Belle Ruin

Emma Graham #3

by Martha Grimes

A waitress at her mother's decaying resort hotel, twelve-year-old Emma now has a second job as the youngest cub reporter in the history of La Porte's Conservative newspaper. But when she discovers the crumbling shell of a fabulous hotel- the once-sumptuous Belle Rouen-in the woods near her small town of Spirit Lake, Emma never imagines that the mysteries it holds will bring her one step closer to solving a forty-year-old crime-and force a new transgression to light.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Audiobook, Thriller, Adult Fiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published August 18, 2005

About the author

Martha 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.

Reviews

[Holly in Bookland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still liking these characters. I will say, Martha Grimes really knows how to leave her endings open-ended.....

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

"People are always saying my stories have too many details..." states Grimes' character Emma Graham. This is the complaint many had about the last two books in this series, so possibly she was listening. Unfortunately the other common complaint, that the mysteries are never really resolved, went unheeded. Though this is the "last" book in the series, still no wrap-up or catharsis was reached. If you are a person who really needs for plots to come to a conclusion, and doesn't like ambiguous endings, this series is not for you. However, if you like a meandering, dreamlike story which is more about the journey than the destination. you will adore this book.
Emma is a genuine 12-year-old, sometimes bratty, often childish, ultimately likable. She goes off "investigating" on her own more than I would be comfortable with, but judging by some of the context this was the early 1940's, so possibly a less dangerous time to be an unaccompanied kid showing up at the houses of people whom she's never met in order to ask them about events taking place decades before she was born. The other supporting characters are pleasantly quirky and have interesting ways of relating to Emma, either as assets to her investigation or foils for her character.
The description of the play her brother and his friend convince her to take part in were much more entertaining than the descriptions of her imaginary vacation in the last book. That was an improvement.
The series as a whole, I feel needs at least one more volume. As I am a person who likes a good conclusion and that ending was just too ambiguous for me.
Update: Grimes has written another book in this series, called Fadeaway Girl.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Darn that Martha Grimes! This is the third book in the Emma Graham series (the first two being "Hotel Paradise" and "Cold Flat Junction"), and it doesn't have a real ending, just like the first two. I don't know why I keep reading them. Probably because I keep hoping to get some answers someday. And they're very well written. Grimes has a way with words, which is probably why I keep reading her other series that never resolves, the Richard Jury books. Come on Martha, help a girl out here. Give me some closure!

[Bobbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of this book I enjoyed as much or more than the earlier two, but I was somewhat disappointed in the ending. I was expecting more of a resolution to the mystery rather than having to wait for the next book. I do hope the next one brings an answer to the mysteries.
As other reviewers mentioned I did find one discrepancy in the story which was really annoying but I do continue to enjoy reading about Emma's life and the small town in which she lives. I would, however, like to see her begin to mature a little more.

[Lorena · Rating 1 out of 5]

I felt like the last 50 pages were ripped out of this book. I finished the book and seriously had to check the page numbers. It was a mystery novel left unsolved which I dont mind so much but the story just seemed to stop. Its like the writer couldn't think of a proper ending. Also I think this is a book from a series and the author kept referring back to a previous incident that I had no refernce to. I imagine this was what is what like for those folks skipping The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo and going straight to The Girl who Plays With Fire. Anyways, I had to finish it cause thats how I am. I dont think I will be reading another Martha Grimes book soon.

[Kathie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Martha Grimes is one of my favourite mystery writers. Unfortunately, this is not one of her better efforts. I generally don't like books with precocious heroes/narrators, and 12 year old Emma, the hero of this novel, is, quite frankly, a brat. The book offers up a fascinating 20 year old mystery, but then leaves it almost completely unresolved -- perhaps a sequel is planned. In addition, there are annoying plot errors that grate on the nerves. It was all very disappointing.

[Patricia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really mostly just skimmed. I think I'm tired of this character-- Emma needs to not be 12 years-old anymore. Nothing new from the first two Hotel Paradise books, and by this third one, Emma just seems like kind of a brat- torturing old ladies at the hotel, and not a particularly good detective.

