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Richard Jury #26
The Red Queen
A sudden murder in an English village pub sets off the twenty-sixth novel in the bestselling series starring superintendent Richard Jury, from bestselling author Martha Grimes, still “one of the most fascinating mystery writers today” (Houston Chronicle)
One calm night in Twickenham, a businessman named Tom Treadnor is shot off his barstool at The Queen pub. Superintendent Richard Jury is called in to investigate, and quickly realizes that everyone in Treadnor’s life – from his widow, Alice, to the staff at his manor, to his business partner had differing opinions of him. And to complicate things further, Jury has just happened upon a photo in a newspaper of a man in the United States, who is a dead ringer for Treadnor.
Meanwhile, Wiggins, Jury’s partner at New Scotland Yard, becomes sidetracked by an investigation of his His sister, missing for years and presumed dead, has just sent a postcard to their mother. When Wiggins takes off in search of his sister, the two investigations begin to converge.
Funny, eccentric, and fueled by Richard Jury’s talent for seeing clues in the most unlikely places, The Red Queen is a welcome return to a classic character and an exciting addition to a series that has been called “delightful, surprising, even magical” (Washington Post).
One calm night in Twickenham, a businessman named Tom Treadnor is shot off his barstool at The Queen pub. Superintendent Richard Jury is called in to investigate, and quickly realizes that everyone in Treadnor’s life – from his widow, Alice, to the staff at his manor, to his business partner had differing opinions of him. And to complicate things further, Jury has just happened upon a photo in a newspaper of a man in the United States, who is a dead ringer for Treadnor.
Meanwhile, Wiggins, Jury’s partner at New Scotland Yard, becomes sidetracked by an investigation of his His sister, missing for years and presumed dead, has just sent a postcard to their mother. When Wiggins takes off in search of his sister, the two investigations begin to converge.
Funny, eccentric, and fueled by Richard Jury’s talent for seeing clues in the most unlikely places, The Red Queen is a welcome return to a classic character and an exciting addition to a series that has been called “delightful, surprising, even magical” (Washington Post).
255 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 1, 2025
355 people are currently reading
3650 people want to read
About the author
Martha Grimes
113 books1,457 followersMartha Grimes is an American author of detective fiction.
She was born May 2 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to D.W., a city solicitor, and to June, who owned the Mountain Lake Hotel in Western Maryland where Martha and her brother spent much of their childhood. Grimes earned her B.A. and M.A. at the University of Maryland. She has taught at the University of Iowa, Frostburg State University, and Montgomery College.
Grimes is best known for her series of novels featuring Richard Jury, an inspector with Scotland Yard, and his friend Melrose Plant, a British aristocrat who has given up his titles. Each of the Jury mysteries is named after a pub. Her page-turning, character-driven tales fall into the mystery subdivision of "cozies." In 1983, Grimes received the Nero Wolfe Award for best mystery of the year for The Anodyne Necklace.
The background to Hotel Paradise is drawn on the experiences she enjoyed spending summers at her mother's hotel in Mountain Lake Park, Maryland. One of the characters, Mr Britain, is drawn on Britten Leo Martin, Sr, who then ran Marti's Store which he owned with his father and brother. Martin's Store is accessible by a short walkway from Mountain Lake, the site of the former Hotel, which was torn down in 1967.
She splits her time between homes in Washington, D.C., and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
She was born May 2 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to D.W., a city solicitor, and to June, who owned the Mountain Lake Hotel in Western Maryland where Martha and her brother spent much of their childhood. Grimes earned her B.A. and M.A. at the University of Maryland. She has taught at the University of Iowa, Frostburg State University, and Montgomery College.
Grimes is best known for her series of novels featuring Richard Jury, an inspector with Scotland Yard, and his friend Melrose Plant, a British aristocrat who has given up his titles. Each of the Jury mysteries is named after a pub. Her page-turning, character-driven tales fall into the mystery subdivision of "cozies." In 1983, Grimes received the Nero Wolfe Award for best mystery of the year for The Anodyne Necklace.
The background to Hotel Paradise is drawn on the experiences she enjoyed spending summers at her mother's hotel in Mountain Lake Park, Maryland. One of the characters, Mr Britain, is drawn on Britten Leo Martin, Sr, who then ran Marti's Store which he owned with his father and brother. Martin's Store is accessible by a short walkway from Mountain Lake, the site of the former Hotel, which was torn down in 1967.
