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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Delicious, July 6, 2011
I'm pretty new to Grimes but of the three I've read this is the best. Read it, as someone else said, for the two elderly "contemptibles" (a pun, as the Old Contemptibles is, of course, the name of a pub) and for the delectable writing. I'm more interested in characters and writing than plots, but as far as I could tell "whodunnit" was not apparent until the last few chapters. In fact, this novel is a shining exception to my observation that mysteries usually lose all interest in the denouement. Once the knot is untied, the interest collapses. Here, Grimes keeps up the energy until the end. She is up there with Rendell and James as a mistress of the literary detective novel. How this American writer pulls off this wonderfully detailed English setting is a mystery in itself.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Better than most in this series, November 16, 2008
In most regards, this 11th volume in the Supt. Richard Jury mystery series is perhaps the best so far. Jury has gotten involved with Jane Holdsworth, a young woman he met at the Camden street market and after only a few weeks, he's seriously considering proposing marriage. Then she turns up dead on her sofa, an apparent suicide, and Jury is one of the suspects.The body was discovered by her 16-year-old son, Alex, who is something of a genius when it comes to scamming bookies and other gamblers. And Alex is convinced his mother must have been murdered. Because Jury is under suspicion, Melrose goes off to investigate the victim's family in the Lake District, and it's he who actually is the focus of most of the book, not Jury. Several other questionable deaths have been connected to the family is a short period of time. Alex's great-grandfather, Adam, who prefers to spend most of his time at a plush retirement home down the road rather than with his avaricious family, has his own thoughts about the various deaths. So does Lady Cray, Adam's astute and steely-eyed friend. And so, especially, does Milly, the Holdsworth family's twelve-year-old cook, whose mother was yet another suicide (or murder) tied to the Holdsworth family. There's a good deal of Grimes's wry humor here, and much better plotting than usual, but the author still has a penchant for killing off the villain at the end of the book instead of letting the law take its course. But there are still a few holes. For instance, who the devil paid for Jury's expensive attorney, if it wasn't Vivian?
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5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Too many plot shifts, June 19, 2005
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.
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