I like the descriptions of the food at least.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think about this book with a little anger. It was written well enough, but there was absolutely no resolution of anything. When I finished, I felt as though I was still hanging from a branch waiting to see which way I would fall. Had I known that nothing was resolved, no mystery was solved, no feelings were smoothed, I never would have read the book. It just stopped. It did not end.

[Klara Gonciarz · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5/5
even though this is already the third volume of the series, author's style remains as charming as ever before. the main character, Emma, goes on being such an extraordinary, exceptional but also relatable and close-to-heart character ("But I think I've learned a lesson and that is that you have to find your own answers on things. Even if they're wrong answers. The point is in the finding."). her unusual style of being is not tiresome whatsoever; on the contrary, it feels natural, honest and hilarious at times ("In my mind I heard Father Freeman, his head bowed, announcing the punishment 'Say ten Hail Marys and go to the Hotel Paradise every summer for the remainder of your life.' "). what is more, even though the author keeps her story at a low pace, it doesn't feel boring or overly long as it is filled with vibrant descriptions - mostly of food ("Maud (like my mother) thought food did a lot more than just fill you up."), gripping events and intriguing people ("Emma, I want to tell you something about being right: being right is much harder on a person than being wrong."). it is a truly outstanding publication worth picking up.

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Volume 3 in the Emma Graham series. And you’re really missing important details if you don’t read these in order: Hotel Paradise (1996), Cold Flat Junction (2000), Belle Ruin (2005), Fadeaway Girl (2011).

[Kim]

Read all the bad reviews below and you'll see why I quit this book. It is tedious, the kid is a brat and, it turns out you never get the answer to the mystery. That's the only reason that I was going to finish it. Also, like everyone else says, the book keeps referencing the prior two books. When I started Belle Ruin, I didn't realize that it was 3rd in a series, but figured that the author would catch us up. So far, she doesn't and it sounds from other's comments that it never happens. I love the Jury books, but I'm dumping this one.

[caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I had to choose only one 12 year old sleuth, it would be Flavia de Luce. Luckily I don't have to limit myself. Emma, from Cold Flat Junction and Hotel Paradise, is back, now a cub reporter for La Porte's Conservative newspaper. Here she is attempting to unravel a 20 year old kidnapping. I won't give anything away, but I loved the end of this one. Grimes got it right.

[Emily W · Rating 3 out of 5]

I get why these books make people crazy with their meandering ways, but I think it's nice to slow down and get immersed in this strange sad fictional place. That said, #3 and #4 in the series could have been one book.

[Marina Sofia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually liked the overly confident and precocious voice of the child narrator - maybe I was an insufferable 12 year old as well?

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet heroine! I read it out of order, probably should have read them in order.

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing really happens in this book, but in a charming way.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this story of a twelve year old living in the Paradise Hotel with her mother taking on the job of sometime waitress and drink maker. The main character Emma was involved with danger and intrigue in the first book of this series which I have yet to read. In this book Emma continues to write for the local paper while investigating a kidnapping that happened years ago at the Belle "Ruin" Hotel which burned down years ago. Along the way there are many colorful locals plus a few enterprising thespians. At first I was disappointed in the ending but now am reading the sequel to finally find out who, what, when, where and why. Great summer reading.

[Incandragon · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was robbed of 12 hours of my life. STOLEN STOLEN STOLEN! I was ROBBED ROBBED ROBBED! I don't normally finish books I don't like. In fact, I hardly ever read books that weren't recommended. So how could I be saying that I read a sucky, sucky book?

There was a book giveaway at the Talking Book Library, and one of them was an unabridged Martha Grimes called "Belle Ruin." 10 CDs, a mystery. Okay, I usually have an "in-house" audio book, an "in the car" audiobook, a "by the bed" book, and a "fireside" book. My car slot was available, so I grabbed it. I've never read a Martha Grimes but she's a famous name, so hey! Free audio book!

Nowhere on the box did it say, "This is part 3 of a 4 part story, only 3 parts of which are out." That would have helped. If it had also said, "This is notably NOT the book where you learn to like the awful little twerp protagonist," that would have helped even more.

But I didn't know that, so I kept hoping that -- oh, I don't know -- something was going to happen. Nothing did.

