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.