|
|
James, P. D. ListingsIf you cannot find what you want on this page, then please use our search feature to search all our listings. Click on Title to view full description
|
|
|
|
1 |
James, P. D. A Certain Justice
New York Alfred A. Knopf November 25, 1997 0375401091 / 9780375401091 Paperback
Editorial Reviews&newline;Amazon.com Review&newline;Although A Certain Justice begins with news of a murder, the victim isn't set to die for another four weeks. Publicly respected but privately loathed, Venetia Aldridge has far more enemies than a brilliant London criminal lawyer should--and at least one of them is determined to do her in. Venetia plies her superior trade in courts that harbor &doublequote;the illusion that the passions of men were susceptible to order and control,&doublequote; but her past and private life are exceedingly unruly. Her married lover is intent on giving her up; her daughter loathes her; her fellow barristers are determined that she not become the next head of chambers. Even the cleaning women seems to have something on her. &newline;&newline;The outline alone of this complex novel would take pages (as would the eclectic inventory of players), but P. D. James makes us admire far more than her brilliantly developed plot. James in fact creates a crowded gallery of surprisingly decent suspects, along with one suitably vile creature--who happens to be Aldridge's last client. &newline;&newline;A superior murder mystery, A Certain Justice is also a gripping anatomy of wild justice. James's characters can be overcome by hate, but she is equally concerned with love's manifestations--human, divine, destructive, and healing. From School Library Journal&newline;YA?Venetia Aldridge, a brilliant barrister, has &doublequote;four weeks, four hours and fifty minutes left of life.&doublequote; By the time her murder is discovered, readers have not only met most of the suspects, but have also begun to sympathize with whomever might have done her in. Everyone in the victim's life, from her 18-year-old daughter to the retiring head of chambers, from her former lover to the cleaning woman, has cause to have wished her ill. Adam Dalgleish, James's poetry penning sleuth, and his assistants, especially Kate Miskin, investigate the many possible suspects. After much examination of the past and present, the murderer is discovered and A Certain Justice is meted out. As with many of the author's mysteries, psychology and motivation are as important as whodunit and the conundrum presented here is thought-provoking. Much of the action centers around the rebellious daughter and there is a suspense-filled scene in which she and her psychopathic boyfriend try to evade Dalgleish, only to have young Octavia discover that she needs to evade the boyfriend instead. YAs who enjoy James and those ready for a bit of a fright with their English mysteries will surely take to this adventure.?Susan H. Woodcock, Kings Park Library, Burke, VA&newline;Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. 4.0 Stars
Price:
101.00 USD
|
|
Add to Shopping Cart |
|
|
|
|
|
|
2 |
James, P.D. Time to Be in Earnest: A Fragment of Autobiography
New York, NY Ballantine Books February 27, 2001 0345442121 / 9780345442123 Paperback
Editorial Reviews&newline;Amazon.com Review&newline;&doublequote;At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest,&doublequote; wrote Samuel Johnson, and bestselling crime writer P.D. James took this maxim as a challenge, setting out to record &doublequote;one year that otherwise might be lost.&doublequote; The result is a fascinating and reflective account, part diary and part memoir, of one very full year of Baroness James's life, interspersed with her memories and intelligent analysis of &doublequote;what it was like to be born two years after the end of the First World War and to live for seventy-eight years in this tumultuous century.&doublequote; P.D. James grew up in Cambridge, England, between the wars and worked in the home office of the forensic and criminal justice departments, which sparked her interest in that area, though she did not become a published novelist until 1962 with Cover Her Face. She began to write full-time after her &doublequote;retirement&doublequote; in 1979, and along the way became a governor of the BBC before taking a seat in the House of Lords in 1991. Time to Be in Earnest is a lucid and penetrative work by one of the most influential figures currently involved with the arts in Britain. James reveals her vast scope for enjoyment, interest, and simply getting on with life (her husband, Connor White, died at the age of 44 in 1964 after years of mental illness), whether it be spending time with her children and grandchildren, musing on the hideous British architectural mistakes of the 1960s, or giving her view of the controversies continually surrounding the running of the BBC. At an age when many people would be considering slowing down, James seems constantly on the move, recording her day-to-day existence and her past with an alert and judicious eye. &doublequote;I am sustained by the magnificent irrationality of faith,&doublequote; she states. &doublequote;I inhabit a different body, but I can reach back over nearly 70 years and recognise her as myself. Then I walked in hope--and I do so still.&doublequote; --Catherine Taylor, Amazon.co.uk --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Publishers Weekly&newline;James's fans will eagerly devour every word of this insightful and witty account of a year in the life of the master mystery author In the diary she began on her 77th birthday, in August 1997, James comfortably segues from daily activities into reminiscences about her childhood, early forays into writing and her career as a civil servant in Britain. She also weighs in on a variety of subjects, including the movie Titanic (the &doublequote;usual Hollywood anti-British bias&doublequote; irritated her), the publishing industry (promising novels are &doublequote;promoted, packaged, and sold like a new perfume&doublequote;) and London's Millennial Dome, which inspired her &doublequote;Dome Pome&doublequote; (which begins, &doublequote;O Dome Gigantic, Dome immense/ Built in defiance of common sense&doublequote;). James reveals herself to be proper, dignified and reserved, but she doesn't reveal much more: readers expecting a traditional diary or spilled secrets are bound to be dissatisfied, though they can't say they weren't warned; in her prologue, James announces that she'll neither rehash painful memories nor record &doublequote;the events of every day.&doublequote; The painful memories no doubt relate to her late husband's long battle with mental illness, which she mentions often but never fully explores. It's just as well she sticks to the latter promise, for while many of her activities will interest a wide range of readers, there are times when her musings do little to contradict her claim that she is simply &doublequote;an elderly grandmother who writes traditional English detective fiction.&doublequote; 16 pages of photos not seen by PW. 50,000 first printing. (Apr.) &newline;Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. 4.0 Stars
Price:
101.00 USD
|
|
Add to Shopping Cart |
|
|
|
