a human shield. In the end, he dies and she survives.
Back in Londen, Dalgliesh pays a visit to Desmond Ulrick, a colleague of Venetia. He only loved two people in his whole live: his younger brother Marcus and his niece. His brother died due to the harsh treatment by Venetia's father. The niece has her own problems and usually turned to her uncle for solutions. One of her problems was her husbands career. Venetia knew something that could get him disbarred. So the niece pleaded with Desmond to talk to Venetia. She provoked him and Desmond stabbed her to death. Unfortunately, Dalgliesh cannot link Desmond to Venetia's murder. At least not enough for it to withstand a trial. So, Desmond will never stand trial for her murder. He wasn't responsible for the wig and blood scene. That was mrs. Carpenter, who worked as a cleaning lady in the Chambers.

 
So, if father Aldridge hadn't run a harsh regime on his boarding school, which prompted Marcus to hang himself, none of the above would have take place. Actions from the past can make a horrifying future.
P.D. James takes her time to write the story above. It takes more than 140 pages for Venetia to die. In the beginning it is hard to get in to the story. I'm used to a murder in the first few pages of the book and a murder investigations in the rest of the book. This was a different approach. I have to say, it took some persuasion to finish the book. After Venetia's death, it greatly improved. So, in the end it was a good story. A certain justice for sure.

Switch

I've switched two books: "A certain justice" is now in my hand bag and "The book of air and shadows" lays now on my night stand. This is absolutely a much better arrangement. "The book of air and shadows" is a perfect book for bedtime. It is sleep-inducing and I don't mean that very negative. But I just read a few pages and that's enough to send me to sleep. I know it's not very positive, but it's helping me falling sleep.

And after around 140 pages Venetia the lawyer is finally murdered. Dagliesh has made his entry. Finally, something is happening!

Oh my…

It's been a while since I last wrote about the books I'm reading. This doesn't mean I haven't done any reading lately. I just didn't have the time to write it down.

So, I finished "Nemesis" by Lindsey Davis. This detective is set in the Roman empire under emperor Vespasianus. It's one of the stories around Marcus Didius Falco. He's an informer and is requested to do research into a brutal murder on the Via Appia. As a historian specialized in the age of the Roman republic, it is always fun to read an author's impression of an time long gone. And yes, the Roman republic ended in 31 B.C. and Vespasianus was emperor from 69 till 79, but still, some essentials stay the same. Thus, Falco looks into this brutal murder and discovers a gang of imperial freedman who are making trouble in a district near Rome. Protected by someone high in the imperial organization, this gang feels free to do what they want, and this includes multiple murders. Luckily, Falco isn't frightened easily. In the end it all comes together. Together with his friend Petronius he unravels the plot and had the gang arrested. All in all it's a fun read.
This was not the first Falco novel I ever read. A long time ago (1 or 2 years?) I read "A body in the bath house". This book isn't on my shelves anymore, so I apparently discarded it. I can't even remember, so it didn't make that much of an impression. That story was about a murderer (ah, again) who Falco traced all the way to Britain. Without any planes or cars that's a long way. Ah well, the stories are nice, but this one will also be searching for a new reader.

 

I've still got "Brisingr" lying on my bedside table. I can't actually remember the last time I read a few pages of this book. Not a good sign, not a good sign at all. Now I'm thinking about giving it up all together – temporarily – and just put the book back on the shelf. And maybe in the months to come one day I do have the energy and will to finish it.

Also lying on my bedside table is "A certain justice" by P.D. James, a handover from a friend. She finished it and was very happy to pass it on. This is actually an Adam Dalgliesh novel. One among my very first of lately. At first I wasn't too enthusiastic, so I left it lying there (on top of "Brisingr") for a long time. I picked it up again two days ago, and I have to say, it deserves a second chance. The style of writing is quite pleasant and the story is developing in an unexpected way. Who ever thought a respectable lawyer having an affair. Definitely a second chance. I never saw any of the tv-interpretations of Dalgliesh, makes me even curious. I'm currently on page 112 and still, the lawyer is still alive and Dalgliesh has yet to make his first appearance.

 

In my handbag I'm carrying "The book of air and shadows" by Michael Gruber. Never leave home without a book. This is about an undiscovered play by William Shakespeare. It already made people kill for it. It has three layers: it starts with an IP-lawyer, Jake Mishkin who is hiding in the woods for some unknown bad guy. He tells his tale, but is very elaborate. Then there are parts written in old English. Very difficult to read: it's a letter written by Richard Bracegirdle to his wife, after he was mortally wounded in some battle in 1602. The third part is about a man, Al Coresetti, working in a book antiquary, falling for the wrong woman. These lines eventually get together around page 260. Oh, and it also includes a murder and a very desirable, lost play by William Shakespeare. It storyline sounds really good, but so far I don't find it really interesting. It kind of keeps me in limbo: it good enough to read in the train and on the other hand… I will give it this week. If it doesn't improve, it goes back on the shelf. The special Oxfam shelf. There it can keep other books company.