Old Contemptibles (Mass Market Paperback)

by Martha Grimes (Author) "Feeling like Lambert Strether, Melrose Plant looked up over the edge of The Ambassadors, bought especially for the occasion, and toward the Adriatic..." (more)
Key Phrases: old contemptibles, Lady Cray, Helen Viner, Castle Howe (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Richard Jury, London police superintendent, is a suspect himself in Grimes's 11th mystery named after English pubs--this one in the Lake District of poets Wordsworth and Coleridge. Jury is considering marriage to recently met widow Jane Holdsworth at the moment her teenaged son Alex finds her dead, apparently a suicide. Alex runs away, and Jury, required, as a suspect, to remain in London, sends old friend Melrose Plant up to the Lakes to learn what he can about the wealthy Holdsworth family, among whom Jane's death is the fourth suspicious one. Eccentric, appealing characters hold this scattershot plot together. Best are vulnerable, brave and preternaturally bright youngsters Alex, who cheats at poker and the horses brilliantly, and 11-year-old orphan Millie Thale, who cooks at Holdsworth manse and broods over her own mother's unexpected death five years before. Equally vivid are two residents at a nearby rest home for the wealthy elderly: sly Adam Holdsworth, who holds the pursestrings that tie the tale together, and his elegant foxy friend, the perceptive and kleptomaniacal Lady Cray. While the villain's exposure and motivation are inadequately developed, the tale's dramatic conclusion, the lowering setting and its entertaining denizens provide full compensation.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal
YA-- Superintendent Richard Jury, of Scotland Yard fame, is back, but this time he is the suspect as well as the investigator of a murder. To the amazement of his lifelong friends, Jury falls rapidly in love with a widow, Jane Holdsworth, and plans a proposal of marriage. Her shocking death from a barbiturate overdose is ruled a suicide by the police, but neither Jury nor Jane's son Alex believes it. The superintendent's friend Melrose Plant infiltrates the Holdsworth household under the guise of a cataloging librarian in order to investigate the all-too-frequent "accidents" that plague them. The family members are introduced with humor and mystery as readers try to unravel the truth of the Holdsworths' fortune and Jane's death. A treat for all of Grimes's fans.
- Katherine Fitch, Jefferson Sci-Tech, Alexandria, VA
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; First edition (January 22, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345374568
• ISBN-13: 978-0345374561
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #596,030 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 11 in The Richard Jury Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unusual, June 18, 2006

By	josey "josephinereader" (College Station, TX United States) - See all my reviews

I've tried to start this book about ten times before I got over the hump. This book has an interesting plot along with fascinating charachters but there are many parts where you snooze off and then it becomes rather fast paced again.

Also there are a few things in the story that are confusing. Why did the doctor kill Millie's mother? It says she did but I couldn't figure out a reason for why. Also the ending is quite far fetched compared to the rest of the book.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too many plot shifts, June 19, 2005

By	Fred Camfield (Vicksburg, MS USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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

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.

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than most in this series, November 16, 2008

By	Michael K. Smith (Gonzales, Louisiana) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Old Contemptibles (A Richard Jury Novel) (Paperback)

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?