reviews
Feb 18, 2008
sage
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Jan 04, 2010
Monica
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The author writes well, with the ability to evoke characters and descriptions of scenery that draw the reader into the story. So why don't I like this book? There are three reasons.
First, many of the characters, even some of the principle characters don't seem very likable to me. That may be because I was given this book as a gift, and I haven't read most of the prior books. Jury's friends seem so stilted. A great deal of their behavior and dialog makes little sense to me on a perso More...
First, many of the characters, even some of the principle characters don't seem very likable to me. That may be because I was given this book as a gift, and I haven't read most of the prior books. Jury's friends seem so stilted. A great deal of their behavior and dialog makes little sense to me on a perso More...
Jun 09, 2009
Sandie
rated it:
Quantum Mechanics, space time continuum, the superstring theory and character conversations involving Godel’s incompleteness theorem , parallel universes and Niels Bohr’s theory of complementarity------all seem to figure in several modern day mysteries. Each has been explored and explained in novels such as British author Robert Goddard’s Out of the Sun and The Oxford Murders by Argentine author Guillermo Martinez. Now, American author Margaret Grimes weighs in with The Old Wine Shades, a book
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Nov 16, 2011
Kandice
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Dec 29, 2009
Kay
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It was interesting to me, after reading this book, to check out some reviews. I was really drawn into the story, and found it intriguing. There were some unexpected plot twists and suspense near the end, and some fascinating conversations throughout. I did like the interactions between Richard Jury and other characters, although there are an awful lot of characters in his circle of friends to keep track of.
Parts of the story were a bit repetitive . . . but in all it was a keeper. More...
Parts of the story were a bit repetitive . . . but in all it was a keeper. More...
Dec 26, 2011
Miranda
rated it: 
WOW! What a good book.I expected to read it as a fluffy mystery (which it is) but it also comments on the idea of story as important to life and about stringtheory and Shroedinger's cat. So it goes a bit beyond your average British mystery.
Here are a few quotes about story:
"We always dream a story" referring to the fact that our brain makes up a story for the random images are mind flings are way when asleep. As bizarre as they are they are all incorporated into More...
Here are a few quotes about story:
"We always dream a story" referring to the fact that our brain makes up a story for the random images are mind flings are way when asleep. As bizarre as they are they are all incorporated into More...
May 24, 2009
Sarah
rated it:
Seriously...what is with all the quantum mechanics showing up in stories lately? Is there a sudden interest in space-time continuum theory that I’ve missed the boat on? Every time it comes up in a story, I have to have the rudimentary principles explained to me....AGAIN. Trust me....I get it by now. The only author who has successfully used quantum mechanics in their plot without completely overwhelming the story is Dean Koontz in From the Corner of His Eye. Martha Grimes...not so much. I would
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May 11, 2009
Janet
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I had a very hard time crediting the cat and dog with as much intelligence as Grimes gave them. In all her other books, animals acted like animals. But in this book, Mungo and Shoe (the cat) hold conversations, are capable of reasoning, and Mungo might even be psychic. I enjoy reading books with human-acting animals, but not when it’s so far out of the author’s previous style. One of the devices Grimes uses is to give one of her characters a fascination with something (gardening, physics, antiqu
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Sep 05, 2009
Thomas
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This book was a great disappointment. It starts off slowly, which is okay, because you are introduced to the setting and the characters. As the book progresses, it becomes quite interesting and you start to form an idea of what is going on. Well before the end of the book, you know who the culprit is, as do the characters in the novel. This turns the book into a tale of proving that the culprit did the deed. All the way up to the very end of the book you are waiting to discover how the vill
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May 24, 2010
Sarah
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usually I love the books in this series (even though reading 20+ over the last couple years has sort of made them bleed together in my mind), but i really couldn't get into this one. i think this was partly because the first 2/3rds of the book were all exposition and no action...and i am admittedly not a math/science person so all the talk of phsyics made my eyes glaze over...and don't even get me started on the parts where she was writing from the dogs point of view. the whole thing just felt r
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Dec 18, 2008
Jocelyn
rated it:
I'm just about done listening to this book in my car. I had given up reading Richard Jury mystery novels but don't mind listening to one. I really liked the first one but then it was all downhill from there. Martha Grimes definitely has a formula. It involves quirky characters, a bizarre premise, locations in a pub, some kind of pet, one or two precocious young orphans in distress, and somewhere in the middle of the book Jury thinks, I'm missing something! After a few books, the characters began
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Apr 29, 2011
Lynne-marie
rated it:
"You're winding me up, right?" asks Richard Jury of Harry Johnson. But Harry just suavely goes on telling the story. Until the pigeon, er dog that is to say, comes home to roost and Jury's made to look the fool and worse unbelievable when there's a murder at hand. This is one of Grimes most masterly fictions simply because it is spun out of sheer implausibility and the ill will of an evil man. Seldom have all the laws of physics and mathematics been so blithely thrown up into the ai
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Dec 13, 2010
Shirley
rated it:
This was my first Martha Grimes and I loved it.
