Mystery

Not one of Grimes’ best. Didn’t come together in the end. ( )

When young Benny finds a body in the hotel room where he is delivering coffee, he immediately calls Jury. The case seems to point to the past and WWII, but each suspect doesn't quite fit until Jury has a revelatory conversation with Wiggins.

law-enforcement, murder-investigation, British-detective -----
There may be only one murder investigation, but it's still as convoluted as ever. Plant gets to emulate Henry James in order to investigate part of the victim's life, Jury is ambushed by a barracuda, and World War 2 history invades the present. A very busy book which needs a second reading to catch up with the nuances hiding clues. A good read. ( )

The first in the series that I truly detested, mostly because suddenly Richard Jury is cheating on his girlfriend, Phyllis Nancy with detective Lu Aguilar, a force of nature, ignoring Carol Anne and in general being a prig. Melrose Plant is as delightful as always, and I hate when Grimes doesn't wrap up the story but leaves you guessing as to the ending - it's clear as mud to me. This doesn't change the fact that I'll be reading the next book in the series, just that I'm irritated by this entry. Oh well.

Oh, about the story - Benny Keegan and Sparky go to deliver room service to Billy Maples, a youngish playboy (aged 32) and finds him shot through the heart. He calls Jury to get him on the case. The case is entwined with the seavacs and the kindertrains from WWII. One of the issues for me is that it is no longer clear to me when the modern stories are supposed to be set - early 1990s, 2000s? By now Richard should be retired.

This blog entry explores what the ending meant or didn't mean. http://maebookblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/dust-by-martha-grimes_14.html ( )