5 comments about Rainbow's End.

1. This is the second Grimes book I've read (both Richard Jury mysteries). I found the plots, with various twists and turns, to be believable and entertaining. The characters are well defined and easy to relate to, and there is good humor interspersed.

   However, what I didn't like at all were the interminable descriptions of landscapes, scenes, even a cat! I also find Ms. Grimes' use of obscure/big words mildly irritating.

   If all the excess verbage could be eliminated, I'd say these would be page turners. As they are, it's almost a chore to pick them up.




2. This is the 13th Jury and Plant mystery penned by the brilliant Grimes. Once again read by the amazing Tim Curry, Rainbow's End takes up just a "few weeks" after The Horse You Came In On ended. The newest case for Scotland Yard Chief superintendent Richard Jury, sees Jury again on the wrong side of the Pond. He is there to dismiss or confirm similarities among three mysterious deaths, two are British women - one dies in Exeter Catherdral and the second in the Tate Gallery. The Third was an American, one Angela Hope, a Santa Fe silversmith, while visiting the ancient hill fortress Old Sarum. He is not able to dismiss the threads that tie the three deaths together, but becomes convinced, since all three had recently been in New Mexico, USA, they are be connected. While Jury does the foot work in the US, he has set Melrose Plant to tracking down Lady Jenny Kennington. She vanished -literally - while at Straford-on-Avon.

   Once again Grimes gives you a bang-on murder mystery with sleuth Jury hot on the trail of clues, and Melrose showing, as an amateur, his is a nifty investigator, too. Grimes humor shines, and is brought to life by Curry's wonderful reading. Sheer perfection from start to finish.




3. I discovered Martha Grimes and her Richard Jury series about three years ago and have been slowly working my way through. Generally speaking, they are terrific, interesting reads, with a lovable, eccentric cast of recurring characters that makes you look forward to picking up the next one in the series. But this one is a disappointment, the first time in the series I've felt that. Jury heads off to New Mexico, of all places, to solve a trio of tenuously related murders. Usually when you finish a well-written mystery, you can look back and see how all the disparate elements fit together to solve the murder, but in this one, you get done, and you think back to this scene or that scene and you think, "Huh?? What was that doing in there?" And worst of all, I figured out who the murderer was about halfway through without even really trying-- which makes you think that Grimes wasn't really trying. :-)
   
   If you're new to Martha Grimes definitely don't start with this one. In fact, I might even recommend that you skip it. She seems bored with her formula in this one. She should have taken a break and written a novel about New Mexico that had nothing to do with Jury instead of this lame effort. I still have half a dozen or so to read to catch up with the ones that she's publishing now, I sincerely hope this isn't a trend.



4. Having read several of the Richard Jury novels years ago, I remembered why I stopped reading them when I started this one - chosen solely because I'm an English reader travelling to Santa Fe for the first time soon.
   
   The chronological background of the book is ridiculous. It was written in the 1990's and is meant to be a contemporary setting, yet doesn't even remotely resemble the England I've lived in for the past 50 years. For example, there haven't been sweet shops such as the one she describes since the 1930's.
   
   Richard Jury was supposedly a schoolboy during World War II, a fact made much of during the story. Even in the mid-1990's he'd be knocking on towards 60. The English part of the story is people with aristos and the gentility who mock the `ways' of the common folk, views which the reader seems to be expected to share. If it's meant as parody, it singularly fails to convince. If the book had been set in the 1920's the attitudes towards class of its characters might be more believable. Indeed, many of the 'characters' are merely ludicrous caricatures - e.g. the 'loveable'(read *very* sub-Dickensian, & wouldn't be out of place in a poor Dicken's knock-off 150 years ago) cockney-rogue family with a baby named Robespierre are deeply irritating, and their antics farcical. Perhaps the book - and this is true of the other Grimes crime I have read - is aiming for the surreal, but all it arouses in this reader is perplexity and irritation. Frankly, to portray England as like this in the 1990's is insulting. I don't read mysteries for the realism or the social analysis, I read to escape, but if the writer wants me to suspend disbelief she had better make a *bit* more of an effort not to get her setting so wildly incorrect.
   
   The book also features two child-characters, one carried over from a previous book, both annoying rather than endearing or intriguing, which was apparently the intention.
   
   I couldn't wait to finish it, and I mean that in the worst possible way.
   
   Oh - the plot. The solution to the crime was obvious well before the end - and well before Richard Jury eventually tumbled to it - and it wasn't very original or clever, either, despite all the attempts at befuzzlement and mystification.
   
   This book and series, though purportedly set in the UK, is certainly not meant for anyone who knows anything about us!