She splits her time between homes in Washington, D.C., and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 336 reviews
March 6, 2025
While THE RED QUEEN presents itself as a mystery novel, it ultimately fails to deliver the compelling detective fiction elements a reader of Grimes' expects. The narrative offers little insight into Jury’s investigative process, and I don't understand his fascination with the "widow." His decision to send Melrose undercover as a Stable Master is pointless and adds nothing to the plot. Similarly, the discovery of a doppelgänger —a potentially intriguing development—is never thoroughly explored, as the supposed twin remains an abstract figure, absent from the actual investigation.
Compounding these narrative weaknesses is the introduction of an implausible subplot concerning Higgins’ long-lost sister. His brief and perfunctory search with Macalvie lacks emotional depth and investigative rigor, rendering the subplot both unconvincing and extraneous. Additionally, the inclusion of a scene involving the Long Piddleton characters naming a goat and Jury's rescuing of piglets serves no apparent purpose within the context of the mystery, further contributing to the novelistic disarray. The resolution, when it finally arrives, fails to provide a coherent or rewarding conclusion.
Ultimately THE RED QUEEN struggles to recapture the narrative depth and intellectual engagement characteristic of earlier installments in the RICHARD JURY series. Its reliance on underdeveloped plot threads, tangential diversions, and a lackluster resolution results in a novel that falls short of the expectations set by its predecessors.
Compounding these narrative weaknesses is the introduction of an implausible subplot concerning Higgins’ long-lost sister. His brief and perfunctory search with Macalvie lacks emotional depth and investigative rigor, rendering the subplot both unconvincing and extraneous. Additionally, the inclusion of a scene involving the Long Piddleton characters naming a goat and Jury's rescuing of piglets serves no apparent purpose within the context of the mystery, further contributing to the novelistic disarray. The resolution, when it finally arrives, fails to provide a coherent or rewarding conclusion.
Ultimately THE RED QUEEN struggles to recapture the narrative depth and intellectual engagement characteristic of earlier installments in the RICHARD JURY series. Its reliance on underdeveloped plot threads, tangential diversions, and a lackluster resolution results in a novel that falls short of the expectations set by its predecessors.
July 4, 2025
Disappointing
I have always loved this series but this book seemed to leave out SO MUCH detail. I kept flipping back because I thought I must have skipped a page or 10. It just didn't really make sense. What was the point of Melrose being the stable master? He learned nothing or if he did if was so abstract as to be meaningless. Someone paid Lederer to be at the bar? How did Alice get in touch with him? Where exactly was Tom? Did anyone actually get the money?
It seemed like a rough draft.
I have always loved this series but this book seemed to leave out SO MUCH detail. I kept flipping back because I thought I must have skipped a page or 10. It just didn't really make sense. What was the point of Melrose being the stable master? He learned nothing or if he did if was so abstract as to be meaningless. Someone paid Lederer to be at the bar? How did Alice get in touch with him? Where exactly was Tom? Did anyone actually get the money?
It seemed like a rough draft.
July 4, 2025
Awful and Icomprehensible
This latest Richard Jury is nothing like earlier books. At times I had to read and reread passages as they were practically nonsensical. Did an AI chatbot write this and someone forgot to proof read it? Elements from past Jury mysteries are trotted out for no apparent reason, doing nothing to advance the narrative but just check a box. Yep, there’s the gang sat at the pub. Yep, there’s the cat. Yep, Melrose is hired to do a job he has no qualifications for. Yep, there is a little kid and a dog. Sad really.
This latest Richard Jury is nothing like earlier books. At times I had to read and reread passages as they were practically nonsensical. Did an AI chatbot write this and someone forgot to proof read it? Elements from past Jury mysteries are trotted out for no apparent reason, doing nothing to advance the narrative but just check a box. Yep, there’s the gang sat at the pub. Yep, there’s the cat. Yep, Melrose is hired to do a job he has no qualifications for. Yep, there is a little kid and a dog. Sad really.
