Customer Reviews

The Stargazey

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is one of my favorite Grimes mysteries. And I must give all the kudos to Melrose Plant in this one. He practically solves everything single-handedly while Jury wanders around in a fog of loneliness, depression and pain. If he falls for another wrong woman, I am going to scream!!! His personal problems so overwhelm him in this one, he can't even figure out why the dead woman and his mystery woman look alike. This, to me, was quite obvious and I usually never solve any part of mysteries before the author decides to explain. Of course, I didn't have it ALL figured out, but the mysterious look-a-likes, yes. Anyway, this book is Melrose's chance to really shine as a detective which is fine with me as I like him almost better than Jury. The mystery kept me turning the pages and I like the way Martha Grimes ties it all together. As always her characters are finely drawn and interesting. Not only is there the regular mystery, but there remains the mystery of the all the protagonists' personal lives that captivated me. In the last few books and especially in Stargazey, Jury seems to be building up to some big explosion or implosion. He seems to be so isolated and lonely, especially in Stargazey. This book really leaves him in a fog. I can't wait for the next one because I really hope that Jury and his blond temptress finally get together. And I really need to know what's up with Viv-Viv, as Trueblood irritatingly calls her. Does she or doesn't she care for Melrose? And if that didn't complicate things, Melrose seems to have something going with Beatrice, a wonderful, zany character, who compliments his fun side well. Maybe it IS time for Vivian to marry Count Dracula and disappear to Italy once and for all. Ms. Grimes, I await on pins and needles.

I'm in love with Grimes' cast of characters, but maybe not as in love with them as Grimes is. An appearance by every one of them in this latest Jury novel was gratuitous at best. Carol-Anne, Mrs. Wasserman, Racer, Fiona, Agatha, and most especially the cameo appearance of Vivian ("Melrose, what have they done to you!" exit left) seemed contrived. Also, we all know by now that Melrose has relinquished his many titles, so do we need to be told in every chapter? Especially since he doesn't seem averse to using them in this story. Ah, the story. Just a little far out, isn't it? Sounds like a twist on a real old story...Will Jury come out of his funk and find true love? Will Vivian recover from the Italian disease and come back to be the proper Britisher she really is? Maybe Grimes knows what she's doing after all, 'cause the answers to those questions will compel me to read the next book!

I loved this book - can't understand a couple of reviewers who didn't. Maybe the coincidence with the identical looking women was a bit far-fetched, but what of it? I think Martha Grimes has a great sense of humour - she had me chuckling my way through the book! And I absolutely adore Melrose Plant - except I wish he still had his titles, especially when most of the people around him still use them! I just wish Jury would stop falling for women who end up dead a chapter later. Also, what's the go with Vivian? Is she secretly in love with Melrose or Jury or am I reading too much into it? Anyway, I hope Martha Grimes keeps writing this series - I absolutely loved this book and I'll be waiting anxiously for further ones.

Martha Grimes weaves a foggy London day out of simple words. Description and the subtle development of mood are her forte. Many reviewers have sketched a quick synopsis of the plot in The Stargazey, but the plot is not the thing here. Instead, look at the way she tantalizes you to read on with little teasers. Did Melrose fan the sheets with Bea Slocum? What would Carole Anne and Richard moved onto if the neighbor hadn't come home? These delights are interspersed with comic vignettes of Long Piddleton and the Cripps family and how about that Vivian coming unglued?

It seems to me that the fun of Martha Grimes and the Richard Jury mysteries is the character development colored in over time with small details. Like fondly retold family stories, each book builds on these relationships. Nibble on a book or feast on the entire series. Bon Appetit!

Do you like classic writing, British style, and a compelling story? Read "The Stargazey: A Richard Jury Mystery," which was my introduction to both "Jury" and Martha Grimes. Do you quickly tire of repetitive foul language, indiscriminate sex, and gore as a substitute for high quality reading? Then this is for you. Grimes creates believeable modern-day characters with all the humor, angst, and variable emotions that we all carry, then writes with a quality reminiscent of Wilke Collin's "Woman In White." A mystery that respects the reader's intelligence, Grimes plays no "mind games" with the reader. A mysterious incident in modern-day St. Petersburg, Russia, culminating in murder, launches a mystery that is not fully resolved until the end. You get to piece it all together with Jury and his cohort Lord Ardry as they explore various leads in the world of art, with cagey suspects of uppercrust, lowercrust, and even "sassy-girl-child" variety, all to solve the mystery of a woman on a bus--one who closely resembles a second murder victim found in one of London's best-kept secret gardens. The strands are woven, twisted, and pulled, until finally the delicate tapestry of a serial murderer is spun. Don't miss this ride through local pubs, a high class British "Men's Club", avant gard art studios and their avant gard family-ownerships, clues from Russia, Paris, Brussels, and points far-removed, to uncover more than one family secret.

