This novel returns to familiar concerns of the series, particularly the related issues of justice and responsibility for others. Murder, Grimes again shows, may take place in the past but it continues to affect the present and must therefore be uncovered. Jury is unable to solve a current mysterious death, or even to determine whether it was murder, without first solving equally mysterious events in the past.

Also Grimes continues to show that murder has many victims, and in this novel the two (unrelated) children are orphaned and in danger because of a murderer's actions.

Other social concerns are mental illness and its treatment. Two of the characters are psychiatrists, but neither is effective and one grossly abuses doctor-patient relationships for personal gain. Suicide resulting from depression is suspected in the case of several characters, and in a lighter vein, the humorous character Lady Cray is...