I hope a future book tells me what happened to the characters.
I LOVED Mungo and I think my Jasper has that tanacity. Jasper has a cat named Ghost to terrorize and vice versa.
Ghost leads Jasper around the house with the hopes of the licks and cuddles they share once in awhile.
I adore the idea of a rogue cop who uses it wisely. He can't do much to help if he were to be fired from his position.
Now I M More...
I hope a future book tells me what happened to the characters.
I LOVED Mungo and I think my Jasper has that tanacity. Jasper has a cat named Ghost to terrorize and vice versa.
Ghost leads Jasper around the house with the hopes of the licks and cuddles they share once in awhile.
I adore the idea of a rogue cop who uses it wisely. He can't do much to help if he were to be fired from his position.
Now I M More...
Dec 08, 2008
Mark
rated it:
Rather disappointing. I've come to expect better from Ms. Grimes. I couldn't help thinking this effort must have been contractually required. A rather elaborate "the dog came back" story forms the basis of the mystery, but the mystery was neither funny, nor particularly engaging. Completely lacking in any kind of resolution, CID Jury seems to have been outsmarted. We never find out the "how" or the "why" of an elaborate setup for a murder and the murderer appears to
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Jul 31, 2008
Roger W.
rated it:
Do you read mysteries as I do occasionally? My wife loves them and I pick one of hers up now and again. There are two authors I especially enjoy in this genre, Elizabeth George and she of this book, Martha Grimes.
Ms George seems to have a very keen knowledge of London; her descriptions take one right into the place. I think you could follow along on a map. Then too her characters are quite compelling - you definitely want to know what's going to happen with these people in the More...
Ms George seems to have a very keen knowledge of London; her descriptions take one right into the place. I think you could follow along on a map. Then too her characters are quite compelling - you definitely want to know what's going to happen with these people in the More...
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Dec 06, 2010
Spuddie
rated it:
#20 Chief Supt. Richard Jury mystery set in the UK. This story sucked me in right from the beginning, with a man in a pub telling Jury a story about his friend whose wife, autistic son and dog disappeared into thin air about nine months previously. They had made a trip to a small town in Surrey that had a good private school for autistic children, and where they hoped to move if things checked out well.
While she looked at one cottage she was scheduled to view, the estate agent state More...
While she looked at one cottage she was scheduled to view, the estate agent state More...
Nov 10, 2010
Nancy
rated it:
I listened to this Richard Jury mystery in the car. It was a little hard to follow since I hadn't read any of the Jury books before, but I enjoyed it in spite of all the twists and turns. Jury almost met his match in this book, and Melrose, the amateur sleuth who helps Jury in other novels, isn't much help. Children often play a big role in her mysteries, and the boy and girl in this story are quite resourceful. I especially enjoyed them ,and,of course, the brilliant dog was my favorite char
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Mar 03, 2010
Liz
rated it:
Hm. What to say? As Randy would say "It was just okay for me". Probably not the typical Jury mystery for Grimes but I applaud her effort. I suppose by book 20 you have to be getting bored with the whole business of who dunnits.
Well, I would not recommend this book. Much rather read a cheesy Cornwell book. I felt compelled to finish this book only because I'd invested just enough time in reading it. Oh well. I have another Jury mystery on the shelf. Should I give Grimes anoth
Well, I would not recommend this book. Much rather read a cheesy Cornwell book. I felt compelled to finish this book only because I'd invested just enough time in reading it. Oh well. I have another Jury mystery on the shelf. Should I give Grimes anoth
Dec 19, 2009
Mary
rated it:
I listened to the audio CD of this one, and was captivated from the start. The reader was excellent, and the story was fascinating from the start. The ending was a little flimsy; I hope we will meet Harry again in a later story, and that things will end differently.
