Knowledge of where to find the wig, and the blood stored in a refrigerator ready for a private operation, indicates that the most probable culprit comes from Pawlet Court itself, where Venetia has made many enemies.

More tenuously, Desmond Ulrick's younger brother had committed suicide in the past while at the school tyrannised by Venetia's headmaster father.

The Commander arrives with his assistants, Detective Inspectors Kate Miskin and Piers Tarrant, and together they begin establishing the alibis of all those possibly connected to the case.

The comment on the limitations of human judicial institutions demonstrated in the novel has since been considered profound enough to be quoted in a theological essay[3] and a work on international legislation,[4] as well as an academic literary study of the concept of law as presented in James's novel.

[5] The 2020 Faber reissue of the novel featured on its new cover praise from the 1997 review in The Sunday Telegraph, "Ingenious and beautifully written, this is P. D. James at her highly impressive best".

[6] In his review for The New York Times, Ben Macintyre also praised A Certain Justice as "vintage James" and summarised it as "a book in which revenge is not quite sated and deserts are not always just.

"[7] In addition, the Denver Post comments on how the book's literary excellence transcends the limitations of its genre: "More than anything else [it] demonstrates the fine and rare art of good fiction.

"[8] A television version of A Certain Justice was produced for Britain's ITV network in 1998 as a three-episode mini-series[9] and another was made in 2023 for Channel 5 as the second in its Dalgliesh series.