July 3, 2025
I am not convinced the pages in my copy are in the right order, or all the paragraphs meant to be deleted were. It's like reading someone's dream of a Richard Jury TV show.
March 3, 2025
I started reading the Richard Jury mysteries back in the early 1990’s, when I would go to Borders every Friday to browse their New Releases shelf and be rewarded with another journey to Long Piddleton and its cast of eccentric characters. The mysteries themselves, all named after real British pubs, were complex, well-written, and character driven. We were invested in the lives of the regulars, from neighbor Carole-Ann to Melrose Plant (and his scheming aunt) to perpetual hypochondriac Wiggins. These were old friends.
So I was looking forward to the latest Richard Jury mystery, “The Red Queen”. The last book was published over five years ago, “The Old Success”, and it was a bit of a disappointment. Was that a one-time slip? Unfortunately, no, the latest adventure continues (and hastens) the decline of this series, it is a disjointed mystery with little suspense, unnecessary scenes, and very little of our old characters.
The premise is interesting. Tom Treadnor, a wealthy businessman, is sitting at his usual barstool at “The Queen” pub, when someone shoots him through the window(!) without being noticed. Jury and Wiggins are called in (weak reasons, but still) and start their investigation. It soon becomes clear that no one had a really good impression of Treadnor, from his wife to his business partners to the servants. In fact, he was about to be divorced, so no lost tears.
Jury goes about the investigation, but there’s not much detail in the story about what he actually does, few interviews, no real forensics or anything really. He has Melrose go undercover as a Stable Master, but only for a scene or two and it doesn’t really contribute to the story, other than for a few laughs. Jury also sees a doppelganger of the dead man in a newspaper article, but no one seems to be able to track down this twin traveling in North America. Most of the action seems to take place off camera, so to speak, and we just hear about it later. So who really was killed at The Queen, and why?
Throw in a ridiculous plot about Higgins having a missing sister (this is the first time anyone is hearing about this!) that he spends a couple of days searching for with Macalvie. Also one quick scene with the Long Piddleton crew naming a goat and rescuing piglets, also nothing to do with the mystery. And finally a very rushed, unclear, and disappointing ending, and you have this short book that makes one long for the old series.
I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Grove Atlantic, Atlantic Monthly Press via NetGalley. Thank you!
So I was looking forward to the latest Richard Jury mystery, “The Red Queen”. The last book was published over five years ago, “The Old Success”, and it was a bit of a disappointment. Was that a one-time slip? Unfortunately, no, the latest adventure continues (and hastens) the decline of this series, it is a disjointed mystery with little suspense, unnecessary scenes, and very little of our old characters.
The premise is interesting. Tom Treadnor, a wealthy businessman, is sitting at his usual barstool at “The Queen” pub, when someone shoots him through the window(!) without being noticed. Jury and Wiggins are called in (weak reasons, but still) and start their investigation. It soon becomes clear that no one had a really good impression of Treadnor, from his wife to his business partners to the servants. In fact, he was about to be divorced, so no lost tears.
Jury goes about the investigation, but there’s not much detail in the story about what he actually does, few interviews, no real forensics or anything really. He has Melrose go undercover as a Stable Master, but only for a scene or two and it doesn’t really contribute to the story, other than for a few laughs. Jury also sees a doppelganger of the dead man in a newspaper article, but no one seems to be able to track down this twin traveling in North America. Most of the action seems to take place off camera, so to speak, and we just hear about it later. So who really was killed at The Queen, and why?
Throw in a ridiculous plot about Higgins having a missing sister (this is the first time anyone is hearing about this!) that he spends a couple of days searching for with Macalvie. Also one quick scene with the Long Piddleton crew naming a goat and rescuing piglets, also nothing to do with the mystery. And finally a very rushed, unclear, and disappointing ending, and you have this short book that makes one long for the old series.
I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Grove Atlantic, Atlantic Monthly Press via NetGalley. Thank you!
July 2, 2025
What has happened to Martha Grimes?
I have read the Richard Jury series for many years now, and was delighted to order this latest story. What a sad waste of money and time. The quirky characters have become charecatures, and the well plotted novels have become a word salad, neither tasty nor digestible. There's no plot here at all, just a series of vignettes to no point.