They alluded to exciting things, which I thought were going to be explained during the investigation of the mystery, and they were setting up for finding out some interesting things ... and then the book just ends. Right in the middle of a conversation. No wrap up, no nothing. The CD doesn't even have the decency to say "that's all folks" it just gives you a bunch of clicks like you've reached the end of a vinyl record! WTH!

Although, I did uncover something interesting. It doesn't say (that I recall) what year the story is supposed to have taken place, but it seems like the 1960s or 70s or somewhere. The girl makes a point of the 3 Musketeers candy bar as having three layers. So, okay ... maybe it DID, at some point in time, have three layers. It's called 3 Musketeers, right? Well, no, it never had anything besides nougat. So Grimes was wrong, and her editors/proofreaders flubbed it ... I can but assume because they were mired in "100 more pages to go" despair. No, 3 Musketters is 3 Musketeers because you used to get three little bars: chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry flavored. But now you only get chocolate. Aramis stands alone.

I also didn't know that outside the US/Canada, what we call a 3 Musketeer is called a Milky Way, and what we call a Milky Way is called a Mars Bar. And what we call a Mars Bar is totally different entirely.

In other words, I could have read Wikipedia for twelve hours, and it would have been a VAST improvement on the stupid Belle Ruin book. Dagnabit.

[Judith Shadford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having been disenchanted by Martha Grimes over the past 5 years or so, I picked this up (second-hand) to give her another crack. Also influenced by a recent NPR interview with Martha and her son who've published a memoir about getting sober.

Belle Ruin is the third in a series in which the narrator is a 12-year-old girl. Set in the States at an indeterminate locale, probably 40 years ago. Of course, she's just a little too precocious. Chaim Potok was one of the few writers to really pull off seeing the world through a child's eyes.

But, ultimately, Emma wasn't too bad. The freedom of movement--taking the train or a taxi (for a quarter) to the little towns that center around the previous novels as she tries to solve a child kidnapping some 22 years earlier--reinforce nicely, as it turns out, what minimal impact the adult world has on her mind and imagination, ultimately the point of the book. Not the mystery.

I was left with her sense of geography, of the mystery of a landscape and the inscrutability of growing up, for her, and growing old, for the people around her. That, and the description of this kid concocting the most godawful drinks to take up to the old auntie in the attic to lubricate her memory, which, in retrospect, might have had more autobiography in it than imagination.

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story is told by 12 year old Emma Graham who lives in a decaying hotel--Hotel Paradise--where her mother is the owner and chef and Emma is a waitress in the dining room. She is also the bartender for 91 year old Aurora Paradise who lives on the fourth floor and her "cocktails" are made from whatever alcohol she can sneak and whatever juices are in the refrigerator. Emma discovers the remains of a former luxury hotel deep in the woods near Spirit Lake--the Belle Rouen--which burned over 20 years before. Learning that there had been a four month old baby kidnapped there 22 years ago, Emma travels through three small towns interviewing people to find out memories of the kidnapping in order to unravel the mystery. Oh, did I mention that the novel just stops? Did the author get tired? On the plus side, Emma's brother and his friend stage a wonderful production of "Medea, the Musical" in the big garage which receives rave reviews. Apparently, this is the third novel in the Emma Graham series. It might have helped to have read the other two first.

[Kirsty Leishman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still enjoying the characters of the Hotel Paradise and its surroundings, but like most amateur detective series I've read, it suffers from reading in such close proximity to the previous instalments. The quirks become repetitive and annoying, especially when different characters are pretty much the same person, so far as their role in Emma's life (e.g. the sheriff and Dwayne). And I still can't fathom why Emma's mother left her behind at the hotel in book two--Cold Flat Junction--to go on holiday to Florida. For a long time, I was seriously expecting a Sixth Sense kind of revelation.

The highlight of Belle Ruin was Emma's brother's production of Medea the musical, and the revelation behind the kidnapping mystery was very sad. The reader of the audiobooks, Robin Miles, is outstanding.

[AC · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I thought this was the first in this series for some reason so for the whole first half I was totally confused. Instead, it is the third and is not self-contained, really relying on plot, info and characters from the first two.
I liked the writing and the plucky 12 year old protagonist (whose voice went back and forth from 15 to 60, but never really sounded 12 to me). It was interesting to read a main character that age in a book definitely for adults, mixing cocktails and wanting to take up smoking.
But there was no closure to this book, which relied on the first two as an intro and apparently the next one to resolve any of the mysteries she investigates in Belle Ruin. This was ultimately unsatisfying to me as a reader.