5. They were the only interesting characters in this entire mess, and the only reasons I even bothered with this book were because I liked the audio narrator, Donada Peters, and to find out what happened to Mary Dark Hope's sister Angela after reading Biting the Moon--a much better and surprisingly loathed book than this one--first. This boring, outdated British storyline only goes to show that you can't judge an author solely on one project. I loved its aforementioned successor and totally despised this boring slop. Oh, well, at least the Cripse kiddies made me laugh.

No comments about The Stargazey.

5 comments about The Anodyne Necklace (Pimsleur Language Program).

1. I am looking at the January 2004 Reissue by Onyx. The original copyright is 1983, so don't be surprised by the reference to Princess Di. The settings for the novel are London and the small suburban town of Littlebourne. The Anodyne Necklace is the name of a working class pub in London.
   
   The storyline is interesting, with a mugging and a couple of murders that have to be drawn together. The story revolves around a valuable stolen emerald, set into a necklace. The thief, who had been a trusted personal secretary to the moderately wealthy owner, was killed in an accident shortly after the theft. He left a clue to the location where he concealed the jewelry, but the clue itself became concealed.
   
   Now it is a year later. People who might have knowledge about the necklace are being assaulted and killed. There appears to be an unknown accomplice to the theft. Richard Jury and Melrose Plant track down the information, and leads take them in various directions, including a Wizards snd Warriors game. It seems that the deceased thief was a master of the game, and the clue seems to be in a game map.
   
   The plot is complex and seems, perhaps, to be overly contrived in places. The author seems to have a fixation on flashers (they have shown up in other novels), and in this novel we have Ash the Flash and his young son, Friendly. The flashers seem peripheral to the main plot.
   
   The novel has a surprise ending when the identity of the accomplice is revealed. It is not great literature, but provides an interesting whodunit for light reading.
   
   A previous reviewer is incorrect in stating that this is the first novel in the Jury/Plant series. The first novel in the series is "The Man with a Load of Mischief." I believe that this is the third novel in the series (there is a Listmania listing available, prepared by a different reviewer). A local bookseller has recently stocked the full series, so I believe the full series has been reissued.



2. Katie O'Brien plays the violin at a tube station to earn money for fashionable clothes. Playing a theme from EVITA she is hit on the back of the head. Racer calls to tell Jury he is going to go to Hertford, not Northants, for the weekend. The reader finds Melrose Plant drinking shooting sherry with his aunt, Agatha Ardry, as he tries to sneak off to join Jury in the murder investigation. It seems that a sort of bird watching fanatic, Ernestine Craigie, has spotted the dead body looking through her binoculars. The body of the murder victim rests in the vicinity of an overgrown public footpath in the Horndean woods.
   
   The violinist ends up in the hospital in a coma. She is the daughter of the female publican of the village, Mary O'Brien. The pub is called the Bold Blue Boy. The identity of the homicide victim is Cora Binns. There are connections. The girl in a coma comes from the village where Cora Binns's body is discovered. She was playing at the tube station, Wembley Knotts, from which Cora Binns departed to travel to Littlebourne. After a far amount of dithering, Melrose Plant and Richard Jury meet up at the pub, the Bold Blue Boy. It is learned that the girl in the coma, Katie, gave a child a book just in case. The child, Emily, gives the book to Melrose Plant.
   
   Then there is another incident occurring at a village fete. It seems the two homicide victims worked at the same secretarial agency. A valuable necklace, stolen previously from one of the inhabitants of Littlebourne, is discovered in a crevice at the Wembley Knotts Underground Station. Katie dies. Her violin teacher plays Pavanne for a Dead Princess at the site, the station. There is a sting operation resulting in the capture of the wrongdoer.
   
   Polly Praed and Jenny Kennington are minor characters in this adventure. The title, of course, is the name of another pub having significance to the mystery and neatly coinciding, (necklace=necklace), with one of the clues to the three deaths.



3. The Anodyne Necklace,by Martha Grimes, is actually the third book in this great series. This book introduces a recurring character by the name of Polly Praed. She will become one of the primary love interests of Melrose Plant. Ms. Grimes is in excellent evocative form in this novel which features multiple murders and a clue - a necklace. There are a bunch of eclectic characters in this one. This is a solid 4 star read.
   
