P. D. James is such an extraordinary creator of complicated characters that one has never encountered anywhere. Not an Inspector Dalgleish novel, this one unravels the complex histories of Phillipa Palfrey (née Rose Ducton); her adoptive parents, Maurice and Hilda Palfrey; her birth mother, Mary Ducton, who is also a convicted child murderer; and the father of the child she murdered. Instead of a whodunnit, ‘Innocent Blood’ is a painful exploration of grief and guilt and the ways in which crime ruins lives for generations. There are some excruciating moments in this novel, so much so that I can see why it’s little known, but still a fascinating read in the context of James’s other novel.