4th Richard Jury. I love her characterizations of children and dogs/cats, but her dialogue in "West Virginian" left a lot to be desired. Still, a good mystery."Superintendent Richard Jury of New Scotland Yard is visiting a friend in Stratford-on-Avon and hoping for an encounter with the intriguing Lady Kennington whom he met in the last book in the series, The Anodyne Necklace. His friend Melrose Plant is in town, too, along with Aunt Agatha, seeing Shakespeare plays and waiting - in Agatha's case - for some visiting cousins from America.It is summer and the town seems full of visiting Americans, including a group traveling with Honeycutt Tours. This particular group, however, does not stay intact for very long. After having a drink at a pub called "The Dirty Duck" one night, one of the tourists, Gwendolyn Bracegirdle from Sarasota, Florida, is killed in a public restroom behind a church. Her throat is slashed ear to ear and another slash rents the body from sternum to pelvis. There are no clues and Miss Bracegirdle was a quiet sort who did not seem to have any enemies.The local constabulary take advantage of the fact that they have a Scotland Yard Superintendent in town and ask for his help in investigating. Jury reluctantly agrees - without informing his superiors in London.Soon, though, all of the police have as much as they can handle because a second member of the tour, a seventeen-year-old beauty from Georgia named Honey Belle, is killed in the same manner. There doesn't seem to be anything to connect the two victims other than the fact that they were both with the same tour group.Meanwhile, another member of the group, a young boy has gone missing. He is Honey Belle's stepbrother, James. He has been known to disappear and reappear before so no one is concerned at first, but days go by and he doesn't turn up. It appears the police may have a kidnapping on their hands in addition to two murders.But that is not to be the end of it all. Honey Belle's mother, James' stepmother, makes a trip to London and there she, too, is killed in the same way as the other two women. As the body total climbs, Jury gets assistance from D.S. Wiggins and his friend Melrose as they race to find a murderer, a missing boy, and attempt to protect the other members of the tour group who may be in danger.Finally, a man on the tour, a Christopher Marlowe fanatic, is also killed - once again by being slashed. It seems the killer may be branching out from targeting only women.After the last killing, Jury begins to put it all together. He develops a theory that perhaps only one of the victims was a true target and the others were only window dressing. Red herrings, as it were. The trick is to figure out which one was the target. That may lead him to the motive and to the murderer. ""As Jury and Plant subdue the suspect, we get an explanation of why the murders and the kidnapping occurred. We even learn, somewhat, how they came to piece the clues together. But the explanation is missing several very important details. You feel it go sideways and ultimately it requires too much suspension of disbelief for a person in 2014 to accept easily. In a word, there are just too many coincidences. There are too many things that happened that, by all that’s holy with Murphy’s Law, shouldn’t have happened. And the explanation for that: the murderer had a long time to plan out the details.Granted, back in 1984, instant media communication was not yet in place – no cell phones, let alone smart phones, and no satellite television. Without those instant photos, videos and voice recordings to contradict the national media, it was much easier for the general populace, and thus the fiction readership, of that time to believe in “coincidence.” It simply took more time then than it does now for things that seem disassociated to reveal their connectedness.In addition, there is a subplot to this story that also rings false in its details. In that subplot, Grimes revisits Jury’s relationship with not only Vivian Arrington, but with Lady Kennington. Both these relationships occurred in previous books as part of murder investigations that Jury was involved with. And both of these “relationships” ended without any real beginning and were essentially dismissed. But here they are again, resurrected and alive, as if only days had passed instead of years."
When a tourist is brutally murdered while touring Stratford-on-Avon, Richard Jury and Melrose Plant are called in to investigate. The victim, Gwendolyn Bracegirdle*, was a wealthy American, like the other members of her tour group, and there is a lot of pressure on Jury to solve the crime. Two more members of the tour group also ended up slashed to death and a fourth person is beaten and slashed to death. On each body is found a slip of paper with lines from the same poem. To complicate matters, a 9-year-old boy, James Carlton Farraday, a member of the same tour group, has been missing for two days - but his father and stepmother haven't reported his disappearance to the police. Apparently, he has run off before, but always returned. However, this time is different - Jimmy has been kidnapped and the precocious boy is doing all he can to free himself. I really enjoyed this Jury/Plant outing. I like Jury and Plant and their friendly, easygoing partnership. They're not so much opposites as they are different sides of the same coin. The secondary characters like Wiggins, the hypochondriac officer, young Jimmy Farraday, and the delightfully wicked old Lady Dew. The motive behind the crime is pretty far-fetched, but it's still a fun ride and one I recommend to fans of British mysteries. *Interesting note considering the importance of drama in general and Shakespeare in particular in this book: Anne Bracegirdle (1671-1748) was a noted English actress who played several Shakespearean roles such as Lady Anne in "Richard III" and Desdemona in "Othello."
