What is more delicious on a blustery winter evening than curling into a comfy chair with the latest Martha Grimes mystery? An avid reader of mysteries, but new to Grimes, asked me if she writes "cozies." One could be lulled into thinking so as they settle into the warm, friendly atmosphere of the legendary pubs that are central to each Richard Jury whodunit. Especially when the regular cast of characters emerges on the scene as the story moves from the inevitable murder to New Scotland Yard Superintendent Jury's circle of friends and colleagues.
But Grimes soon weaves the motives and methods of the latest victim and perpetrator into a tapestry that introduces us to events that pique our curiosity.
Billy Maples, a wealthy young art patron, is shot in cold blood on the balcony of a seedy hotel in the gentrifying North London Clerkenwell neighborhood of galleries, hotels and pubs. Why he is staying in the hotel or what possible motive anyone would have for killing the charming young man mystifies his close friends and family.
The First Great War is never forgotten by those who experienced it, and the sins of the fathers woefully can be visited on its sons and daughters. Billy is the grandson of a decorated World War II code breaker, Sir Oswald Maples, a friend of Superintendent Jury's. As the story unfolds, so does the history of the German kindertransport, the train of children fleeing pre-war Germany and the doomed City of Benares children's ship, torpedoed enroute from England to Canada in the early years of the war.
Much of the action moves to the coastal town of Rye and the historic home of novelist Henry James, now under the protection of England's National Trust. The murder victim held a residency in the home, which is now a museum, and spent much of his time there with his companion and assistant, Kurt Brunner. Jury's comrade in arms, the venerable Lord Arbry, finds himself ensconced in the Henry James House, where he is instrumental in unraveling the threads of intrigue.
Meanwhile, Superintendent Jury encounters Lu Aguilar, the seductive chief of detectives in the Islington Police district where the murder takes place. In a most un-Grimes-like fashion, Richard and the sultry and beautiful Lu embark on a tempestuous love affair that surprises Jury almost as much as it must the reader. Nonetheless, it proves that Jury is far from over the hill while testing his feelings for New Scotland Yard's equally alluring coroner and sometime girlfriend, Dr. Phyllis Nancy.
As Harry Johnson, the psychopathic murder suspect from THE OLD WINE SHADES, helped us explore quantum physics through the principles of Schrodenger's cat, so do Henry James's ghostly tales lead us to explore the duplicities of human nature. Harry Johnson and his insightful dog Mungo are back to help Jury sort out the details, leading us through a long winter's night thriller that keeps the pages flying.
--- Reviewed by Roz Shea
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