This book gets an excellent review at Amazon, but I'm one of those people who can't read books that contain dead pets.
Great book!
I love Martha Grimes' books. I discovered her recently, and have read nearly all of them already!
Supt. Jury #7 in which Jury and Plant are off to Hampshire where two seemingly natural deaths turn into something else altogether, and someone is killing off the village's pets as well. Melrose's intrepid friend, mystery writer Polly Praed also joins the crew who are sniffing around the suspects. An enjoyable read as always though this one was a bit convoluted, and if I remember right, the girl with amnesia plot has been used by Grimes before.
Another pub and another murder, Jury solves them all
"READ ONE OF [HER NOVELS] AND YOU'LL WANT TO READ THEM ALL." --Chicago Tribune
All roads don't lead to the village of Ashdown Dean. The one that did led writer Polly Praed right to the police station...to be questioned about a corpse. Poor Polly admitted to opening the phone booth door, but the dead woman had fallen out quite on her own. Now Polly needed to phone again--to call Melrose Plant and Scotland Yard's Richard Jury for help. for something was rotten in Ashdown Dean. Pets were missing. Some had been found dead.
Three roads led away from the village. One led Plant and Jury to a sinister laboratory on the edge of town, another to LaNotre, a rundown mansion where an aging dowager lived with her mysterious teenage ward. But the third took them to the Deer Leap, a pub where they would discover a chilling old crime and a brand-new way to die.
"CHARM AND ENERGY...A BRILLIANTLY INTERWOVEN MULTIPLE NARRITIVE." --Time
All roads don't lead to the village of Ashdown Dean. The one that did led writer Polly Praed right to the police station...to be questioned about a corpse. Poor Polly admitted to opening the phone booth door, but the dead woman had fallen out quite on her own. Now Polly needed to phone again--to call Melrose Plant and Scotland Yard's Richard Jury for help. for something was rotten in Ashdown Dean. Pets were missing. Some had been found dead.
Three roads led away from the village. One led Plant and Jury to a sinister laboratory on the edge of town, another to LaNotre, a rundown mansion where an aging dowager lived with her mysterious teenage ward. But the third took them to the Deer Leap, a pub where they would discover a chilling old crime and a brand-new way to die.
"CHARM AND ENERGY...A BRILLIANTLY INTERWOVEN MULTIPLE NARRITIVE." --Time
A Richard Jury Mystery. Melrose Plant, Polly Praed and Scotland Yard's Richard Jury team up to solve an old crime and several mysterious new deaths in Ashdown Dean. Another of Martha Grimes' stylish and witty dramas. You will enjoy it.
Can you go wrong with a Richard Jury mystery, I think not!
Superintendent Richard Jury and his friend, Melrose Plant, solve another crime.
All roads don't lead to the village of Ashdown Dean. The one that did led writer Polly Praed right to the police station ... to be questioned about a corpse. Poor Polly admitted to opening the phone booth door, but the dead woman had fallen out quite on her own. Now Polly needed to phone again -- to call Melrose Plant and Scotland Yard
Polly Praed's visit to Ashdown Dean lands her in the police station, where she is questioned about a corpse that fell out of a phone booth at her feet.
Polly Praed's visit to Ashdown Dean lands her in the police station, where she is questioned about a corpse that fell out of a phone booth at her feet. Now Polly's calling for Melrose Plant and Richard Jury to help her deal with the local authorities. And as long as they're in town, perhaps the detecting duo can find her missing cat, one of several pets recently gone missing in Ashdown Dean. For Plant and Jury, it doesn't take a leap in logic to suspect the animal-testing laboratory at the edge of town. But it does take a local pub called the Deer Leap to lead them to a chilling old crime - and a brand-new way to die.... (from back cover)
From Publishers Weekly
This is the seventh crime novel by Grimes, an American who writes wih assurance on the exploits of Scotland Yard's Richard Jury and his titled friend Malcolm Plant. They meet at The Deer Leap, a pub in Ashdown Dean where people and pets have been dying "accidentally." Plant focuses his attentions on a solitary, 15-year-old girl who calls herself Carrie Fleet. She's an amnesiac, rescued from London lowlifes who had found the child and were using her to collect government money for her support. Carrie's unlikely savior is a baroness, living on drunken fantasies in the decayed splendor of her late husband's estate. In an isolated corner of the grounds, Carrie maintains a sanctuary for abused animals. Her zealous care makes her a suspect in the destruction of the local fox-hunting headquarters, but Jury casts his net elsewhere
This is the seventh crime novel by Grimes, an American who writes wih assurance on the exploits of Scotland Yard's Richard Jury and his titled friend Malcolm Plant. They meet at The Deer Leap, a pub in Ashdown Dean where people and pets have been dying "accidentally." Plant focuses his attentions on a solitary, 15-year-old girl who calls herself Carrie Fleet. She's an amnesiac, rescued from London lowlifes who had found the child and were using her to collect government money for her support. Carrie's unlikely savior is a baroness, living on drunken fantasies in the decayed splendor of her late husband's estate. In an isolated corner of the grounds, Carrie maintains a sanctuary for abused animals. Her zealous care makes her a suspect in the destruction of the local fox-hunting headquarters, but Jury casts his net elsewhere
I sincerely enjoyed the whole series of these books. Light mysteries but no gore.
Loved it. Classic Richard Jury.
Jury & Plant are at it again! This time, a body, dead, of course, falls onto Polly Prad when she opens the door of a telephone booth in the driving rain. The mystery continues to evolve as 1 cat and two dogs are previously killed, and a child with amnesia, now 15 was found wandering in the forest and is taken over by a Baroness who gets drunk regularly. Are these related? Well, yes, . . . and No. And don't forget the Deer Leap - the inn/pub where people are. All this in sort of modern day British Isles.