How does the author use satire in the novel, Innocent Blood?

James uses satire to points out the current role of social workers and sociologists as the ministers of a contemporary humanistic religion. More than this, the story deals with the themes that classical literature and popular fiction alike address: love, hate, passion, crime, power. What she says about her detective stories characterizes this work also: a search for basic values. "Murder is wrong. In an age in which gratuitous violence and arbitrary death have become common, these values need an apology."