P. D. James’s novel starts with a bang, as Cordelia Gray’s boss Bernie Pryde commits suicide in the first few pages, leaving her the sole heir to the Pryde Detective Agency. She has barely come to terms with her future when her first client shows up on the office doorstep—Eliza Leaming, a messenger for Ronald Callender, who wants her to investigate his son’s suicide—and Gray’s solo career is off. Published in 1972 at the peak of second wave feminism, James’s book has a serious aim in addition to the usual detection: to show the reader what a young, no-nonsense career woman might look like in the world of crime investigation. Gray takes risks to get the job done, but she’s not foolish and she recognizes her physical limitations—she does carry a gun in a country where guns are discouraged. And James’s classic detective hovers over the story, as Gray repeatedly calls to mind Adam Dalgleish’s advice, recited to her by Pryde. (Dalgleish even makes a cameo appearance at the end.) Throughout Gray confronts the prejudice that detection is “an unsuitable job for a woman” with dismissiveness and carries on doing her work; the novel is an interesting take on how one woman navigates a career she hadn’t really planned on. The investigation is an unusual one, and there are not too many characters to keep track of. All in all, a fun read with some serious insights.