Innocent Blood

P.D. James is “the greatest living mystery writer.”–People

Adopted as a child into a privileged family, Philippa Palfrey fantasizes that she is the daughter of an aristocrat and a parlor maid. The terrifying truth about her parents and a long-ago murder is only the first in a series of shocking betrayals. Philippa quickly learns that those who delve into the secrets of the past must be on guard when long-buried horrors begin to stir.
    
“As a crime novel,” wrote the London Times, Innocent Blood is “the peak of the art.” “Flawlessly crafted . . . profoundly, masterfully moving,” Cosmopolitan concurred.


From the Compact Disc edition.

With morality-conscious mysteries that do not linger on gore, P. D. James is a sort of anti-Lecter. Her tales are told in the whodunit tradition that prizes character, restraint and the slow unraveling of both a mystery and a social niche.