When the woman with whom Richard Jury is engaged in a passionate affair is found dead of a barbiturate overdose in her flat, it seems that Jury's famously bad luck with women has reached its nadir. Since the death is considered "suspicious," Scotland Yard investigates, and since, because of his relationship with her, Jury is considered a possible suspect, he is suspended from the force. Unable to participate himself, he deploys his friend Melrose Plant to go to the woman's family home in the Lake District and go undercover to find out what he can about their relationships.The fabulously wealthy Plant impersonates a down-at-heels librarian who hires himself out to the family in order to catalog and organize their library. He is soon discovering all kinds of interesting things about the family.For one thing, this family seems extraordinarily unlucky. They have suffered four suspicious deaths in a period of five or six years. One was definitely a suicide and the latest one, who is the widow of the suicide, may be also. But the other two deaths were put down as accidents. Melrose suspects something more sinister.We have most of the usual characters that we've come to care about, but also there are a dismaying number of characters either in or somehow connected to the family and it is hard to keep them all straight. Too, it is hard to get much more than a very passing sense of who they are and what their motives might be.As usual, we can depend on Grimes giving us charming children characters who are usually much smarter and more accomplished than the adults in their lives. In this instance, we have the teenage son of Jury's dead paramour and an eleven-year-old girl named Millie who has a black cat named Sorcerer. (Yes, we can depend on having a perspicacious animal involved as well.) Grimes clearly has a soft spot for such characters and they are always lovingly drawn.She also gives us the curmudgeonly patriarch of the family - the one with all the money - who chooses to live in a retirement home rather than with his family, most members of whom he doesn't like much. He does like and value Alex, the paramour's son, and Millie. He has some interesting friends that we get to know at the retirement home, especially one named Lady Cray who plays an important role in the ending, where rough justice is efficiently dispensed.I do enjoy Grimes' writing. In general, it is very crisp. Her plots flow (seemingly) effortlessly and, based on her output, she seems to have an inexhaustible supply of them. That being said, I thought this book was just a bit weak. Part of the problem, I think, was the plethora of characters and being unable to really home in on the most important ones. I can usually figure out whodunit from the clues scattered throughout, but I didn't get this one, and even after the denouement, I found it a bit confusing.But I did like Millie and Sorcerer.
This is the second Superintendent Jury novel I've read and number 11 in the series. The first one I read was the 1st of the series, "The Man With The Load Of Mischief". While I enjoyed the first Richard Jury book, I thought it was just a so-so mystery that was fairly forgettable. Because I am a huge British mystery fan, I usually always give these writers at least a couple of chances. I had in my possession "The Old Contemptibles", so I read it.Much like the first novel of the series I wasn't that impressed with the mystery itself and actually solved it long before the end of the book. You would think that would take away from the book. Surprisingly it didn't, mainly because the characters are so rich and humorous that you can't help but grow to enjoy them. I will be the first to admit that "The Old Contemptibles" and Martha Grimes in general is not an easy read. Not that it is difficult literature, but Martha Grimes has a style that is very difficult at times to follow. Chapters begin mid-sentence or mid-thought, she uses terms probably not familiar to most American readers, she is slow to the point at times, and sometimes feels a little rambling. All these negatives accounted for, as I read the book, I just kept enjoying it more and more. After two novels I have gotten more used to her writing style and pace and have overcame much of my confusion while reading her books. Once you get a feel for her style, it becomes much easier to get through the books.While adapting to her style, I have also come to adore the characters in Long Piddleton and find the authors humor and wit irresistible. Melrose, Jury, Agatha, Vivian, and all the other regular cast of characters are amongst my favorites in all of fiction. The Old Contemptibles was a good book that I would rate 3/5 stars but I added a 4th star simply because the ending was wonderful. Rarely does the ending of a mystery novel exceed the build-up for me, but in this occasion (even though I had solved who the guilty party was), the ending was quite a payoff.I will continue to read this series thrown in amongst my other favorites, and look forward to spending more time in Long Pid.
What do You think about The Old Contemptibles (2006)?
How does Martha Grimes manage to publish so many books that rely on the same "set-piece" scenes and obsessions. . . who cares whether Vivian gets married, how many fairy cakes Agatha eats or drinks are consumed at the local pub, what sign Carol-Anne is, whether the old woman downstairs answers the door. . . I feel like she must re-open the same file each time she starts a book to change the color of the weird omniscient cat and the name of the peculiar orphan girl. . . really, it's remarkable. Even more remarkable is the fact that I still pick up these books from time to time. But I also eat certain junk foods, unable to resist, knowing that there will be only the most transient satisfaction involved.
—Alice
The beauty about Martha Grimes' book are that they are so engaging. Her characters are well thought out, extremely ridiculous and funny, and they stay with you long after you finish reading. And I'm not talking about the main characters either, which are very engaging in their own rights. Jury was not really the central character for this story. The lady he was seeing, and considering for marriage after two weeks-yeah that was a bit ridiculous-ends up dead. Is it suicide? Or murder? But as he is a suspect he has to stay away from the case, at least in the beginning, and the story continues with his good friend Melrose Plant going undercover in the lady's family's home to try to find out more about her. The supporting characters, as previously mentioned, were hilariously well written, and I remember thinking how this book was such a wonderful blend of mystery and sit-com that I really couldn't put it down. How in the world Grimes managed to keep my attention on so many characters, I honestly don't know. We have deceased's sister, who was jealous of the fact that the deceased stole the man she was supposed to marry, even though that man didn't look twice at her. And even after that, the sister stayed in the employment of the family. Then we have the bland father-in-law and his superficial second wife, the father-in-law's brother, the deceased's resourceful son and his crazy great-grandfather--who is the only person in that family that the son actually likes, Millie--the kitchen aid/cook/comrade in arms to both the son and great-grandfather, the staff at Castle Howe-which is the retirement home that the great-grandfather stays at, and the kleptomaniac and another comrade in arms, Lady Cray. The author weaves the story lines together so beautifully, that you just end up getting caught up in the story, and the next thing you know, you finished the book and are eager to pick up the next one just to see what happens.
—Doina
I read this book before, twenty-some years ago when it first came out, but I didn't remember any of the plot. In the end, I really liked this book. But at the start, I was a little put off by it. It seemed like a recycled storyline; Richard Jury meets a girl, develops an emotional attachment to her and shortly thereafter she ends up dead. The first third of the book I found wanting. The story seemed to develop a little slowly and the plot seemed to similar to Jerusalem Inn and while I liked the new characters of Alex and Adam, the development just seemed too slow. The last two thirds I thought was much better paced. There was A LOT of Melrose, which I thoroughly enjoyed since he is my favorite character. The interaction between Adam and Lady Cray was wonderful as well. I really enjoyed those characters. Once again though, there are a couple of pages near the end told from the point of view of an animal. In this case Sorcerer the cat. Until near the end I was unsure of who the responsible party was, so the intrigue was nice.The hardcover was formatted well with no obvious grammatical or spelling errors.
—Kamas Kirian