I had not read Grimes in several years, but was looking for something to listen to when I picked this up. I may go back to her now.
I had not read Grimes in several years, but was looking for something to listen to when I picked this up. I may go back to her now.
May 31, 2010
Sharonm
rated it:
This is about as good as a mystery gets. A very well constructed and complicated plot, laugh-out-loud funny at times, a great dog, a flawed protagonist, some philosophy. Richard Jury is in a bar when a man comes in and tells him a story about a disappearance, setting him off on an investigation both cerebral and material. I’ll definitely read others from this series. Book on CD.
Jan 14, 2012
Joanna
rated it:
This was one of the dumbest mysteries I have ever read. Why did I even finish it? Good question. I just kept thinking it would have to get better. And for a few pages, about 3/4 of the way through, it did, giving me hope. But than it sank back into total silliness. Actually, I listened to the audio book while doing an interesting project. I never would have gotten past page 10 if reading with my eyes instead of ears.
Dec 07, 2010
Linda
rated it:
My first Richard Jury mystery...and I will be reading many other Martha Grimes books! Although the setting is England, and the Detective is Scotland Yard, Ms. Grimes is an American! I was surprised to learn this, since it is veddy, veddy English! Listened to it on CDs purchased from a used book store. Made every drive (even just to the market) a real treat!
Nov 11, 2009
Ann
rated it:
An unusual entry in the Richard Jury series seems to have incensed many readers and left them wondering what Martha Grimes was thinking. I was totally taken by surprise since I found it a clever, fascinating, and well plotted story worthy of the series. The ending may not be what readers were looking for but it was probably more realistic than we would like to think.
Jul 05, 2011
Marge
rated it:
The best part of this story was Mungo, the dog, and what he was thinking and doing. Also unusual that the mystery was not solved at the end of the book, as usual. We'll probably hear more in the next book. Quantum physics and the superstring theory played a part in this book and it made me think of The Big Bang on TV.
Apr 10, 2011
Susan
rated it:
Whether or not someone likes this book will probably depend on how they view the first 200+ pages, in which Richard Jury talks and talks to a man he met in a bar about a story the man tells and quantum physics. Those pages and that story are very important, although not in the way it first appears. The author took a big risk with that long, slow beginning but for this reader, the construct worked.
Oct 30, 2011
Crys
rated it:
Alternately irritating and compelling... I really really really don't like the writing style, but the characters are terrific. Will read the whole series, I suspect, just to keep up with what they're doing, but I don't expect to enjoy it all that much. Crazy, right? Oh, and really...? The dog?
Dec 31, 2010
Lynn
rated it:
One of my favorite mysteries. Detective Richard Jury strikes up a friendship with a man in a bar who tells him the story of a friend whose wife, son, and dog disappeared. And the dog came back. Toward the end there are a few paragraphs from the dog's perspective, which are really good.
Feb 02, 2009
Mary Pat
rated it:
Martha Grimes is one of my favorite escapist writers, always good for a cold winter night. I love the familiar characters, the comic and serious mix that Grimes creates. I've read 'em all, and I admit this one's twists really threw me -- like Jury, I fell for the whole thing.
Jan 26, 2008
David
rated it:
Grimes has a nice voice, with well-developed characters and an interesting story line that somehow goes astray.
A man sits next to Richard Jury in The Old Wine Shades, a local wine bar, and proceeds to tell him a fantastical story about the disappearance of a mother, son and dog, with the father so upset he closets himself into a sanitarium. Then, according to the man's story, after nine months the dog comes back.
Jury, on a kind of supersuspension, uses his personal time More...
A man sits next to Richard Jury in The Old Wine Shades, a local wine bar, and proceeds to tell him a fantastical story about the disappearance of a mother, son and dog, with the father so upset he closets himself into a sanitarium. Then, according to the man's story, after nine months the dog comes back.
Jury, on a kind of supersuspension, uses his personal time More...
Jun 22, 2008
Beth
rated it:
It's like meeting an old friend again --- you don't rate the number of gray hairs or wrinkles, the crows' feet or the age spots, you're just glad to see her again. In this Richard Jury mystery, the whole cast appears, Melrose Plant (who used to be an Earl) and his aunt, Vivien, Carol Anne, Jury himself, of course, Trueblood and Wren, etc. Additionally there are the Grime's specials: interesting kids and great animals --- including a dog named Mungo who hides a kitten named Elf from the kitten
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