   If you are new to the series, than congratulations... you have found an excellent series by a very witty and gifted author. For those of you new to the series, here are the books in order:
   
   The Man with a Load of Mischief
   The Old Fox Deceived
   The Anodyne Necklace
   The Dirty Duck
   Jerusalem Inn
   Help the Poor Struggler
   The Deer Leap
   I am the only Running Footman
   The Five Bells and Bladebone
   The Old Silent
   The Old Contemptibles
   The Horse You Came In on
   Rainbow's End
   The Case has Altered
   The Stargazey
   The Lamorna Wink
   The Blue Last
   The Grave Maurice
   The Winds of Change
   The Old Wine Shades
   Dust



4. Anodyne Necklace.
   This is the third novel in the Richard Jury of Scotland Yard detective series. The first novel in the series is Man With a Load of Mischief and the second is Old Fox Deceived. Each book in this long running series is named after an actual pub in Great Britain.
   The character development is the best feature of this book, with my favorite character being Melrose Plant, oft-put-upon by his thoroughly nasty aunt by marriage, Lady Agatha Ardry.
   Melrose gave up his title as Lord Ardry, still lives in his family's ancestral manor, Ardry End, and he doesn't stop his aunt from blatantly pilfering treasures from his home.
   Oh yes, there is a murder, of a young lady whose fingers are cut off. Another young girl is knocked on the head as she plays violin in a subway station, and she is in a coma. Someone has crafted a treasure map, and a very valuable emerald has been stolen.
   Get busy, Richard Jury and volunteer detective Melrose Plant, and solve this case!



5. The series could use ore dynamic character development between the main characters. It's interesting at first, but as the characters only threaten to change, but never do, after a while it get's dull.

5 comments about The Winds of Change: A Richard Jury Mystery (Richard Jury Mysteries).

1. I've read all the Richard Jury mysteries, and most of Martha Grimes other works. This despite the fact that, beginning about 10 years ago, the quality of the books declined steeply. Her large stable of regular characters seemed to be trotted out in each volume just to air them out, most adding little to the substance of the book. Worse, the plots became paper thin, often relying on very shaky devices. In "The Winds of Change" we have three crimes in play, two murders and a disappearance. Not to give the plot away, at the conclusion of the book one realizes that the connection between these crimes is tangential, and that two depend on assumed identities that are incredible.
   
   Martha Grimes still writes well -- her descriptions are evocative, her dialogue crisp, and her regular characters amusing. But for the last decade they seem to be plodding along in very predictable ruts.
   
   So, Ms. Grimes, if you read this, please hear my plea. You must be in your 70s by now, and you really ought to think about giving your stable of characters a proper ending. Have Jury bed the obviously willing Carole-anne (although, since he's a wartime child, meaning he's in his sixties, I don't understand the attraction). Have Melrose set the dogs on his aunt. Have Wiggins the hypochondriac actually get sick and have no one believe him. SOMETHING to bring a little drama to this little set piece. Agatha give a final curtain to her characters; you can too.



2. I have to come to the defense of Martha Grimes on this book in view of the many detractors. Having read all of her Richard Jury mysteries I was glad to see a new one after what seemed like a long time. Jury is , of course up to his usual dark gloomy, melancholy ruminations, but, that is to be expected. It is for the excellent plots and characterization of others in the story that keeps me coming back and in this book, Grimes has not let me down. Tho a little short on the Long Pid menagerie's appearance (Plant excepted) her portrayal of the adult interactions with children is superb! Loved every line of it and as a Grandpa I can attest to it's accuracy and entertainment value.
   
   Though dark in subject matter the outcome was especially satisfying and Jury's actions and "detecting" were again suberb. Contrary to some of Grime's Jury novels, this one left me feeling satisfied at the end



3. Richard Jury is definitely a too-good-to-be-true character, but no less likeable for that. There is great humor and dry wit scattered among the personal tragedies of various characters, including the investigating police and the victims/suspects in crimes. I liked this one better than her more recent Old Wine Shades because of Jury's introspection and Melrose's difficulties with gardening and children. I recommend this one to anyone who has read other books in the series, so that you're already familiar with the main characters and typical situations they find themselves in, and so that you can appreciate the references to characters who usually appear in the Jury novels but are met here only as 'off-camera' asides.



4. I've avoided the last few Richard Drury mysteries because Martha Grimes loves to finish on a depressing note and I haven't been much in the mood for that recently -- I think I'm getting soft. But, without doubt Grimes is one of the finest detective story writers working today, so it is inevitable that I would eventually put aside my finicky attitude and read another one. I chose the Winds of Charge to start off, and what a lucky choice it was.
   
   The story starts with a child shot dead in a London street. The prose of this opening section, centered on the lonely body and Jury's conversation with the pathologist is unnervingly poetic and even when Grimes returns to her normal writing style the images of this opening scene stay with you throughout as each character enters, plays their part and displays their own haunting wounds. The second murder is at the mansion of Angel Gate in Cornwall, Brian McAlvie's territory, where a few years ago another child disappeared and her mother dies not long after. Now a nameless corpse follows and the two mysteries, the two unknown dead, seem related somehow.
   
