Customer Reviews

The Anodyne Necklace

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When I first read the Jury and Plant series, all the books named after Pubs, I was shocked to learn she was American. She just does Brit droll humor to a T. I was even more shocked when later I learned that Grimes was actually dropped by Knopf Publishing, saying she was not making her advance back on the Jury series. Well, she has gone on to make them eat those words as every one is now a bestseller. I absolutely love to read, but in this instance, I actually prefer to enjoy the audio tapes simply because they are done by the great Tim Curry. As Grimes does Brit humor to perfection, Tim brings Richard Plant, Melrose Plant and his indomitable Aunt Agatha so perfectly. Curry slips into one character after another with such panache - right down to children. The combination of Grimes and Curry is just not to be missed.

In the Anodyne Necklace, a violin, an ancent emerald necklace and a severed finger are clue to solving the ghastly murder in the wood of Littlebourne. The town is filled with dotty birdwatchers, a pretentious Peer, and more suspects than Jury can handle. Naturally, the ever-so-helpful, Melrose Plant, a Peer who has shun his titles, tags along to aid his friend - actually, to escape his Aunt Agatha who refuses to let Melrose give up his titles. The key unriddling the Littlebourne mystery is hidden in coded treasure map.

It's great full all they way, and an absolutely must for Curry fans! Martha loves the old saying he who laughs last...she has been having one big giggle on the shortsightedness of Knopf ever since!

This is the book that began the Jury/Plant series, where all of the books are named after pubs. This is one of the very few books in my experience where I remember who the muderer was because it was a flawless mystery, perfectly logical, nothing held back, but still I couldn't guess the culprit! Definitely NOT the "had I but known" school. There are some wonderfully gory scenes, if you appreciate that in your mudrer mysteries, in adition to wonderful character moments and real humor. I found this book to be the best of all of M.Grimes's marvelous books. I hope they republish! I read this book for the first time when I was nine (child of a mystery reader)and it has not lost its charm with successive readings over the years. My old copy finally fell to bits!

This early Richard Jury novel is more comic than most of the others in this series--the scenes in Littlebourne, despite the fact that this is a mystery, are quite funny, with stock characters who end up being likeable and affecting. However, the strength of this book is in the scenes in The Anodyne Necklace and its surrounding London slum neighborhood, which is full of eccentrics, odd as can be, but fully enjoying their sordid lives.

The murderer is a surprise here as well.

This is also the novel that introduces Jenny Kennington, who is as enigmatic at the beginning of this series as she is later on. I am not sure of her appeal for Richard Jury!

This book was absolutely awesome. I couldn't put it down the entire time I was reading it! I definately suggest any of the Richard Jury books to anyone who likes mystery books!

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

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.

Second book in a row read by me and third book in the series..Still a very good read, though this one wasn't such a pager turner for me but the atmosphere and the charm is still there, and the story/mystery is very interesting. The second time around a little kid, this time a girl Emilie Perk, is one of the main character and a possible victim.. I'm about to read the first one in a series and wonder if i find a kid there too!

This is the third in the mystery series starring Richard Jury of Scotland Yard, newly promoted to Superintendent (though he seems to spend his time doing the sort of investigative legwork any DC would do, and appears to have no administrative duties at all), and his buddy, ex-earl Melrose Plant. This time the victims (they're always multiple in this series) include a dead woman found with severed fingers in a wood near a village frequented by birdwatchers, a dealer in antique jewelry from a neighboring town, and a teenage violinist trying to earn a few extra bob playing in a London Underground station. It all ties in to the theft of a valuable emerald necklace -- and a treasure map. There's also a precocious twelve-year-old girl who's good both with horses and with retailing information for a consideration (precocious kids are also obviously a staple character type in this series), and a whole family of stereotypical East Enders. The mystery itself is well thought out (and not telegraphed by sloppy writing) but much of the enjoyment in the book comes from Grimes's dry wit and the interplay between Jury and Plant.

A mild little story and easy to read at first.

But: All those names? There is Plant and Tree, Wiggins and Biggins; then an obsession with cats and pubs, people's blue eyes and local dialect. After a while, it all gets a bit tedious. There are some amusing moments but outside of Melrose Plant or Emily-Louse, or perhaps Sir Miles Bodenheim (except for the constant egg on his lapel, tie or ascot) , the characters are not all that interesting. The plot and resolution struck me as contrived - a mysterious map which to me was completely unnecessary, a necklace that was easy to hide but took a year to be retrieved. The culprit was pretty obvious to me from about the middle of the book.

I checked inside another of this series and it seemed to be almost identical to this one.

Give me Agatha Christie any time!

Compared to the John Sanford prey series or the Michael Connelley Detective Harry Bosch series
this is pretty dull. There is no getting into the mind of the criminal at all. I also felt no intimate
relation with Detective Jury; there is very little about his life problems or what he is thinking as he
tries to solve the murder. It is just a
plodding questioning of suspects with little if any real police procedure or scientific analysis
of evidence. If you like British dialogue with weird names of streets and towns then this may appeal
to you. Some of the characters were interesting but that is it.