Here she is tasting some wine on her seventeenth birthday: Meanwhile, an incredibly unsympathetic educated girl called Philippa Palfrey is on a path which will lead her to Mary Ducton and then, inevitably, to Norman. Outwardly boring and conformist, Norman has a history of juvenile delinquency including shop-lifting and picking pockets which is a great help in hunting down his prey. I have to find and kill the murderess of my child.’ ‘I have to retire early because there is something I must do in the next few months, a task which will take a great deal of time and planning. He promised his wife something on her deathbed and he needs to see it through.

Ten years later the wife, Mary Ducton, is released from prison. Norman Scase, Julie’s father, leaves his job as a local government accounts clerk, sells his house, and buys a raincoat and a kitchen knife. Girl Guide Julie Scase was murdered by a husband and wife – he sexually assaulted the girl she killed her. Darkness, obsession, shabby accommodation, nobody very nice, and cruel twists of fate. If I had to put my finger on why, I think it is because it comes across more like a Ruth Rendell novel. Anyway, Innocent Blood has the same flaws, but much against my will I very much liked it. No problem with liking poetry, but honestly there are many people who simply don’t even notice it. James in previous reviews – the overwhelming upper-middle-classness of her characters, the fact that everyone thinks and speaks in the same cultured voice and likes poetry. I’ve been pretty frank in my opinions about P.

New year, new commitment to finishing my CWA top 100 challenge, and so on to the final P.

Innocent Blood by P.D. James