   Related in part by the dark shadow of a child abuser who, thanks to his wealth, has been able to operate just beyond the reach of Scotland Yard. Piece by piece, aided by Sergeant Wiggens, Jury assembles a story which yields glimpses of a tragedy that may very well surpass Jury's own abilities to cope. This is a very dark tale indeed, and underneath the set piece humor of Wiggens' strange health habits and Plant's inept efforts at being a consulting gardener are the people who think that children are a commodity and that what they do to them is a form of love.
   
   My hat is off to Grimes for managing to do all this without getting lost in unnerving, gritty details. There is a time for that, as Andrew Vachss has demonstrated, but Grimes chooses a more urban style that gets the point across without destroying the nerves of the reader. This is an altogether satisfying read, with some hints that there may be more to follow. If there is, I'll be in line to read it.



5. This recent Inspector Jury novel by Martha Grimes will have readers in two categories, those who know the series already and newcomers to it like myself. I find that I take to the style, and I suppose the best commendation I can offer is that this story has interested me enough to go back to the start of the series and get to know Jury and his associates. The author does not do much to introduce them to first-time readers by this stage of the game, the cast of new characters is quite large and I was constantly having to flip back a few pages to remind myself who was who, and Grimes shows awareness of this matter on p217 with a quiet and wryly humorous reference to the 87th Precinct series in which readers are likely to experience the same problem.
   
   Ms Grimes is apparently American, and her command of the idiom of British crime-writing is impressive. Slip-ups are few and minor. In Britain we write `ploughed' and not `plowed', we do not refer to a cell-phone but to a mobile, and it should hardly even have needed a glance at a map to tell one of her characters that Kirkcudbright (so spelt) is unsurprisingly in Kirkcudbrightshire and not in Dumfriesshire. The style of crime novels and TV detective series in Britain has come on a bit since the palmy days of Hercule Poirot and Lord Peter Wimsey. I could not imagine Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers and the rest of them going anywhere near the topic of paederasty that features strongly in The Winds of Change - even Chandler would never have touched such a theme - but I recall it from the TV series A Touch of Frost. Detective inspectors with cultivated tastes are also now familiar from Inspector Morse, Jury and his friends give a good deal of prominence to Henry James, and I will be surprised if both of these series have not influenced Ms Grimes to some extent. Influences are perfectly legitimate and to be expected, but Grimes has the first quality that I look for in any novelist, namely a distinctive tone of her own. This is rather understated, in what is sometimes thought to be a particularly British way. Two people are found murdered near the beginning of this story, but the scenes are described with detachment. Indeed even the more sordid aspects to the narrative are treated with that, and this way of doing it is definitely to my own liking.
   
   There is not a lot of `action' in the ordinary sense (shooting and whatnot) until near the end. The main focus is on the detectives as people, and they spend most of their time talking, and not talking exclusively about their investigations. The actual plot-line is not, I must say, my idea of the strongest I ever came across. It depends heavily on not one case but two of mistaken or unperceived identity which seemed to me approximately as convincing as those in Cosi Fan Tutte or Twelfth Night. However I finished the book with a reasonably strong idea of the more important identities of Jury, Cody and the others who are presumably delineated clearly for beginners in the earlier novels. To that extent, Ms Grimes has got herself one genuinely interested new reader who is likely to pursue his new interest, and I don't suppose I can say fairer than that.

5 comments about Cold Flat Junction.

1. What a wonderful book and audio-book! This is an extraordinary coming-of-age novel, with characters that you really care about and a haunting, ambiguous story. Bernadette Dunn is a wonderful narrator for this story as well. I bought a copy of the book after listening to it on tape first, and her voice echoes through my reading.

   Emma Graham is a wonderful, rare, twelve year old narrator, perched right on the verge of adulthood. Her imaginative child self and her growing intuition about the interesting adults in her life sometimes work together here and sometimes battle each other in a fascinating mix.

   This is also a beautifully lyrical novel that takes place in a world that seems quite timeless. We are in a recognizable world but not necessarily a specific time.

   Definitely worth it! It's a gem!




2. Having grown the love the Richard Jury mysteries, I was bitterly disappointed by this novel. I tried to wade through it but it was so gawd-awful boring that I just gave up.



3. I really enjoyed this book, but it helps if you read Hotel Paradise first. I am still waiting for answers and hope Martha has a sequel up her sleeve...there were just too many loose ends at the end! I just love the way Martha writes and its always such a pleasure to read her...but who was Rose and Mary-Evelyn's Mother?



