It was the first time that PD James wrote in this genre. She's a mystery writer who is ancient. Seriously, she's like 85 or something, and this one was written maybe ten years ago. So she was pretty old when she wrote it.

I like it a lot. In fact, I don't think of myself as much of a mystery reader, so I hadn't read any of her books, but when this one came out it was reviewed so well that I picked it up. Since then I've read a fair number of her mysteries, but Children of Men remains my favorite.