I have read the Richard Jury series for many years now, and was delighted to order this latest story. What a sad waste of money and time. The quirky characters have become charecatures, and the well plotted novels have become a word salad, neither tasty nor digestible. There's no plot here at all, just a series of vignettes to no point.
June 22, 2025
It has been awhile since I've read one of Marthat Grimes' Richard Jury novels so I was happy to pick up this new one. I enjoy the Jury character and his friends and the cases are interesting and diverse.
Description:
One calm night in Twickenham, a businessman named Tom Treadnor is shot off his barstool at The Queen pub. Superintendent Richard Jury is called in to investigate, and quickly realizes that everyone in Treadnor’s life – from his widow, Alice, to the staff at his manor, to his business partner had differing opinions of him. And to complicate things further, Jury has just happened upon a photo in a newspaper of a man in the United States, who is a dead ringer for Treadnor.
Meanwhile, Wiggins, Jury’s partner at New Scotland Yard, becomes sidetracked by an investigation of his His sister, missing for years and presumed dead, has just sent a postcard to their mother. When Wiggins takes off in search of his sister, the two investigations begin to converge.
My Thoughts:
This is a short book. The usual eccentric characters are all there and the banter between Jury and his friends is always fun. The murder has no suspects at first and seems unsolvable. Jury and team dig in and come up with a theory. Then, it seems to go off-track. Jury is dissuaded from fingering the prime suspect for some reason and I felt letdown. I didn't like the way this played out at all. Also, the scenario with the piglets was horrendous and I didn't see how it related to the story. Not my favorite book, for sure.
Thanks to Grove Atlantic | Atlantic Monthly Press through Netgalley for an advance copy.
Description:
One calm night in Twickenham, a businessman named Tom Treadnor is shot off his barstool at The Queen pub. Superintendent Richard Jury is called in to investigate, and quickly realizes that everyone in Treadnor’s life – from his widow, Alice, to the staff at his manor, to his business partner had differing opinions of him. And to complicate things further, Jury has just happened upon a photo in a newspaper of a man in the United States, who is a dead ringer for Treadnor.
Meanwhile, Wiggins, Jury’s partner at New Scotland Yard, becomes sidetracked by an investigation of his His sister, missing for years and presumed dead, has just sent a postcard to their mother. When Wiggins takes off in search of his sister, the two investigations begin to converge.
My Thoughts:
This is a short book. The usual eccentric characters are all there and the banter between Jury and his friends is always fun. The murder has no suspects at first and seems unsolvable. Jury and team dig in and come up with a theory. Then, it seems to go off-track. Jury is dissuaded from fingering the prime suspect for some reason and I felt letdown. I didn't like the way this played out at all. Also, the scenario with the piglets was horrendous and I didn't see how it related to the story. Not my favorite book, for sure.
Thanks to Grove Atlantic | Atlantic Monthly Press through Netgalley for an advance copy.
July 2, 2025
Poorly edited
Too many loose ends not explained by the end and generally just sloppy editing. Disappointing to someone who has enjoyed this series through the years
Too many loose ends not explained by the end and generally just sloppy editing. Disappointing to someone who has enjoyed this series through the years
July 13, 2025
It was really a disservice by Martha Grimes’ editor and publisher to allow this book to be published
June 26, 2025
*2.5 stars. I have read all of the books in this series featuring Superintendent Richard Jury and Sergeant Wiggins and enjoyed them, sharing them with my mother for many years. However I am sad to say this might have been one book too many for Ms Grimes who is now 94. The book is short, the plot very thin. The author makes use of the same old tried-and-true gimmicks throughout the story, such as Jury sending in his friend, Melrose Plant, with the thinnest of excuses to spy on his suspect. And what really does that accomplish besides some amusing scenes? She pulls in most of the characters we've come to love but doesn't develop their scenes, leaving the reader wanting more.
I received an arc of this new mystery from the publisher via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.
I received an arc of this new mystery from the publisher via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.
July 14, 2025
This book made no sense, and I have difficulty believing Martha Grimes actually wrote it. An extra star for nostalgia’s sake.
July 3, 2025
Dreadful. If you're a fan of this series, it's time to say the death prayer.
