Customer Reviews

THE DIRTY DUCK.

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

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

This is the first book by Martha Grimes I have read, after a couple of friends recommended her. She has a witty style and is obviously well-read (references to Shakespeare and the Elizabethan world play an important role in the book). Unfotunately the denouement, contrary to a reviewer's blurb on the back cover, is not well conceived and is resolved with the help of a deus ex machina-character flown into England on a Concorde jet liner (really). The main characters, Richard Jury and Melrose Plant, are likable; this book may just be a weak entry in the series.

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.

I'm in a Shakespeare discussion group, so this was fun. I think this is the best of the first four, perhaps.

I would recommend Hamlet, Revenge by Michael Innes if you are interested in a mystery with a Shakespeare angle.

The Dirty Duck (Richard Jury #4)

I guess everyone can tell Author, Martha Grimes is my favorite

and that is why I have appreciated the excellent quality

of the book and its packaging. I would graciously recommend

this seller to alot of readers.

When I took a college course in Shakespeare, I never dreamed the controversy over the authorship would turn up again in such an interesting mystery, "The Dirty Duck." And I would have never expected such an insufferable character as Harvey Schoenberg could be so entertaining. He dominates the story with his Marlowe obsession. By the time I finished the book I felt like I had finally made the pilgrimage to Stratford without all the expense.

I've just discovered the Richard Jury series and find his and his friend Melrose Plant's disappointed romantic hopes very touching. Both men are very decent and civilized, so one wishes for their happiness. Sadly, the women they are attracted to are elusive.

In this fourth entry in the Superintendent Richard Jury mystery series, a group of American and British tourists is decimated by a "Slasher" (as the tabloids dub him), starting in Stratford-upon-Avon and progressing to London, and a young boy in the group (Grimes seems always to include a precocious child) is kidnapped -- sort of. One of the themes this time is the relationship between Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe. You're not likely to figure out whodunit -- partly because the solution seems just a bit far-fetched. The characterizations, however, are witty and believable and with each volume Jury and his friend, Melrose Plant (who has wealth but no title, not any more), become more three-dimensional.