4. This is an wonderful book but the mystery is -confusing- and never ends. However, it's an wonderful story of trouble making, Emma, who make drinks to get infomation from the old lady, and she steals it from the snotty waitress' stash!
   Hilorous!



5. First thing you need to do is throw out any ideas of this being like a Jury novel. Then get Hotel Paradise so you can read it and understand what is going on in this book.
   Emma is simply a wonderful character and she jumps out of the book and comes to life. It's almost hard to imagine she is 12. The mystery still isn't quite over I wonder if Martha Grimes will tell us more in another installment.

5 comments about Old Contemptibles.

1. In #11 of the Jury-Plant mysteries, finds Jury a suspect himself! The delightfully droll British Mysteries - named after Brit Pubs - see this one taking place in the beautiful Lake District. Jury is considering marriage with a widow Jane Holdsworth. Things become complicated when son Alex finds Jane dead. At first it's deemed a suicide, but it becomes clear it was murder. Since Jury is a suspect, he sends Melrose Plant to the Lake District to suss out what he can about the Holdsworth family. The family is rich and eccentric, but four murders in one family is just a wee bit beyond the pale. The Holdsworth family is loaded with delightful, charming, if oddball characters, such as Alex, who is quite adapt at cheating at poker. Curry shines when doing 11-year-old Millie Thale (Melrose always has a soft spot for dotty children). Millie has a bond with Alex, since her mother died unexpected five years before.

   Grimes once again brings such quirky characters to life with her witty prose and Curry takes those words and makes magic! A winning combination not to be missed.




2. The author seems to know where she is going with this story, but seems to drift about getting there. I had a hard time maintaining an interest. Part of the problem is the writing style, and references to some locations in England that I had a difficult time visualizing. Perhaps it needed a map. Part of the plot seems to revolve around possible gay relationships but, as Inspector Jury notes, does anyone in today's world really care.
   
   The story starts out with characters from Long Piddleton who are off in Venice. The time period is about ten years after Jury made his first appearance. There is concern that a woman may marry the wrong person, and schemes are hatched to redirect the romance. Apparently you need to read a prequel to completely understand the situation.
   
   The scene then shifts back to London with a plot involving the death of a woman Jury has just become acquainted with. From London, the plot shifts to an estate in a country village, and the various family members and associated individuals who are connected to the dead woman. A couple of previous deaths are brought into the plot.
   
   Along the way, you get a description of driving on a bad road, which really has nothing to do with the plot, and a description of various characters at the Old Contemptibles, an Inn in the village, who don't really figure into the main plot (the author has a habit of putting various excess baggage into her stories).
   
   It becomes a question of who has any advantage from the deaths that have occurred. It is a question of power, and the ending seemed a bit strange. The original plot reimerges briefly. Then some of the characters mete out their own form of justice, at which point the story ends.



3. I've tried to start this book about ten times before I got over the hump. This book has an interesting plot along with fascinating charachters but there are many parts where you snooze off and then it becomes rather fast paced again.
   
   Also there are a few things in the story that are confusing. Why did the doctor kill Millie's mother? It says she did but I couldn't figure out a reason for why. Also the ending is quite far fetched compared to the rest of the book.



4. This was a very interesting and good book with alot of
   great mystery to it.



5. Great read. Martha Grimes mysteries are well written and the characters in them fascinating. Terrific for English cozy mystery fans.

5 comments about The DIRTY DUCK (CASSETTE).

1. I was taking a few days off work (can you call it vacation if you mostly stay home and drive your kids and their friends around?) so I didn't want to read the stack of business books waiting for me. And I didn't feel ready to get back into Tolkien. I told my wife I wanted a mystery that I could read in a couple of days - nothing as cerebral as Holmes, but not a fluff (vacation shouldn't be a total waste). She hands me The Dirty Duck. Yes another really great Detective Superintendent Richard Jury story. A bucket full of interesting (read: quirky, but loveable) characters in a great setting (Stratford-on Avon) - only one of them has this nasty thing about using a razor in a most unconventional way - and then leaving a bit of poetry on the corpses as a signature. And just to add a twist, a little boy who is related to two of the victims is missing. I put Martha Grimes right up there with Christie for character and plot twists any day. If you haven't sampled Martha Grimes yet, you don't know what you are missing.



2. I am puzzled by Martha Grimes' response to Americans in this novel. As an American, albeit one who is writing British mysteries, she comes up with a whole tour full of unsympathetic American tourists here--even down to what I think are supposed to be humerous names for them. I think this is unfortunate, since it weakens the book, which has a plot that could have held up just as well if the characters were less insistantly annoying.
   Martha Grimes is one of my favorite writers, and I don't think this novel holds up anywhere near as well as the others in this wonderful series.