Silly and convoluted story, the first part told in 2-4 page chapters. Characters and places appear without introduction or context. Grimes adds a couple of gratuitous chapters about some goats, just to write about the Trueblood/Vivian circus. The chapters could have been added anywhere, they make no sense.
Apparently, Grimes just phoned this one in. Sad.
Silly and convoluted story, the first part told in 2-4 page chapters. Characters and places appear without introduction or context. Grimes adds a couple of gratuitous chapters about some goats, just to write about the Trueblood/Vivian circus. The chapters could have been added anywhere, they make no sense.
Apparently, Grimes just phoned this one in. Sad.
June 2, 2025
The only way I can think to describe this book is perfunctory. The plot has all the hallmarks of Grimes’ usual ingenuity and cleverness, but there’s not a lot of flesh on these bones. The dialog is mostly short, sharp sentences and the descriptive narrative sparse. Jury and Wiggins are grumpy, snarky old men, which is actually pretty entertaining at times. I miss the lush prose of Grimes’ earlier books.
July 17, 2025
Lemme tell you, this book is a mess. I believe that the editor either suffered a stroke sometime shortly after page 8, or just gave up trying. It doesn't make a lick of sense. There are flashes of the remarkable talent that MS. Grimes gave us for so many years, but this book is a blight on her reputation. I suspect that it was written with the aid of AI. It's a shame and an embarrassment.
July 4, 2025
So disappointing! I thought Martha Grimes was done writing since she is now 94 years old and deserves a well earned retirement after so many terrific novels in the Richard Jury series. I wish she had decided to take retirement before publishing this book, which is a caricature of the ones that came before. The same characters are there but the plot is disjointed, u der developed and never resolves. As others have said, the two episodes involving Wiggins’ sister and some piglets were completely unnecessary. I don’t understand why MG’s editors didn’t point out the various lapses before going to publication. Unlike others who received free copies, I used a credit on Audible and I’m very sorry I did
August 14, 2025
Dreadful, with none of the charm or humor of her earlier books. Also nonsensical. The weird subplot with Wiggins is pointless. Wiggins doesn’t even sound like himself. Plant pretending to be a stable master is pointless. The goat subplot is pointless, aside from being an excuse to get the Long Piddleton gang in for a few dull pages. I’m not convinced that someone didn’t run Grimes earlier books through AI to come up with this travesty. It’s like there was a checklist of Richard Jury novel tropes that needed to be tossed in however badly and inexplicably. What happened, Martha?
September 7, 2025
Well it certainly was advertised as a RICHARD JURY MYSTERY.
it looked and smelt like the aforementioned loved series.
Even most of the regular cast made their appearances..
but it's been a while since the last book in the series and things have changed.
As I said..most of the elements were there..but lacking in their usual very original quirkiness..everything seemed a bit off and hurried and not very involving.
Disappointing
it looked and smelt like the aforementioned loved series.
Even most of the regular cast made their appearances..
but it's been a while since the last book in the series and things have changed.
As I said..most of the elements were there..but lacking in their usual very original quirkiness..everything seemed a bit off and hurried and not very involving.
Disappointing
July 5, 2025
I'm not sure what happened to the review I wrote. My late mom and I loved this series and I used to love to talk to my mom about it. This one felt like either Martha had a Ghost writer or AI was given all the characters and just had its way with it. I kept thinking I missed something. I kept going back to see what I missed but I hadn't missed anything. definitely it was not anywhere near the quality of work of the previous novels. It was disjointed and Jury normally has a tortured thought process and nothing. everything was face value. And that backstory with Wiggins was just ridiculous. I was very disappointed and I feel badly saying it because Ms. Grimes is elderly. But I think maybe she should have stopped at the previous novel.
July 5, 2025
The second star is a tribute to the Martha Grimes legend. The first star is in memory of what the early books in the series meant to me. This one? Plotless, rambling, caricature filled, with at least three empty chapters -- chapters 40 and 41.
A doppelgänger hired to be a murder victim? Superintendent Macelvie recognizing a name out of nowhere? Jury and Ardry pointlessly sparring over drinks? A goat falling off a truck? Wiggins' seeking his sister not having anything to do with the main "plot" and then Wiggins turning up out of nowhere near the end -- oh, wait a minute, does it end?
Sorry. This one misses just as I miss Carol-Anne.
