A Certain Justice is the tenth P.D. James mystery with Commander Adam Dalgliesh, one of the legendary character creations in all of mystery writing.

Venetia Aldridge, a brilliant barrister, has "four weeks, four hours and fifty minutes left of life." By the time her murder is discovered, readers meet most of the suspects and even sympathize with the murderer (or murderess). Everyone in the barrister's life, from her 18-year-old daughter to the retiring head of the law chambers, from her former lover to the cleaning woman, has reason enough to kill. After much examination of the past and present, Adam Dalgliesh discovers the murderer and a certain justice results.

P.D. James was awarded the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award in 1999. Like Agatha Christie, she created an urbane male detective with an interesting dose of neuroses and affectations. Adam Dalgliesh (named for one of her teachers) writes poetry, mournfully misses his deceased wife and child, and seems never to fully connect with romantic partners or colleagues. In a P.D. James mystery, the minor figures are as interesting as the major suspects. And when she probes the psychological and sometimes warped depths of her characters, even the innocent reveal dark interior terrains of the heart and mind.

James worked from 1968 to 1979 as principal administrative assistant in London's police and criminal policy departments. She became a full-time writer after retiring in 1979. By that time, she had produced seven successful novels. A Certain Justice was produced as an episode of Masterpiece Theater starring Roy Marsden as Adam Dalgliesh.