[Megan Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this in audio format. I was going on a road trip and it was the only audio book my mom had to loan me. I was aware that it was not the first in the series but didn't much mind.

I loved the reader. She really brought the story to life. It was a compelling, humorous, haunting story. My only complain is that the ending did not satisfy. I can only assume that Grimes wrote another book after this one, or intends to, as it didn't feel like a "we will never know" ending, but rather a "to be continued" ending. So, either there is more to come, or I got cheated.

If someone can confirm for me that this story carries on and I get to know what happened, I may go back and read the first two. If not, I won't bother.

[Anne Patkau · Rating 1 out of 5]

The titular Hotel Belle Rouen burned down after hosting rich vacationers in the early 1900s. Present-day Emma 12 wants to solve an old mystery about a kidnapped baby. I got bored with her slipping hot peppers into an cranky senior's meals at her mom's decrepit hotel, and skipped to the end where she was playing the same trick and researching the same crime.

Other reviews lead me to believe the whole series is rambling quaint characters in a crumbling vacation lakefront, like End of the Pier also 1* https://www.goodreads.com/review/show.... Maybe author's Richard Jury mysteries are better, but I'm not intrigued enough to try.

[Cheryl Sterling · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book not realizing it was the last of a trilogy, so I spent the first 100 pages waiting for a major flashback. :-)
Ms. Grimes is a major storyteller, but in this book, I was unclear as to what story she was telling. Was it suspense? a mystery? coming of age? The ending was vague and left no questions answered.
I'm curious enough to give the first volume a chance, but I feel as if this book did not fulfill my expectations.
She does nail the voice of a twelve year old girl, though.

[Amanda Wells · Rating 3 out of 5]

Are. You. KIDDING ME?
What kind of a way is that to end a book?

Ok. Positive points first: I love Emma Graham. She's obsessed with food. She's clever, but still childish and naive in certain ways. I think she'll grow up to be a marvelous Miss Marple.

Negative points: There is no resolution. And not in the normal way where the author leaves certain conclusions up to the reader so that they might focus on the thematic elements of the book... this was the way where I was sure something had gone wrong at the printing press.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apparently this is part of a series which I didn't realize at first. I missed a little something by starting in the middle but I'll survive. The story was interesting, but I felt like the end just dropped off rather than being wrapped up at all. I may have to listen to the books before and after it simply so that I don't feel like I didn't miss something, not because I especially enjoyed this one.

[Sharon Holford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another adventure for Emma and another story that does not end with this book. So - on to the next
which is "Fade-away girl". I really enjoy Emma. She seems not to realize how she and her brother
have things in common such as their independence and imagination. Emma does make you feel sorry
for Bertha - she is always looking for ways to antagonize the poor old soul - not that she doesn't
deserve it!

[Amy Johns · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up in a used book store and took it with me on a long plane flight. It barely held my attention, and I didn't actually finish it (my flight ended). I found the small town charm to be a bit too thickly laid on, and our heroine didn't grab me enough to keep me interested.

[Denise · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to admit, I much prefer Grimes' Richard Jury series, but since I had read the previous books in this one, featuring and narrated by twelve-year-old Emma Graham, I figured I should read this one. It did sit on my shelf for quite a while! Emma is not the nicest girl; she loves to play pranks on people she doesn't like, and has a fleeting acquaintance with the truth. In this book, she is writing a newspaper series on the events of the last book, and also playing a part in her brother Will's bizarre play, Medea - The Musical, which is an unexpected sensation. Both of these increase her sense of self-importance. At the same time, she starts investigating a new mystery. About twenty years ago, a baby was kidnapped from an opulent hotel, the Belle Rouen, which later burned down and is called Belle Ruin by the locals. She finds connections between this case and her earlier investigations, and evolves a new theory about the identity of "the Girl", especially after seeing this mysterious and elusive person near the ruins of the old hotel. The story was interesting, but I found Emma just as irritating as ever, and I was not happy with the ending. Sorry, not a good review from me. Maybe Jury and Melrose Plant will be back soon.