A doppelgänger hired to be a murder victim? Superintendent Macelvie recognizing a name out of nowhere? Jury and Ardry pointlessly sparring over drinks? A goat falling off a truck? Wiggins' seeking his sister not having anything to do with the main "plot" and then Wiggins turning up out of nowhere near the end -- oh, wait a minute, does it end?
Sorry. This one misses just as I miss Carol-Anne.
July 27, 2025
I love this series but was so disappointed in this book! I couldn't follow what was going on. It read almost like an outline in places, with stuff just left out. And it jumped around--a confession ignored, big evidence never mentioned, then announced as a whole new case, then later the evidence is finally looked at as if it's brand new. Again. I still have no clue what really happened. The murderer was revealed, but the motive? How the other people were involved? The victim? I'm clueless about all of them. Little side trips that made no sense and were never tied in to the story. Where the heck was the editor?
July 23, 2025
What in the world? The novel starts out like a Martha Grimes novel and takes a deep dive into bizarro world. I can’t help but think that someone else wrote this book. Completely different style…… if you can even call it a style. Highly disappointed. WTH with Wiggins sister ? And the pigs? Yikes. What a sad way to end an otherwise wonderful series. And I say end because I genuinely feel she is no longer writing her stories
February 22, 2025
The Red Queen by Martha Grimes only arrived in my NetGalley review folder Friday morning and I allowed it to leap-frog over EVERYTHING else and read it that night in a sitting. Martha Grimes's Richard Jury / Melrose Plant series used to be my ultimate comfort read. Most of which I read pre-2014 before I started reviewing books on this site.
I used to say that if I could live in ONE book world it would be Melrose Plant's Long Piddleton with the aristocrats who spend the day at the pub when when they're not helping Scotland Yard Superintendent Richard Jury solve cases.
Here Jury is called in to a case where a wealthy businessman has been shot in a crowded pub. There are no shortages of suspects as he seems to have had very few fans. His wife is nonplussed and we learn a divorce was imminent. Added to that his business partners disagreed with some of the recent business moves he'd been making.
As is so often the case Jury has Melrose Plant (who ditched his 'Lord Ardry' title years before) go undercover as something called a Stable Master and Melrose has to have his own stable boy accompany him given he knows nothing about looking after horses. Like 2019's The Old Success , we don't actually see / hear much from the usual Long Piddleton crew here or Jury's neighbour Carole-Ann though we do spend a bit of time at Melrose's private London club (Borings) and I'm always entertained by the witty banter Grimes offers up through her two lead characters.
Grimes adds complexity to the plot through the disappearance of a man who's the dead businessman's doppelgänger... but there was just something missing that this series used to offer and I'm not sure what that was/is. I suspect (at the time) I sometimes grew frustrated by the extraneous characters in this series but the very brief return to Long Piddleton and exposure to the off-beat shenanigans (involving a goat and piglets) of Melrose's eclectic aristocratic friends reminded me of earlier books in the series. So perhaps those regular characters - and their droll banter - grounded Jury and Melrose. That said I will continue to go back for more Melrose and Jury while I still can.
3.5 stars
Read my review here: https://www.debbish.com/books-literat...
I used to say that if I could live in ONE book world it would be Melrose Plant's Long Piddleton with the aristocrats who spend the day at the pub when when they're not helping Scotland Yard Superintendent Richard Jury solve cases.
Here Jury is called in to a case where a wealthy businessman has been shot in a crowded pub. There are no shortages of suspects as he seems to have had very few fans. His wife is nonplussed and we learn a divorce was imminent. Added to that his business partners disagreed with some of the recent business moves he'd been making.
As is so often the case Jury has Melrose Plant (who ditched his 'Lord Ardry' title years before) go undercover as something called a Stable Master and Melrose has to have his own stable boy accompany him given he knows nothing about looking after horses. Like 2019's The Old Success , we don't actually see / hear much from the usual Long Piddleton crew here or Jury's neighbour Carole-Ann though we do spend a bit of time at Melrose's private London club (Borings) and I'm always entertained by the witty banter Grimes offers up through her two lead characters.
