Rating: 
Summary: I wanted to get it, but I really didn't get it.
Review: Reading this book is actually a little bit of a dislocating experience. I really like Martha Grimes' writing, even when I quibble about some of the plot elements, and I'd really looked forward to a long hot bath enjoying this one.And I did enjoy the book, for about 90 pages. The build-up was nice. I liked the characters. I thought racing and a stud farm was going to be good material for Grimes. But the trouble was, after 90 pages the plot completely fell apart. I've actually gone back and re-read sections and I still don't get everything that happened with Maurice's father. I certainly found the stuff around Nell and the farm stretched until you could hear the fabric of the book screaming. And I'm angry about the fact that I knew what was going to happen at the end of the book. The world doesn't really need any more too-good-to-live characters, does it? I'm honestly surprised that her publishers let her go to market with the book in this state. From any other author, it would get less than one star. For Grimes, and because I still enjoyed elements of it, I gave it one star extra.
Rating:
Summary: Grimes on a Downward Spiral
Review: I've read all the Richard Jury novels. The last two have been awful...meandering plots, weak endings, characters who have little credibility. I agree. It's time to bury Ruchard Jury.
Rating: 
Summary: An English mystery with guns
Review: Like other novels in the series, the title is the name of a pub. In this case, the pub is in the opening scene, then disappears from the plot. Like the novels of Dick Francis, this one involves racing. The plot, perhaps, is a little too complicated, with a few too many characters but some surprising twists. Like the Dick Francis novels, you learn a lot about racing - in this case stud farms. It is a lose girl, find girl, lose girl again type plot. It takes a few chapters to develop the plot. While you think you may have guilty parties identified, the final conclusion is not obvious. Richard Jury and Melrose Plant are involved in the investigation, and there are digressions into the affairs of Long Piddleton. Melrose acquires a horse and a resident hermit. One of the problems with the novel is that the author cannot seem to stay on a single track. It is an interesting novel, but too many digressions can make a story drag.
Rating: 
Summary: A slower pace, but still shows good form
Review: Perhaps Grimes is growing a little tired of the Richard Jury formula. In any case, she rings a few changes in The Grave Maurice, and has a little fun paying oblique tribute to Josephine Tey and Dick Francis, without trying to imitate either one. The biggest change is that Jury is still largely sidelined, from injuries received in the previous episode, which sets Melrose Plant more front and center. Another difference is that this book is less self-contained than the rest, relying on the reader to import some back story from The Blue Last. I had worried that Grimes, in a spirit of homage to Francis, would attempt to plunge into details of the horse-racing world. She couldn't have possibly competed with Francis's authenticity in that arena, but fortunately she didn't try. All the action takes place in the much more laid-back world of a stud farm, with the only races being the ghosts of remembered heats in the beautiful Philip Larkin poem that serves as the epigraph. And Martha writes several scenes from the point of view of one of the farm's retired animals, a flight of lyric fancy that would have struck Francis as silly if it had ever occurred to him. Here it works just fine. The pace is very relaxed. The plot, as some negative reviewers have noted, is also laid out in a fashion relaxed enough to be count, maybe, as sloppy. After all, Jury is on a forced holiday. So the pace and the noodling turns of the case fit. And I was relieved to be spared the obligatory office visit, with Cyril's obligatory humiliation of Racer. The overall mood, though quiet, remains dark. Perhaps even darker than The Blue Last. Don't expect a feel-good ending, and be prepared for a smaller than usual dose of comic relief at Long Pid. It's certainly not Grimes's finest outing, but it was a decent read and in some ways a fresh approach to the series. By no means is it time yet for Grimes to put Jury and Plant out to pasture. I'm at a loss to understand the vehemence of some of the bad reviews here, which is why I've rounded my 3.5 star evaluation up rather than down.
Rating:
Summary: This may be my last Martha Grimes book...
Review: The good news about this book is that it reunites us with Richard Jury and Melrose Plant. The bad news is that Martha Grimes can't figure out if she wants to write plausible forensic murder, implausible sensational murder, or drawing room comedy. I keep thinking I'm going to just give up on her and this time I just might. This one stretches the reader's gullibility to extremes and although it makes a very good point about the horrible fate of the thousands of pregnant mares who supply the drug industry with their urine for hormone replacement therapy, she doesn't give this choice story thread a chance. One of the things that I hate the most is going back and forth from serious murder mystery to the comedy of Long Piddlington, home of zany denizens and Melrose Plant. It is like she can't decide which kind of story to write, so she writes both.
Rating: 
Summary: Farfetched coincidences, don't you think?
Review: Warning! Gives away plot! A young girl is kidnapped and raped and they let her have the run of the farm? She has the run of the farm and she doesn't run away immediately? I can barely accept Maurice believing that his dead(!) father needs to speak to Nell (why?) but after realizing Nell is kidnapped, why would he keep silent? He knows who talked to him! Jockeys on the wrong horse? His wife jumps at the chance to identify someone else as her dead husband? No one misses the real dead guy? And then it's a case of revenge from a character we barely know? Oh, dear, this one really strains the imagination. And after all that, Nell dies? The only thing that might have saved this book for me is if Nell ended up with Vernon. I love Martha Grimes and I have been happily wending my way through the Richard Jury novels, but this one I wish I had missed.
Rating:
Summary: one foot in the grave maurice
Review: The Grave Maurice begins with the solid fictional premise of love and denial in the extended family. But instead of developing any plot or characterization, Grimes relies on vaguely ridiculous humor that will be of interest only to dedicated fans. Brush away the stock characters and the initial conceit and all that is left is an artless "tina and tom meet animal rights."
Rating:
Summary: What in the world happened . . .?
Review: I've read them all, and I've obviously enjoyed some more than others. But at the very least all of them have engaged my interest enough to get me through the book. All until now. I tried to slog my way through, but ultimately I gave up around page 150 and commited a heretical act among mystery readers -- I turned to the last few chapters just so I could see "whodunnit". Even that was boring. Maybe Ms. Grimes was thinking more about her next (non-Jury) novel, which has received excellent reviews. Whatever the reason, this stands out like a huge sore thumb amongst the generally well-written Jury novels.
Rating:
Summary: Whoa Nellie!
Review: I've dipped in and out of the Richard Jury series over the years, and generally I've found Martha Grimes' books to be entertaining and well-written -- though not perfect. By contrast, "Grave Maurice" is gravely flawed. How in the world could the mere photograph of a 15-year-old girl, Nell Ryder, engender such intense feelings of yearning and passion in every grown man who sees it? When Nell appears in the flesh, she's described as lucent and luminous but actually seems one-dimensional in the extreme. Meanwhile, the plot is awash in coincidences that rob it of honesty. Face it: Melrose Plant is the one decent character -- give him his own series, Martha, and give handsome Richard Jury's bullet-riddled, bed-hopping body a little rest.
Rating:
Summary: Not Her Best Work
Review: I've only read four of the Richard Jury series (Old Silent, Load of Mischief, Stargazey, and this). I have to agree with several reviewers that this is not up to her usual level, although hardly the worst detective novel I've ever read. The scenes with Aunt Agatha and the hermit were highly amusing. One correction to another review - it was pretty clear to me that Hadrian's Wall was a nickname in the book, not the real wall. But this is not recommended as one's first Martha Grimes novel.
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