Rainbow's End [Hardcover]

Martha Grimes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 30, 1995

"Once again, Grimes hooks her readers with the engaging Jury and friends and with skillful tucking of hints into unexpected corners."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
When three women die of "natural causes" in London and the West Country, there appears to be no connection--or reason to suspect foul play. But Scotland Yard Superintendent Richard Jury has other ideas, and before long he's following his keen police instincts all the way to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
There, in the company of a brooding thirteen-year-old girl and her pet coyote, he mingles with an odd assortment of characters and tangles with a twisted plot that stretches from England to the American Southwest. And while his good friend Melrose Plant pursues inquiries in London, Jury delves deeper into the more baffling elements of the case, discovering firsthand what the guide books don't tell you: that the Land of Enchantment is also a landscape ripe with tragedy, treachery, and murder.
"RAINBOW'S END is itself a literary rainbow. It's the skillful blend of mystery and comedy and pathos, a Martha Grimes trademark, that makes this visit with Richard Jury and company so memorable and satisfying."
--Mostly Murder


From the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set only a few weeks after the end of The Horse You Came In On, the newest case for Scotland Yard Chief Superintendent Richard Jury wings him back to the U.S. Jury is initially inclined to dismiss the similarities among three sudden deaths: those of two British women, one in Exeter Cathedral and the other in the Tate Gallery, and that of Angela Hope, a Santa Fe silversmith visiting Salisbury's Old Sarum. But he revises his opinion when he learns that all three women had recently been in New Mexico at the same time. Abandoning the hypochondriacal Sgt. Wiggins to the delicious pleasures of a hospital stay, Jury heads to the States, delegating to his civilian sleuthing partner, Melrose Plant, the task of tracking down Lady Jenny Kennington-who has vanished just when the local Stratford-on-Avon police have reasons to find her. In Santa Fe, clues are thin, although Mary Dark Hope, the American victim's 13-year-old sister-whose best friend is a nearly tame coyote-is convinced that her sister was murdered. Shrewdness (and a smidgen of serendipity) finally nudge Jury toward real insight-and the realization that another life is in danger. Once again, Grimes hooks her readers with the engaging Jury and friends, and with skillful tucking of hints into unexpected corners. 75,000 first printing; Mystery Guild selection; Literary Guild alternate.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

It's hard to say what makes Grimes' mysteries such a delight. Maybe it's her hilariously eccentric characters or her imaginative and cleverly convoluted plots. Maybe it's her wry humor or her imaginative turns of phrase, or perhaps it's the intelligence and humanity of her stories. Whatever the answer, Grimes is one of the outstanding mystery writers working today. Her latest book reconfirms her rightful place among the superstars. A young American woman is found dead on the grounds of England's historic Old Serum, obviously the victim of foul play. Enter Scotland Yard Superintendent Richard Jury and his colleague Brian Macalvie, who soon convinces a skeptical Jury that the young woman's death is connected to two other recent deaths, one in London's Tate Gallery, one in a remote parish church. The tenuous connection among the three, Macalvie concludes, is America, where one of the victims lived and the other two had recently visited. Of course, once Jury's interest is piqued, he's relentless, and nothing will suffice but a trip to the U.S. to see what's what--as if Jury doesn't have enough on his hands already, what with searching for his missing friend Jenny Kennington, finding he has a dog--albeit a well-mannered one--occupying the apartment above his, and trying desperately to give up smoking. Vintage Grimes, which means top-notch reading. Emily Melton

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 383 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (May 30, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679441883
• ISBN-13: 978-0679441885
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,022,573 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

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Performance by Tim Curry!, November 27, 1999

By 

Nancy A. Fox (West Covina, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rainbow's End (Audio Cassette)

This mystery, another in the installment of books featuring Inspector Richard Jury is quite fascinating. What could an American woman found dead at Old Sarum, a wealthy British lady found dead at the Tate Gallery in London and a second English woman found dead at Exeter Cathedral have in common? At first glance not much, except that they're all dead.

Inspector Jury discovers connections to New Mexico, and travels there to discover what else connected these women. Without giving any more of the plot away, it's quite an interesting story with a few interesting twists and turns.

Since I listened to the abridged audio cassette, I must mention Tim Curry's delightful performance. He gives distinct vocal characterizations to all the players in the story, and keeps you totally engrossed in the story. The only complaint I have is that a secondary plotline is not abridged very well, and its wrap up leaves a lot to be desired.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Long on words, short on substance, December 25, 2000

By 

T. Sunderland (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rainbow's End (Mass Market Paperback)

I've read the majority of Grimes' books, including several non-Jury ones and, actually I was quite disappointed with this one. It's long (over 400 pages) and tends to plod meandering between Jury, Plant, Wiggins, the inimitable Cripse family, but to me never really goes anywhere to adding to the story or, importantly, its resolution - more little vignettes of peoples lives rather than mystery tale. Naturally, there's Jury's ongoing personal dilemma of being constantly without female companionship and far too much time wasted on his self-analysis of quitting smoking, while other characters bog down the story with equal non-relevant issues.

The crimes are resolved over the final ten or so pages, with the previous text not really factoring into the story at all. I would have to say, not one of Ms. Grimes better efforts.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars not her best, October 12, 2004

By 

Toledo "a reader" (northwest USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rainbow's End (Mass Market Paperback)

I discovered Martha Grimes and her Richard Jury series about three years ago and have been slowly working my way through. Generally speaking, they are terrific, interesting reads, with a lovable, eccentric cast of recurring characters that makes you look forward to picking up the next one in the series. But this one is a disappointment, the first time in the series I've felt that. Jury heads off to New Mexico, of all places, to solve a trio of tenuously related murders. Usually when you finish a well-written mystery, you can look back and see how all the disparate elements fit together to solve the murder, but in this one, you get done, and you think back to this scene or that scene and you think, "Huh?? What was that doing in there?" And worst of all, I figured out who the murderer was about halfway through without even really trying-- which makes you think that Grimes wasn't really trying. :-)

If you're new to Martha Grimes definitely don't start with this one. In fact, I might even recommend that you skip it. She seems bored with her formula in this one. She should have taken a break and written a novel about New Mexico that had nothing to do with Jury instead of this lame effort. I still have half a dozen or so to read to catch up with the ones that she's publishing now, I sincerely hope this isn't a trend.