Values depicted in "The Skull Beneath the Skin" by P.D James

P.D James' The Skull Beneath the Skin, is a crime fiction text that really encodes many of the traditional social values in Britain. James' plays around with gender roles as well as class systems. These all play an important part in the novel as they allow our protagonist to solve the crime in the end. Even though the crime is solved, there is no clear solution to the other problems and corruption that surrounds …

…hold similar values and concepts that are shown within the text. The crime scene being set in a manor house and the use of the butlers and servants as suspects show a very traditional setting out of a crime fiction novel. Even though the text encodes very traditional values, these values are still valued in society today so it wouldn't make much of a difference whether it is written in the 1980's or the 1920's.