Grimes adds complexity to the plot through the disappearance of a man who's the dead businessman's doppelgänger... but there was just something missing that this series used to offer and I'm not sure what that was/is. I suspect (at the time) I sometimes grew frustrated by the extraneous characters in this series but the very brief return to Long Piddleton and exposure to the off-beat shenanigans (involving a goat and piglets) of Melrose's eclectic aristocratic friends reminded me of earlier books in the series. So perhaps those regular characters - and their droll banter - grounded Jury and Melrose. That said I will continue to go back for more Melrose and Jury while I still can.
3.5 stars
Read my review here: https://www.debbish.com/books-literat...
July 3, 2025
I have loved and read all of Martha Grimes' Richard Jury novels at least three times, just finishing up with the Old Success in time for this new book to be published. I assumed it would be Grimes' last Jury novel due to her age, so I expected some closure to Melrose and Jury's love lives, but it was not to be. There is only a passing reference to Vivien, Dr. Nancy, and Carole Anne, and no new love interest for either. The other really disappointing thing was the dialogue. Grimes has always been great at writing crisp, character-exposing dialogue with wit and precision. The dialogue in this book is stilted, and many times I was shaking my head at the shallow conversations.
Don't get me wrong: This is my all-time favorite series, but this book seemed too trite and silly as a finale to her great Richard Jury series.
Don't get me wrong: This is my all-time favorite series, but this book seemed too trite and silly as a finale to her great Richard Jury series.
July 4, 2025
I was quite disappointed with this book. I have read all of the ones in the Richard jury series and found them to be cleverly plotted with developing characters that you feel like you know. This book felt like it was written by someone else. The language was clumsy, there were several references in conversations by characters to things that supposedly had just happened that were not actually in the book, and there were several chapters of what I consider filler, such as a chapter about Wiggins driving to his mother’s house on the motorway. It adds nothing to the book, nor does the whole sub plot about him, finding his sister. Why she disappeared, and how she was connected to the main plot, remains a true mystery.
July 20, 2025
This was a bitter disappointment. I have been a loyal reader since the very beginning of this series, but i absolutely will not continue, should she come up with yet another book. I immediately felt something was off. The book was choppy and poorly edited. Then I decided that it wasn’t just poorly edited; it was poorly written. It was at about the 3/4 mark that I was convinced that Martha Grimes did not write this mess. The book was padded with confusing nonsense about pigs, goats, and a not-stolen Henry James, just so previous characters’ appearances could be checked off a list. Inconsistencies abounded. It was just so sad.
August 14, 2025
I will read anything written about Richard Jury, but this book was a disappointment. First, it was short, more of a novella than her regular length book. The characters seemed tired, the "mystery" was confusing at best, feels like this book was put together with notes, or rushed. I do hope this is not simply the author trying to push out one more book while she is still alive, but if this series is to continue I think the writing should be passed onto someone else.
August 3, 2025
this book is so badly written and plotted it's almost funny. i was just telling someone i so rarely find any book a waste of time bc i know my own tastes so i guess this had to happen
July 5, 2025
Disappointing. Did not read like the other Richard Jury mysteries. It was very thin in character and plot and there times while reading when I couldn’t recall an important detail being revealed earlier. Left me missing the real Richard Jury and Melrose Plant.
August 3, 2025
I don't believe this is Martha Grime's work. I have read every book she has written, but if this had been the first one, I would never read the rest of her fantastic books.
August 26, 2025
Richard Jury mystery. This is Grimes’ first Jury mystery in 6 years, and I eagerly anticipated its arrival because I had enjoyed so many in this series. Alas, it was not worth the anticipation. Two words can describe this novel: Hot mess. While reading, I wondered whether I had accidentally borrowed a poorly abridged version. Nope. Some of the problems: two different plot lines that are not integrated; multiple continuity issues; and tangents that have no purpose (rescuing pigs!). After finishing the book – I stuck with it only due to misguided optimism – I looked at what I wrote about her last book back in 2020. I thought it was a mess too and had similar issues. Outstanding questions: (1) why is the author’s editor not addressing the problems? And (2) why doesn’t anyone tell this 94-year-old author to hang up her keyboard? The answer is likely that her books still sell based on her earlier ability. I am glad I borrowed a copy from the library and do not have to regret a purchase price in addition to regretting the time I spent reading this mess.
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