The Five Bells and Bladebone

#9 in the Richard Jury series.

Marshall Trueblood has scored a coup--he has purchased a valuable secrétaire a abbatant from Lady Summerston, along with a near-priceless Ulysses, signed by both Joyce and Matisse, the illustrator. At least, it's a coup until Melrose Plant and Richard Jury, visiting Northants, find the body of Simon Lean, local philanderer, stuffed into the desk. And the Ulysses missing as well, possibly more upsetting to Trueblood than the discovery of the corpse.

Because chief superintendent Racer cannot resist the thought of interrupting Jury's vacation--something, anything that might annoy or discomfit Jury--he "loans" Jury to the Northampton constabulary to assist in the investigation. The investigation leads to London show more and a possible case of double identity with intent to defraud old (but still sharp) Lady Summerston of her millions.

But much of the action by necessity takes place in Long Piddleton, giving plenty of opportunity for wit and humor at the expense of one of the village's least favorite residents, Melrose's Aunt Agatha. Agatha, having managed to drive her car up onto the sidewalk in front of Jurvis' butcher shop, colliding with a large ceramic pig, has brought suit against Jurvis for damages in a great subplot. Also, Grimes introduces yet another of her unforgettable characters, Diane Demorney, with her all-white house interior and total self-absorption. Change has come to Long Piddleton in the form of a new pub, the Blue Parrot with its faux Arabian decor and questionable Lebanese food, run by Trevor Sly who is giving Dick Scroggs a run for his custom. Theodore Wrenn Browne makes a larger appearance in this book, doing his best to give Aunt Agatha a run for her reputation as the pettiest of villains. We also meet those most relentless of competitors, Alice Broadbent and Lavinia Vine who give no quarter in their very own War of the Roses and ask none.

All the old London gang are back if only for brief appearances--Carole-ann, Mrs. Wasserman, Fiona Clingmore, and, of course, Cyril.

Grimesism: "So far she had withstood this onslaught, but she had become more palsied than ever, twitching down the High Street as if she were plugged into an electrical outlet."

While not the most absorbing of Grimes' books in the series, it's still an excellent read. Highly recommended. show less

I do not care for Martha Grimes intentionally ambiguous endings and this one was just that. Richard heads on vacation to Long Piddleton to meet up with Melrose Plant for a little R&R. Instead he ends up embroiled in another murder mystery when Simon Lean, local philanderer ends up dead in Marshall Trueblood's newly purchased abattoire. Then Sadie Driver in Ramsgate ends up murdered, and Sadie bears a striking resemblance to Mrs. Hannah Lean. So, is it really Sadie that is dead or is it Hannah?

Long Piddleton antiques dealer, Marshall Trueblood, has finally gotten the owner of Watermeadows Estate to sell him and exquisite rosewood desk at a great price. What he doesn’t expect is the dead body that has been stuffed into it. The body turns out to be Simon Lean, the husband of the owner’s granddaughter.

Simon Lean’s reputation of being a philanderer and has no qualms of spending his wife’s money on other women. His wife tolerates it and her grandmother, the widow of the owner of Watermeadows, avoids him as much as possible due to her dislike of him.

There is also Theo Wren Browne, the local bookseller, who is itching to get his hands on a number of rare books from the Watermeadow private library. He has been known to show more re-bind valuable books to disguise them and resell them for a higher price. He also is looking to push out his neighbour and take over her shop space.

Jury finds himself drawn in to the mystery by his friendship with Melrose Plant and other residents of Long Piddleton.

What he finds is the widow of Watermeadows, who is a recluse and prefers the past to the present. He also finds the young wife of the murdered man seems to not be affected by the man’s death or his treatment of her.

In researching Lean and possible connections that could shed light on the murder, Jury also finds a possible case of a doppelgänger in the mix.

The clues are revealed during the whole book, but putting them together correctly is a trick. show less

Lovely, back to Long Pidd, more of the characters there - of course, another weird fascination for Jury. But the mystery was intriguing, and definitely kept me guessing.

What a diabolical imagination! Obfuscation all the way in this one which has a murder in the country and one in a transitional neighborhood in London that are totally connected. The happy ending part of me wishes that the orphaned brother and the totally bereft grandmother could be left together.
Steve West does a remarkable narration with this one.

This was an average, somewhat confused and kinda outmatched Jury in this tale of stolen identities (more than one, like three). The dual crime scenes one in Plant's village and one in London adds to the sense that Jury is definitely not in control at all in this one. Poor Jury, he goes on vacations and ends up investigating anyway.

Light but in a confused plot and maybe Grimes tried too hard to be clever in this one.

Superintendent Rory Jury finds a body inside beautiful antique desk purchased by a friend, Marshall Trueblood. The body is that of Simon Lean a notorious and serial cheater. The long suffering wife lives with her grandmother and is due to inherit a fortune. Jury learns of Simon's relationship with a woman, Sadie Diver, who bears a striking resemblance to Lean's wife. Sadie Diver is found dead. Jury starts to wonder if Simon and Sadie had a plan to kill his wife and let Sadie replace her so they could get the inheritance. The pair had done enough work such as planting fingerprints and belongings of the wife at Sadie's home. Sadie's young brother, 16 year old Tommy sneaks away from his tyrannical aunt & uncle to come to London to see show more Sadie believing she will help him. Even he can't tell who the dead woman is - Sadie or Hannah Lean. Finally Jury figures out that Hannah Lean learned of the plan, killed her husband, and then traveled to London to kill Sadie. show less