Rating: 
Summary: More Fantasy than Mystery
Review: I was a big fan of Ms. Grimes' earlier works, but her last few Jury mysteries have been extremely disappointing. Again, she utilizes extremely chance meetings and far-fetched links amoung strangers to produce the mystery as well as solve it. She should also re-read her earlier books and reacquaint herself with her characters. In "The Old Fox Deceived", Melrose had backflashes about participating in a cubbing (pre-season hunt) as a 10-year-old and the trauma of having the fox's blood smeared on him as part of a bizarre ritual. In addition, in the 'Fox Deceived' story, he participated in a hunt -- galloping over fields and jumping ditches and fences -- during which a body was discovered. But, in "The Grave Maurice", he was portrayed as knowing nothing about fox-hunting nor about riding a horse. I think Martha is tired of her characters; maybe she should let them fade away gracefully.
Rating:
Summary: Quit Horsin' Around, Martha
Review: Dan Ryder is supposedly a jockey comparable in stature to the great Lester Piggott. That being the case, the story of his race in France is totally absurd to anyone even vaguely familiar with jockeys, race horses and/or the racing world. Based on truly nonsensical assumptions,it destroys the author's credibility.As do many other equine howlers, such as the scene in which an untrained rider like Melrose easily mounts a champion race horse and simply jogs along. C'mon Martha,do your homework!
Rating: 
Summary: Jury is fine, but Plant makes me laugh
Review: I thought it was great just like all the other books by Martha Grimes. Plant has become more of a main character in the Jury novels, and has been for some time. That's fine with me,I love Plant! He makes me laugh...I have always read the Jury novels, not only because they are well written , but for Plant's dry, sarcastic and sometimes caustic sense of humor. It's a great read, don't be disuaded by those who don't like the spotlight off of their beloved Jury. Change is good, and the book is still wonderfully written. So if you don't read the Grimes books for the love of Jury only, but all the wonderful characters like Agatha, Trueblood and Wiggens, then you will enjoy this one as well.
Rating:
Summary: This book is a mystery to me!
Review: My first experience reading a "Richard Jury Mystery" by Martha Grimes. Not one I will soon voluntarily repeat. Such incredible talent in her bitey aside comments, and turns and twists of phrase... such a good idea was this story line... such a loveable heroine, Nell... somehow Grimes still manages to disgust and appall and infuriate me. Ugh. With all that native talent, how could she allow this story and these characters go SO awry?
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Better get a copy at your local library first before investing on this book. I'm a Martha Grimes fan, but this book is boring. Several things turned me off. First, the story revolved around another smart, ethereal, mature, poised, etc. teenage girl whose presence alone took everyone's breath away. Second, Richard Jury is still chasing and fantazing about his beautiful women friends/neighbor/acquaintance who happened to be all single and could be in love with him. Every men in this book is mature, yet they all seem to go gaga in regards to the teenage girl. I also did not like the sexual innuendos (very irritating and over used). Martha Grimes needs fresh materials. I hope her next book is not going to include anymore precocious kids, or older men in love with these kids...
Rating:
Summary: Did the other reviewers really read this book?
Review: Martha Grimes is a master writer and has once again proven herself so with the Grave Maurice. Her plot was so spellbinding that I read the novel in just two days. It is about time that someone exposed the suffering for profit of the pregnant mares and the questionable benefit thereof to women. If we are to call ourselves civilized we must consider animals as well as people. Martha, you go girl! I found the book well plotted, with the usual great zany characters that I found highly amusing. I loved the hermit in the hermitage! I cared about all of the characters, especially the tragic and enigmatic Nell and Vernon Rice. What's not to like about this book?
Rating: 
Summary: The Jury Is Out
Review: I sometimes wonder why Grimes's books are called the "Richard Jury" books when more and more Melrose Plant seems to be taking on the job of New Scotland Yard. And how old are these guys now anyway? 50s? 60s? If Jury was 6 or 7 in 1945, well, you do the math. Still they still have their endless string of fillies, doomed and damaged, to fall in love with, bed (even with fresh bullet wounds) who are destined to either die or wither on the vine like old Viv-viv. "The Grave Maurice" is not a Grimes masterpiece, but it is still pretty good, and altogether tidier, plotwise, than "The Lamorna Wink" which had plently plot plus and lots of Plant exposition (at least we know why Plant gave up his titles) and a bad sub-plot featuring a most unbelievable child snuff film and just way too many characters. When Grimes is good, as with children and animals, Agatha at bay and Wiggins doing his Yard/Boots the Chemists thing, she is so ... good, clever and funny you will forgive her anything, but when she has Jury send Melrose the ertswhile Earl out to buy one more expensive item as a ruse (a painting, a car, a house, a horse, whatever)or as a pseudo expert (librarian, art collector, antiques appraiser, rider to the hounds) I start wondering if someone really ought to tell DCS Racer, or at Cyril the Cat, that Jury is not on the case, again. And she really is going to have to start introducing some foresenics into her crime scenes...she's dating herself. But here, she seems to have lost control of her characters, charming as they may be. As for the sub-plot of "Grave Maurice," the unnecessarily cruel way in which mares' urine is collected to manufacture Premarin, I am not at all certain if her diatribe was really that effective as a plot device or by being set against the foolish bumbling of Diane (who used to wear reds, remember Martha?), Trueblood and Plant in their following of the hunt and anti-hunters. I finished this book and immediately went back and re-read "Jerusalem Inn" and "Help the Poor Struggler" just to get good and Grimes-y again.