What do You think about The Dirty Duck (2004)?
Richard Jury has been asked by a friend in Stratford-upon-Avon to help investigate the disappearance of Jimmy Farraday, the 9 year old adopted son of a rich American tourist. When the murder of a member of Farraday's tour group is found murdered, Jimmy's disappearance takes on greater urgency. I had a hard time staying focused on the story. Perhaps it felt too dated; there was a great deal of emphasis on the wonder of a portable computer one of the tourists was carrying, and much of the character description relied too much on caricature. I did enjoy the setting details. I've visited Stratford-on-Avon, and ate a meal at the Dirty Duck.
—Deb
The reason I enjoy Martha Grimes' Richard Jury Series is because I love her characters and actually miss them when I'm between books. Then, there's often a side topic that I learn about. In a later book, I learned about the theory behind Schroedinger's Cat, so when Sheldon mentions it on Big Bang, I proudly think, "I know about Schroedinger's Cat; Martha Grimes taught me about it." In THIS Richard Jury mystery, Shakespeare and Marlowe are discussed, which makes me want to reread "A Dead Man in Deptford" by Anthony Burgess, again, to review the politics of Elizabethan times. So, I really enjoy Martha Grimes mysteries for her lovable characters and her interesting side issues. I really don't care much "who done it." I just float through the murders and enjoy the fun ride.
—Jane Snyder
4th in the Richard Jury series.[return][return]Jury is in Stratford-on-Avon, using the return of Jenny Kennington's emerald necklace as an excuse to see the attractive widow once more. While there, he is prevailed upon by Detective Sergeant Sam Lasko of the local constabulary to talk with an American family, the Farradays, visiting Stratford as part of a tour group, about progress on finding their 9 year old son who has gone missing. But soon Jury finds himself far more involved--unofficially--as one of the tour group, an American woman, is found murdered in a most brutal way.[return][return]Melrose Plant is in Stratford desperately trying to avert the visit to Ardry End of Agatha's numerous American cousins. Thus he is right on hand when yet another female member of the tour group, this time a member of the Farraday family, is murdered in the same manner. Meantime, Melrose has inadvertently acquired a companion, Harvey Schoenberg, a young American computer specialist (this is in 1983) tour group member, who is an enthusiast of a bizarre theory about Christopher Marlowe's death. The tour group makes its way to London, where yet more murders occur. What adds to the fear in the case is that the murders appear to be occurring according to the lines in a 16th century poem, raising the possibility of many more murders to fit the poem.[return][return]Much as I love Martha Grimes and the Richard Jury series, this book is boring. Her plots are usually quite good; this one is too strained for belief. Her strong point in this series is her characters. Here, all the new ones are stock cardboard cutouts, dragged from every unflattering American (and some English) stereotype possible. Even Plant and Jury are not up to par, and Agatha does not have a large enough role to figure into any fun. Grimes' wit is a major part of the enjoyment of her books; in this one, it is greatly subdued. The climax, basically, is unbelievable.[return][return]There are some interesting aspects to the book, especially the part about the computer Schoenberg lugs around. In 1982, there were exactly 88 connections to the Internet; the computer phenomenon had not taken hold by 1983, when the book was written. Schoenberg's computer was hardly a laptop; in fact, the first portable computers weighing around 35 lbs were not really available until the late 1980's. And Schoenberg uses his computer strictly as a storage device; there is no mention of the Internet. So it's interesting that in 1983, Grimes was able to incorporate the very beginnings of what would be a world-wide phenomenal explosion of technology.[return][return]As usual, Grimes has an engaging child character, the 9 year old James Carlton Farraday. He is the typical resourceful Grimes child, and is one of the brighter spots in an otherwise dim book.[return][return]Grimeism: "Some men went for their guns under stress,some for their cigarettes. Wiggens went for his cough drops."[return][return]Overall, this is a boring book and quite untypical of the series.
—Joyce Lagow
