Customer Reviews

Lamorna Wink (A Richard Jury Novel)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

I finished this book in two days. I love Martha Grimes and look forward each year to a new entry in this great series. Once again she offers a interesting mystery, great characters and amusing dialogue. Frankly I was pleased that this book concentrated on Melrose Plant and Brian Macalvie. All the brooding introspection of Richard Jury was getting a little tiresome. It was nice to get some background on these intriquing characters. One quibble: enough already with the romance between Vivian and "Count Dracula." It was amusing in the first few books, but by the 16th it is boring, boring, boring. Ms. Grimes holds out hope though that we may have seen the last of this subplot.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Melrose Plant take the lead in this one. Ms. Grimes unveils a passionate and impulsive nature to go along with Melrose's ready supply of charm, and helps us to understand his aversion to his foresaken title. She places at the center of the tale a charismatic and sympathetic young man in trouble, and brings back familiar favorites for cameo appearances. All the elements of a superior Martha Grimes mystery are there, but my enjoyment of this book was spoiled almost to the point of negation by the grisly and perverse child murders that drive the plot. Detailed scenes describing the central tragedy are unsettlingly juxtaposed with jokey scenes featuring the lovable pub-hoppers we've come to know from the Richard Jury series. To me, the depressing nature of this read outweighed its entertainment value.

Martha Grimes maintains near perfect pitch in THE LAMORNA WINK. She has awarded her readers with one of her most balanced narratives. The creative complements and artistics tensions found in Martha's unique blend of puzzle, humor, and atmosphere are evenly sustained throughout this offering.

Read Martha's Richard Jury Series at the end of a day that has been too long, when you want to leave the familiar behind and seek quiet enjoyment among the leisured and charming eccentrics who populate these pages. THE LAMORNA WINK is the type of book you read propped-up in bed, wrapped-up in a comforter, with the autumn rain falling steadily atop the roof or the winter wind howling about the house. Let Martha Grimes' characters draw you out of your own world and invite you to join them around the table at the Jack & Hammer.

THE LAMORNA WINK is a most satisfying "cozy."

I thoroughly enjoyed the latest of the Martha Grimes "Richard Jury" series, in spite of Jury's near absence in the book. Melrose plant figures strongly and there is just the right mix of the usual Long Pidd characters. Strange (nearly gratuitous) plot twist at the end in the continuing saga of VivViv and the Count.... I suppose it's the "cliff hanger" type of thing that makes you wonder what is coming in the next book. Anyway, enjoyable reading in spite of the rather "dark" solution to the disappearance of the two children. Overall, it's one of the better of this series.

And even though Richard Jury played a much smaller part than usual, I enjoyed seeing Melrose Plant take centerstage. I like both of these characters very much. The other continuing characters appeared just long enough to be entertaining without being over-powering. The deaths of the two children seemed so incredibly sad to me. Especially when we find out how they really were killed. Tragic, and a showing of the depths to which some people can sink.

I was disappointed by the last couple of books in the Richard Jury series, but this one is an excellent book. Melrose Plant is front and centre and he is turning out to be quite the detective. He is one of the most appealing characters I've read about for a long time. Richard Jury's role is reduced as compared to other books, but he comes in at a very crucial time. Macalvie is a wonderful character. There is a danger that he may eventually eclipse Jury. I love Martha Grimes characterization, and her comic relief is always wonderful. She is one of the best mystery writers of today, and is in league with the Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christies of the past in my mind. No modern author can top her for eccentric characters.

I wonder what Grimes was thinking as she finished this novel. She takes a delightful amateur detective story and spoils it with a graphic account of a sadistic child murder. In the final chapters, she mixes scenes of unbearable cruelty with local pub amusements that are not funny in the context of the tragedy we are reading about, and add nothing to the story. Richard Jury shows up only long enough to lose interest in all the plots and subplots. And after being actively involved in the entire mystery, Melrose departs the scene before it is unconvincingly resolved with one of the perpetrators in the sadistic murders going unpursued.

I am reading my way through Martha Grimes' Richard Jury mysteries, and it is very interesting to see her develop her characters and plots. The Lamorna Wink is a long trip away from such early books as The Dirty Duck and The Old Fox Deceiv'd. It follows a recent trend in Grimes' work to have complex supporting characters and multiple plots and also a general sense of unsettled melancholy that is probably annoying if you don't like her characters, and addictive if you do.

This is definitely Melrose Plant's story, although he is spirited away back to Long Pid just as things get wrapped up. The surprise here is that we become privy to a lot more detail about the parents and early life of Melrose than ever before, and that is interesting. We find out new depths to Brian Macalvie also.

A lot of people have commented on what might be called the horrifying or unsavory elements of the plot of this novel. I certainly agree that there are horrible things that happen here, but I would agree with one reviewer who says that horrible things do happen in this world. I was more concerned because the different stands of the story didn't always fit together. Motives seemed to be stretched at times.

I certainly won't give up on Martha Grimes anytime soon.

Having read all of her books, liking some more than others, it was a pleasure to get to know Melrose Plant better. Melrose is a man for whom his past dictates his present. The more you learn about his past, the more layered a character he becomes. Melrose is the central character through whom you meet everyone in this book and learn of the various murders and mysteries. With help from Macalvie and much later Jury, he is involved in every aspect of solving this case. Macalvie is always intense and absorbing. I also did not like the child murder angle, but to think something like that does not exist is to live in a bubble, but I'm not sure I like it in a Martha Grimes novel. Ms. Grimes does seem to be getting more "real world" in her murders and motives. I always look forward to her Richard Jury novels. This book was definitely an improvement over the Case Has Altered and The Stargazey. I hope she continues to develop Melrose Plant and gives Richard Jury more depth in his personal life. Please either marry off Vivian or give her some character--she's such a wet blanket.

I am a great fan of Martha Grimes. Between books, I miss the characters. The Lamorna Wink was well written, no doubt about it. Her characters are so real, I've come to be quite fond of them. But as a Mom, I found the subject matter disturbing. So if you're a mom or sensitive to children in distress stories, re-think this book and wait for the next one. What I really did enjoy about this book was a closer look at Melrose Plant. He's quite delightful; however, I miss Jury. I hope she writes another one soon.