Innocent Blood by P. D. James

 

Phillipa Palfrey is the adopted daughter of a wealthy family.  Her father is a psychologist at the university and her mother is cultured.  She is going to Cambridge in the fall but now that she is of age, she is able to indulge her long time ambition to find her birth parents.

But all stories don't have a happy ending.  She finds that her birth parents were murderers, that they killed a young girl.  Her father is dead, her mother imprisoned.  But it turns out that her mother is about to be paroled.  

Phillipa is determined to meet and get to know her mother.  She rents an apartment in London and invites her mother to come and live with her for the summer before she goes to college.  Her mother hesitantly agrees.  The two move in and soon are spending every moment together. Phillipa is fascinated by her mother and begins to dream of giving up Cambridge to stay with her.

But someone else is in the picture.  The father of the girl who was murdered has decided that only death is the appropriate punishment for the crime.  He stalks Phillipa and the mother and makes his plans.  Will he be successful?  Will Phillipa be able to save the day?

P. D. James is considered by many the queen of British crime writing.  She worked for thirty years in the British Civil Service, including police and criminal law departments.  Her twenty books are still used in adaptations on television.  This book is a warning about rosy optimism where reality is put aside and is recommended for mystery readers.