Do you like classic writing, British style, and a compelling story? Read "The Stargazey: A Richard Jury Mystery," which was my introduction to both "Jury" and Martha Grimes. Do you quickly tire of repetitive foul language, indiscriminate sex, and gore as a substitute for high quality reading? Then this is for you. Grimes creates believeable modern-day characters with all the humor, angst, and variable emotions that we all carry, then writes with a quality reminiscent of Wilke Collin's "Woman In White." A mystery that respects the reader's intelligence, Grimes plays no "mind games" with the reader. A mysterious incident in modern-day St. Petersburg, Russia, culminating in murder, launches a mystery that is not fully resolved until the end. You get to piece it all together with Jury and his cohort Lord Ardry as they explore various leads in the world of art, with cagey suspects of uppercrust, lowercrust, and even "sassy-girl-child" variety, all to solve the mystery of a woman on a bus--one who closely resembles a second murder victim found in one of London's best-kept secret gardens. The strands are woven, twisted, and pulled, until finally the delicate tapestry of a serial murderer is spun. Don't miss this ride through local pubs, a high class British "Men's Club", avant gard art studios and their avant gard family-ownerships, clues from Russia, Paris, Brussels, and points far-removed, to uncover more than one family secret.

Martha Grimes is a very good writer who has created some marvelous stock characters. Her books veer effortlessly from the sensitively realistic into the humorously absurd.

I enjoyed the book immensely, and I think its one of the better in the series (even if she sometimes is better in a strictly literary sense in her non-Jury books).

In London, Richard Jury, being bored, rides a double decker bus to pass time. Things become a bit interesting when a woman enters, leaves, and reenters the bus. When she finally gets off for the last time, a whimsical Richard decides to follow her for the hell of it. He tracks behind her until she enters Fulham Palace.

The next day, Richard learns that a woman, fitting the description of his fellow passenger frrm the day before, has been found murdered at Fulham. He wonders if he could have done something different, like following her onto the grounds of the palace, in order to have saved her life. Feeling a bit guilty, he begins to investigate, with the help of his eccentric friends, what happened to this woman.

<PThe story line is convoluted and the conclusion of some the sub-plots unacceptable. So why is THE STARGAZEY a fun to read mystery? This is simple. Like all the Jury novels that preceded this one, this who-done-it is loaded with warm, endearing eccentric beings who bring to life a London rarely depicted in fiction. Though not for anyone who loves a straight forward mystery, this novel will be enjoyed by those readers who want to take a whimsical trip to the nearest pub for this wintry brew.

Harriet Klausner

Martha Grimes has come up with a complicated plot that involves art theft and murder. The story begins in St, Petersburg, Russia, and the reader starts out knowing more than the detectives, who take an awfully long time to figure out that is where all the threads lead. Of course, the various guesses, leads, and red herrings all make for entertaining reading...as do the various comments on the art world. However, the book suffers from an overabundance of characters.

Grimes has brought forward a great many characters from the previous 14 books which "star" Superintendent Richard Jury. There are also many references to previous cases and incidents, many of which readers may not be able to recall clearly, if--like me-they have read the books over the span of many years. One wishes for more memory joggers-maybe even footnotes!

This seems to be a hazard in mystery series, and some authors are better than others at capturing readers who enter the series somewhere other than at the beginning. I think anyone who picks up this book without having read the ones that came before may feel like he or she is just "not in the club."

Who cares what the mystery is, or whodunnit, I just want more-more-more of Martha Grimes' characters. I've savored all of her books, for many years, primarily because I love her quirky characters and places. Poor, bleak Richard Jury, the psychosomatically ill deputy, Cyril the cat with 99 lives, the eccentric neighbor Carol, the wicked antiques dealer, Vivian and her vampire count, the very dirty London slum family, but oh.... Melrose. Be still my beating heart. I have a serious crush on Melrose. Martha, could you, in your next installment, find it in your heart to set us up on a blind date?