3. This is one of her shorter stories that can be enjoyed in an afternoon. The meeting of Melrose Plant and Harvey Schoenberg is hysterical! I felt I could see Melrose's brain desperately trying to decode this odd little man's obscure theory of Shakespeare and friends. And yes, some Americans in Europe can be a little overbearing, when left to their own means. I enjoyed it ever so much!



4. The 4th in the series of Brit Mysteries named after pubs, was the first tale I ever read of Martha Grimes and it instantly made me a devoted fan. I actually bought the audio tapes simply because Tim Curry was the narrator. He has done dozens and dozens of audio books and he is such an amazing talent. So, imagine my delight when I discovered a new author as well. Instantly, I went out and bought every Grimes Curry has recorded. I'm just sorry, they have not filled out the whole series with Curry's audio versions. Hopefully, someday...
   
   Superintendent Richard Jury said "nothing ever happens in Stratford" - naturally, in Grimes fashion, he is forced to eat those words. Grindeline Bracegirdle an American on vacation in England was enjoying a drink at the Dirty Duck, when time is called. Her mysterious companion lures her off alone with the promise of hot sex, instead murders her. A town used to stage murders nights at the Globe Theatre, home of Shakespeare, the real murder send Jury to investigating. Right behind him is close friend and ex-peer Melrose plant, with Agatha Ardry in tow gobbling faerycakes all the way - Melrose's American aunt from hell.
   
   Grimes is outrageously funny - in the Brit style - hard to believe she is a Yank. Curry gives perfection in the reading, right down to Bracegirdle's thrill at seeking a wild fling on her vacation only to be the victim. High camp in the land of
   Will! Utterly Delightful.



5. The Dirty Duck, by Martha Grimes, is the 4th book in this excellent series. This is not the strongest entry in the series, but it is still a quick and engaging read; a journey well-worth taking. The setting here is Stratford - Upon - Avon during a Shakespearian festival. For those of you new to the series, I would recommend reading them in order for the best reading experience; however, they are also fun as stand alone novels.
   
   Here is the series in order:
   
   The Man with a Load of Mischief
   The Old Fox Deceived
   The Anodyne Necklace
   The Dirty Duck
   Jerusalem Inn
   Help the Poor Struggler
   The Deer Leap
   I am the only Running Footman
   The Five Bells and Bladebone
   The Old Silent
   The Old Contemptibles
   The Horse You Came In on
   Rainbow's End
   The Case has Altered
   The Stargazey
   The Lamorna Wink
   The Blue Last
   The Grave Maurice
   The Winds of Change
   The Old Wine Shades
   Dust

5 comments about The Grave Maurice (Detective Series).

1. This is a book which grabs your attention from the beginning. I had avoided it because I thought the subject matter would bother me. I can't stand to read about animals in pain. But I managed to persevere and really enjoyed it. I have to confess that I hated the ending, but I could see how it fit the book. I have looked up Premarin on the internet. It is as awful as portrayed in the book. Humans are anything but, I'm afraid.



2. I have read all her books. Obviously, I love her writing. But I have real problems with this one. Two incredible plot contrivances and a horrific ending really spoiled this brew for me.
   Still, it's Martha Grimes, one of the best, most erudite mystery writers of our time. I guess everybody has to throw in a stinker from time to time.



3. Well, I'm not sure how to begin. While the back cover synopsis is intriguing, the execution leaves something to be desired. The book was by far one of the least well written that I've read. Grimes is constantly going off on tangents that seem to have no bearing on the story. I found myself lost several times and having to go back and figure out what was supposed to be happening.
   
   The only reason I gave this book 2 stars instead of one was that the author seemed to get back on track for the last 50-75 pages.
   
   Overall, I cannot recommend this book and will only give the author one more try before "writing" her off completely.



4. I can't remember when I was more angry at the ending of a book. When I finished THE GRAVE MAURICE I swore that I would never read another Martha Grimes book, and so far I haven't. I admit I miss Richard Jury and Melrose Plant as I would any other old friends, but I am tired of endings that feel like a kick in the stomach! So, no more Martha. I will find new friends elsewhere.



5. This book, while dull, was eye opening about the abuse that the US's drug companies are allowed to get away with. In the book they were concerned about the horse's quality of life - but actually what are the drug companies doing to damage & destroy people's health in their quest for profit!?! Think about it.

5 comments about The HORSE YOU CAME IN ON (CASSETTE).