Rating:
Summary: Could have been better...
Review: Is Martha Grimes falling out of love with Richard Jury? To read her latest, you'd think so. We catch up with Jury while recovering from his wounds (incredibly fast, I might add). I don't think someone shot three times, then lay in a coma could recover fully after just three weeks. He's a bit cranky and bored, so Melrose tries to cheer him up by giving him a puzzle to work out. Unfortunately, I had this one figured out pretty quickly, but I wanted to see a little more interaction between Melrose and Jury. It seems like they've grown apart a bit. I liked the fact that they had a couple of lively debates, but their friendship still intact. What friends don't argue sometimes? The character of Vernon Rice fleshed out quickly, and I found myself wanting to know a little more about him than the rest of the characters. He was very similar to Jury in emotion and, strangely enough, looks. I even would have liked a little more on the relationship between he and Nell. Although Nell seemed to have a strange effect on lonely men, I think there should've been a reference to Carrie Fleet (see THE DEER LEAP). Jury thought all of his loves, and those he'd lost, and the past cases he and Melrose worked on (even returning to the Man With A Load of Mischief), but didn't see the similarities between Carrie and Nell. It wasn't a bad novel, but it seemed aloof in its point. A whole novel could've been devoted to Jury's recovery. He doesn't have to solve a mystery everytime, does he?
Rating:
Summary: hardly vintage Grimes
Review: I find myself agreeing with the first few reviewers about "The Grave Maurice" -- it was not a very engrossing or compelling a read. The first few chapters were very well done. Martha Grimes sets up the premise for the mystery-plot beautifully: Richard Jury is in hospital (The London Royal Hospital) recovering from having been seriously shot in "The Blue Last." Bored and restless, his interest is somewhat piqued when his friend, Melrose Plant, tells him of a conversation he overheard at the Grave Maurice (a pub near the hospital). Apparently Jury's surgeon, Roger Ryder, suffered a tremendous loss a couple of years ago when his fifteen year old daughter, Nell, went missing. Coincidentally, Ryder decides to confide in Jury as well, and to ask for his help in resolving the issue of his missing daughter. It turns out that Ryder's father owns a very prestigious stud farm in Cambridgeshire, and Nell, who was completely horse mad as well as possessing a rather magical empathy with horses, was living with her grandfather when she was abducted. The strange thing was that there was no demand for a ransom. And in spite of the fact that it's been almost two years, none of the Ryders have ever given up hope that Nell will return to them one day. And what Roger Ryder wants from Jury to take a fresh look at Nell's case and to see if there are any new avenues that the investigation could take. And with some alacrity Jury agrees. But the discovery of the body of a mysterious murdered woman on the Ryder Stud Farm soon throws a spanner in the works. Who was she? Why was she at the farm? And could her murder have anything to do with Nell's kidnapping? These are the questions Jury has to find answers to if he is unlock the secrets that the Ryder farm holds. As I noted earlier, the novel opens well, but after the first few chapters, the book suddenly seems to loose focus. There is plenty of atmosphere. Though I'm still not sure about the bits where we read what the horses actually think/feel -- it didn't really advance the mystery plot and just seemed to get in the way of plot development even though it did (I suppose) lend itself to the feel and mood of the plot. And there is a lot of character development. And again I wondered about this -- some of the characters just didn't need to be fully developed as secondary characters at all as they were not at all essential to the plot. Grimes, however, spared nothing in fleshing them out properly. And again I felt as if this did get in the way of the smooth flow of the mystery plot. I did a lot of FLIPPING and SKIMMING while reading this novel. And again we have the usual characters (Vivianne, Aunt Agatha, Trueblood, Carole-anne, etc) that put in an appearance even though they have very little to do with the main plot, as well as episodes that had nothing at all to do with the mystery proper -- like the bits that dealt with fox hunting. How exactly it contributed to the storyline at hand still puzzles me. I found all these extra bits to be distracting and really irritating. And while I did appreciate Martha Grimes's salute to Josephine Tey, this novel did not at all compare well to "The Daughter of Time" in that that book was a totally engrossing read that really sucked you into the mystery at hand. Sad to say, "The Grave Maurice" was not a very satisfying Richard Jury/Melrose Plant murder mystery. There have been better Richard Jury/Melrose Plant mystery novels, and might I suggest that time would be better spent rereading any one of them?
Rating:
Summary: Grave Booboos
Review: I love Grimes' books and have looked forward to this one since Jury was left in the wounded lurch. But so much of this book is distracting: why does she seem to take such a cavalier attitude towards the very commendable AA programs? And why is her evident animosity towards the pharmaceutical company producing Premarin (news, Martha, from one who knows: it ain't just for hot flashes) so all consuming in this novel? And who the heck did the editing - p. 311 ..."she brought out a bottle of RED wine....'special occasion, