In her foreword PD James notes that this work is fiction, the forensic laboratory in which it is set near Ely is completely fictional, and that no such place with such a unpleasant collection of people could possibly exist. Well I am sure such places can be found, but it makes a superb backdrop for an excellent police procedural novel. Adam Dalgleish is literally helicoptered in from the Met to deal with the murder of an forensic scientist who has been done to death with a mallet in his own lab. The story that follows is skillfully crafted, and involves the sort of complex inter-personal relationships that could only exist between a small group of clever people working closely together in the middle of nowhere. We also get a terrific pen portrait of the local village community, with their petty worries and long held grudges. In a positive sign, James was obviously quite unconcerned to bring in a lesbian relationship into the plot, although in the 1970s that might have been an issue for some publishers. My favourite PD James novel so far.

Originally published 1977. Read on Kindle.