This was the first Dalgliesh novel I ever read many many moons ago when it first came out in French in the late 1980s. I remembered some of the plot, not much. I did remember the melancholy and the almost depression like mood of the novel. I read this while recovering from being very sick. Not the best situation but James is a master at storytelling and you follow Dalgliesh and his acolytes through the mucky waters of the murder or suicide of a former MP. James doesn't shy away from the end game of her storyline. That's one of the reasons I love her storytelling so.

Aristocrats, what we would call now bobo revolutionaries, people struggling with poverty and loneliness, individuals who strive to be better than their karma. All of that and a very good murder too. Can't ask for anything else.