The Old Silent [Hardcover]

Martha Grimes (Author), Little & Brown (Editor), Jacket illustration Alexander Farquharson (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1989

Violence finds a burned-out Richard Jury when he becomes the only witness to a murder in a cozy inn called the Old Silent. Though Nell Healey shot her husband in cold blood, Jury will go to any lengths to help her and break through her reticence to untangle a web of twisted motives-and twisted lives.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Inspector Richard Jury's 10th appearance, the rewards of Grimes's skewering eye for characterization more than make up for the few occasions when the complicated plot gets out of hand. Suffering from a melancholy that he worries might presage a full-fledged depression, Jury is on a winter vacation, perversely taken in Yorkshire. At the inn of the title (following The Man with a Load of Mischief , Grimes's mysteries have borne the names of English pubs), he observes a well-dressed, self-contained woman shoot her husband. With no questions of who murdered whom, Jury is dogged by the whys. Officially off the case, he's irretrievably hooked when he learns that the victim's son, and the woman's stepson, is the musical prodigy presumed dead in a famous kidnapping case years before. Jury's pal Melrose Plant, meanwhile, stopping at a bed-and-breakfast near the woman's ancestral home, befriends a little girl named Abby Cable, whose fierce independence conjures up a young Cathy Earnshaw and makes her a standout even in this memorable cast. After Abby's aunt is found dead under the snow, Abby is pursued across the moors, saved by Plant shortly before Jury, after forays into the world of rock concerts, reaches an unpredicted conclusion in another tour de force for Grimes. 100,000 first printing; $100,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild, Mystery Guild and Doubleday Book Club selections.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Perfect, distilled Grimes...an engrossing tale. --New York Daily News

Minor scuffs on jacket. Great condition. --Seller

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co (T); 1st edition (August 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316323187
• ISBN-13: 978-0316323185
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #422,754 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Martha Grimes is the bestselling author of twenty-one Richard Jury novels, as well as the novels Dakota and Foul Matter, among others. Her previous two Jury books, The Old Wine Shades and Dust, both appeared on the New York Times bestseller list.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best of the Jury series, January 14, 2001

By 

Vicki Leigh "Melusine Bee" (OH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Old Silent (Mass Market Paperback)

No doubt in my mind--to date, this is the best of the series. (Of course, "Hotel Paradise" is her best work, but that falls outside the Richard Jury series.)

Martha Grimes has a rare grasp of characters. They all shine, they all breathe, they all walk into the room and sit down a while to share their portion of the story. They become so real that you miss them once the book is closed, the door of fiction has been firmly latched, and we are left wondering what has become of those friends we were with just moments before.

Melancholy to the core, Richard Jury falls for yet another woman with a problem. She's being accused of murder, and good as he is, Chief Superitendent Jury is going to have a bit of a problem clearing her of the charge. He witnessed the shooting himself. But for some reason, he can't let it go. This woman would not have taken life had it not been for an overwhelmingly good reason. Jury digs through the deceptions and discovers a startling truth.

Melrose Plant and Sergeant Wiggins are there to lighten the mood. I must admit, I've quite a crush on Melrose, and he is given quite some space to shine in this novel. He even aquires a romantic assertiveness which surprises even him!

If you've read any of the series, this is one you cannot miss.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Family Secrets and Family Lies: A Good, Solid Mystery, December 6, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (Las Vegas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Old Silent (Mass Market Paperback)

This book displays all of Martha Grimes' strengths and weaknesses.

At the top of her list of strengths is the ability to plot. This is, after all, a mystery. Plots and sub-plots intertwine well. In a cozy country inn, Superintendent Jury witnesses a wife's murder of her husband. The apparently pointless crime intrigues Jury (and us), and we impatiently wait for him to unravel the family's history. There's an old kidnapping, the death of a runaway child, and infidelity. Most of all, there's a generous helping of secrets and lies.

The author also has an ability to portray three-dimensional characters that we come to care about. Even the relatively minor characters (including lots of animals like Cyril, the office cat) are well drawn.

On the weakness side of the ledger, an obscurity often creeps into the action, causing the reader to pause in order to wonder who is talking to whom and what the heck is happening. This is due, in large part, to the liberal use of British language and esoterica.

This book builds on the running set of characters of Jury, Wiggins, and Plant and their friends, enemies, and associates. If you like well-plotted mysteries, don't pass this one up.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Grimes' finest novels, June 13, 2000

By 

Gabor Lake (Berlin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Old Silent (Mass Market Paperback)

I have read all of Martha Grimes books so far and without doubt this one "The old Silent" is among the most mature and most fascinating of all her Inspector Jury novels.

It's much longer and more elaborate compared to the other novels and you can see that in the book. The characters have more time to develop themselves and we get a deeper insight in them, they become more and more real and the reader can develop a real interest in them. The surroundings, the environment is described so well you actually want to see those places once in your life. The plot is excellent, like in all Inspector Jury novels.

This is a great buy for everyone who likes the traditional who-dunnit-novels with plenty of secrets being discovered till the case is finally solved.

Martha Grimes should be careful though not to emphasize the main characters clichés too much. The inability of Jury to get into a relationship over all the books involving him is getting more and more annoying and tiring for the reader. This being one of the first novels, you wont have any problems with this book... I can highly recommend it.