1. Like other reviewers, I read the reviews on the back of the book that said that this was a great book. They were so wrong. I made myself finish the book - assuming that there had to be some clever tie-up of all these stories. But there isn't one. The murders and the solution are merely minor storylines in this book. And all the rest is annoying characters and talk, talk, talk. There are about 3 chapters AFTER you find out who the murderer is (an obvious murderer) and they serve no purpose except for more talk, talk, talk. This was the first book I read by this author and I won't be rushing to read others.



2. A riddle: What could be more pathetic than Grimes' character Alejandro Vlasic? Grimes pours out the scorn, portraying this ridiculous figure in his ostentatious dress and preening, and laughable jealousy of his commercially successful genre fiction colleague. He sniffs arrogantly at her merely populist work, embarrassingly thrusting copies of his own justifiably ignored tiny single volume of pretentious poetry at anyone passing - all the while eating his liver in envy. We're left in no doubt that, unlike his colleague, he's a complete loser.
   
   More pathetic than petty little Professor Vlasic? Well, how about a commercially successful genre fiction writer going to the trouble of carefully creating such a character? Really for Grimes to spend so much time glorifying a character, ahem, much like herself, and pillorying those who, it seems, she fears criticism from, is at best embarrassing for the reader.
   
   Maybe I've started at the wrong end of her career - an amazon reviewer elsewhere recommended her `Man with a load of Mischief', but I found this later `Horse' at my local library instead. It felt really indulgent - many of the characters are writers, and Grimes just seems unaware that it's bad form for her to so unsubtly laud ones like herself. Moreover it feels like Jury and Melrose are supposed to be old friends - perhaps back for a last time reunion and we're just supposed to relish their presence. I don't even know if I would have, however, even if I had enjoyed them in previous books. It feels like those awful 'On Tour' TV episodes - you know, the Happy Days cast goes to Australia or something.
   
   The detective story, at least, is engaging enough while it's there, but it's hardly central and driving. This is usually for me an attraction of a crime novel: I particularly enjoy ones that have enough going in character, humour and observation that they don't stand or fall on the plot - much as we can enjoy some of the ride when it's driving things. However Grimes' diversions generally don't grab me - particularly (did you get this) when she seems to be blowing her own trumpet (cf. Asimov's appallingly arrogant drivel in the last of his Foundation novels).



3. I COULD NOT FINISH THIS BOOK. I HAVE GREATLY ENJOYED THE OTHER INSPECTOR JURY MYSTERIES AND WAS REALLY DISAPPOINTED.. MY THEORY IS THAT THE FAULT LAY IN TRYING TO SET AN ENGLISH MYSTERY IN THE US. THE INTERIORITY AND SENSE OF PLACE THAT SO CHARACTERIZES ENGLISH MYSTERY DOES NOT WORK IN A SETTING LIKE THE US. FROM THAT
   STEM ALL THE OTHER DIFFICULTIES WITH THIS BOOK-- FLOUNDERING AND LOST - BECAUSE THE CHARACTERS ARE NOT AT "HOME". AGATHA CHRISTIE COULD PULL IT OFF BUT WHEN POIROT WAS IN EGYPT, FOR INSTANCE, HE WAS SURROUNDED BY ENGLISHMEN WHO HAD IN EFFECT "BROUGHT' THEIR PORTABLE WC'S ( LIKE THE ENGLISH DID IN AFRICA) ON THEIR "SAFARIS". (sorry about the capitals - just noticed it)



4. As a devoted Martha Grimes fan, I can find something to like about every one of her books - with this one I relied on the tried and true characters of Jury, Plant, and Wiggins to pull me through the morass of plot twists, mediocre supporting characters, and the downright dismal portrayal of Baltimorians (can anyone possibly be that pathetic? I guess so.) One refreshing twist in this one - Richard Jury is nearly upbeat! It's often painful to follow him into the vat of depression that he absolutely must slog through in order to solve a case. Melrose is brilliant, as usual, and Wiggins is Wiggins. Gotta love him.



