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Title: The Lamorna Wink: A Richard Jury Mystery by Martha Grimes ISBN: 0-451-40936-1 Publisher: Onyx Books Pub. Date: 05 September, 2000 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.22 (49 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: The Uninvited
Comment: A Martha Grimes mystery is a pleasure to read for reason of her character Richard Jury. One casts one's mind over other with whom a female author identifies such as Lord Peter Wimsey and Adam Dalgliesh, but then of course writing is a rather masculine pursuit, particularly for those older than the much talked about baby boomers. I think the men may represent freedom and logical thinking, necessry qualities to detect the circumstances and the perpetrators of crime.
Consider some more the selection of hero. In most cases cited above he is well-born, accomplished, even, possibly, a writer. And so the hero is a sort of dream figure, impossibly better situated and more accomplished than the rest of us.
Also think of this peculiarity--that Martha Grimes, as is the case of Elizabeth George, is an American who habitually situates her mysteries in England complete with English characters. Well, this turn of events is all in all quite interesting, perhaps a means for the writer to hide sufficiently and to get the job done. At any rate, the result in both instances is good. In truth, Richard Jury has a reduced presence in this adventure.
Here we open in the Woodbine Tearoom with Melrose Plant and Marshall Trueblood in discussion about Richard Jury. A feature of the stories is to write about pubs. In the work we have the Drowned Man, wonderful name. It seems the other pub at Bletchley is called the Die is Cast.
Johnny Wells, waiter at the Drowned Man and taxi cab driver, discovers his Aunt Chris is missing. Johnny had lived with his Aunt Chris for most of his life. Richard Jury is in North Ireland but Scotland Yard has never put Melrose Plant on a need to know basis.
The descriptions of architecture in the vicinity of Cornwall, Devon, and Penzance are pretty glorious. Esme and Noah Bleckley died in the sea by the house Melrose decides to rent for a quarter. There is an unanswerable question remaining about the situation of the children. Why did they walk down the stairs in their night clothes.
One of the characters is a chicken king, a wildly successful enterpreneur. He has vacated his own house to live in a nursing home he has financed. Richard Jury shows up. Since the investigators are now looking at six deaths, old and new, and one disappearance, help is needed. The story is convoluted, clever, masterful.
Rating: 2
Summary: Too Horrible to Read for Fun
Comment: Those were the words my husband used when I told him the plot of this mystery. I have really enjoyed Martha Grimes' novels, and was on my way to really enjoying this one when I got to the terrible center of the murder plot: the "snuff film" murders of two children, gruesomely and explicitly narrated at the end of the novel. While the dialogue of Melrose Plant and company was entertaining as always and many of the other characters well drawn, the novel was spoiled by the exceptionally gruesome premise of the murder of these children. The only non-family character that seems to be truly affected by the children's deaths is Brian Macalvie, while Melrose and his gang switch from the murder to sophmoric efforts to prevent the wedding of their friend Vivian...and I usually enjoy their banter. I have liked the Melrose Plant character well enough to not believe that he would be so cavalier about these murders. Finally, the death of one of the characters in the end seemed gratutitous, so the resolution that often makes murder mysteries of this type so enjoyable is just totally absent. The idea of "snuff films" is one that it seems the author should have researched a little more, as those types of murders exist mostly in urban ledgend as opposed to reality. So why dredge something that horrible up, especially when used against children?
Rating: 4
Summary: Disturbing last scene mars story.Has less Jury, more Plant.
Comment: ~-~
I'm writing this review as a slightly disappointed, fanatic fan of the Superintendent Jury and Melrose Plant mystery series.
~One of my favorite features of Martha Grimes stories, has been the way in which her protagonists react to the people around them. The eccentric and mysterious women who fall in and out of Jury's life; as well as the colorful Long Piddleton cast of characters. ~~Maybe most of all I've enjoyed the way they interact with the children who appear in many stories as central characters, either with essential information, or in danger and need of protection, unwanted as it may be. Jury's skillful, and Plant's reluctant interviewing techniques are often highlights of the story.
~I have always relied on Grimes to preserve these kids and other "likeable" characters from harm, and she has done so.
In this book, I feel she doesn't quite keep to that unwritten promise. Don't worry I'm not giving anything away: right from the start the history of a tragedy appears. One of the central mysteries of this story is the tragic drowning death of two children from the cliffs outside their home.
~When the spotlight of the story sticks to the "current" mysteries in this seaside town, (the murder of a former servant, the inexplicable disappearance of a reliable local businesswoman), this is an entertaining and interesting Grimes story.
~Jury fans may be disappointed, but this story really belongs to Melrose and to Brian Macalvie, the local CID chief who is willing to drive himself into the ground in pursuit of justice.
~The resolution of all the mysteries seems a little far-fetched, but I would have been willing to suspend disbelief. The one part that disturbed me greatly was the dark and horrible solution to the death of the children.
~~~~ A good read for fans of Melrose and Jury, but those who love children may want to skip the last scene entirely- I believe it adds unnecessarily gruesome detail to an already dark and disturbing plot twist.
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Title: Rainbow's End by Martha Grimes ISBN: 0345394267 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: July, 1996 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: The Stargazey: A Richard Jury Mystery by Martha Grimes ISBN: 0451408977 Publisher: Onyx Books Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Case Has Altered: A Richard Jury Mystery by Martha Grimes ISBN: 0451408683 Publisher: Onyx Books Pub. Date: November, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Blue Last: A Richard Jury Mystery by Martha Grimes ISBN: 0451410556 Publisher: Onyx Books Pub. Date: 03 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: I Am the Only Running Footman by Martha Grimes ISBN: 0451410025 Publisher: Onyx Books Pub. Date: 10 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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