Within the Fringe - An Autobiography [Import] [Paperback]

Anonymous (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 563 pages
• Publisher: Charter; New Ed edition (1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747251347
• ISBN-13: 978-0747251347
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,320,541 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.