Come down the travelators, exit Sainsbury's, turn right and follow the pedestrianised walkway to Crown Walk and turn right - and Coles will be right in front of you.

After all, I find the resolutions of most murder mysteries so convoluted that nobody can really guess all the intricacies and coincidences, so it's not like one can guess everything. D. James went on to become a very successful author, but so far into this novel (the first of hers that I’ve read), I’m wondering why.

I listened to the audio version read by Penelope Dellaporta who did a good job capturing family voices. In these innocent and incongruous surroundings the law, with formality but without fuss, took note that [the victim] had bene feloniously done to death. He was sort of the modern detective I would like - clever, cool, patient, detached in his work, but underneath humane.

The Maxie family live in the big house, in somewhat genteel poverty, with the only full time staff member the loyal Martha.D. James published Cover Her Face, her first murder mystery featuring Detective Chief-Inspector Adam Dalgleish of Scotland Yard.