5. Martha Grimes' mysteries, all of them, stand in an ordered rank on my bedroom shelves. She's a writer whose stories are worth reading and then re-reading. The puzzle is nearly always interesting and satisfactorily worked out. But that's not the real delight of the novels, only the entertaining excuse for two other more compelling reasons to read her. First, there's her Pickwickian cast of characters. They're a collection of perpetually and ruefully unattached men and women of indeterminate early middle age, who meet in a variety of colorfully named pubs and solve murders with more or less tragicomic flair, while they repeatedly fail to resolve the mysteries of their own inner lives. Second, there's the speculative and philosophical line of thought that often crops up as a secondary theme. Grimes gives this metaphysical aspect full play as a depth and dimension of counterpoint to her vivid characters and solid plot lines. The Horse You Came In On plots an intriguing mystery, but it is about writing, and specifically about plot invention in writing. Let me count the ways--a purported diary from Italy; a minimalist novel; the plagiarized version of the minimalist novel; a holograph manuscript that may or may not have been penned by Edgar Allen Poe; a Russian romance tale made up on the spot to amuse a child; a fabricated family history; a book of poetry; a work in progress (whose writer, to maintain focus, chains herself to her Johns Hopkins University desk--and thereby hangs the crisis of the plot); a hobbyist's attempt at a Dashiell Hammett-style mystery. All these literary productions are embedded in Grimes' own marvelous inventions, carrying us from the Tate Gallery in London to Baltimore, to Philadelphia, to the village of Long Piddleton in Northhamptonshire--just to name the more important locations. It's not often that one encounters a writer who can present thoroughly serious thinking in the form of comedy and at the same time stay competently in the mystery genre. Her novels are pleasing at every level. Her first mystery in this series is called The Man with a Load of Mischief. Start there and enjoy the wandering, speculative, humane, whimsical series of stories. You won't be disappointed.

5 comments about Old Fox Deceived CST.

1. Anticipating more of the humor and eccentricities that characterized the first in this series, The Man with a Load of Mischief, I was disappointed to find much of it missing in this second book, The Old Fox Deceiv'd. The plot is as intelligent and intriguing as all of Grimes' stories in the Richard Jury series, but I prefer it balanced with the charm and delightful characterizations of the denizes of that English village Long Piddleton. While Richard Jury is Grimes' hero in this series, the character of Melrose Plant is the one that makes me keep returning to these books for more.



2. A beautiful woman lies dead, her blood covering her party costume, and smearing her Harlequin face paint. She is a stranger, so not only do people wonder who killed her, but why kill a stranger? Detective Chief Inspector Richard Jury and his pal Melrose Plant are sharing a pint at the local pub The Old Fox Deceiv'd, when this came swirling with danger and deception touches them. Foxes are abound - the pub carries one in the name, Jury and Melrose find the only way to trap a foxy
   killer is to ride to the foxes.

   It's typically Grimes all the way, the humor dry and droll, and brought to life by the ever-so-talent Tim Curry. I just cannot imagine anyone but Curry reading Grimes. He brings all the characters to life. While my preferred medium is reading in print, I cannot resist all the Curry-Grimes tapes. They are just too perfect!

   If you love British Mysteries, you cannot pass on these tapes. If you are a Curry fan, you simply need to hear him doing Aunt Agatha and Gwendolyn! This was the second in the Jury-Plant series.




3. As the previous reviewer said, I enjoyed The Man with a Load of Mischief largely for the humor, and that was provided by the characters of Melrose Plant and his Aunt Agatha and by the setting of Long Piddleton. I was relieved to find Plant eventually turning up in this plot as well, but only through a farfetched coincidence. The overall tone was gloomier than in the first book, which was disappointing, since I get plenty of gloom from Elizabeth George's wonderful, but depressing, books. I'm also waiting to see (I haven't read any other books in the series yet) if the character of Jury is ever developed more fully. We're told that he tends to get depressed, he wonders if he's a good policeman, and he likes to make tracks in fresh snow -- and as far as I can remember, that's about it. Almost every character in the book seems to have more of a distinct personality than Jury does. I will keep reading the series but will hope for more Aunt Agatha and less fog.



4. The Old Fox Deceiv'd, by Martha Grimes, is the second in the series of this exceptionally well writted series featuring Richard Jury and Melrose Plant. The reparte between the two primary characters and their growing friendship is really the best part of this series. If you are new to the series, than congratulations... you have found an excellent series by a very witty and gifted author. Some of the books - like any series - are much better than others. In this novel, the style of having Melrose essentially sent on assignment is made, with excellent results. Reading along as Melrose plays jr. detective is very funny. The mystery here is just nifty enough to make this a 4 star read. For those of you new to the series, here are the books in order:
   
   The Man with a Load of Mischief
   The Old Fox Deceived
   The Anodyne Necklace
   The Dirty Duck
   Jerusalem Inn
   Help the Poor Struggler
   The Deer Leap
   I am the only Running Footman
   The Five Bells and Bladebone
   The Old Silent
   The Old Contemptibles
   The Horse You Came In on
   Rainbow's End
   The Case has Altered
   The Stargazey
   The Lamorna Wink
   The Blue Last
   The Grave Maurice
   The Winds of Change
   The Old Wine Shades
   Dust



5. I have all of the Ms. Grimes' book and they are very entertaining. Once you start reading them you can't stop.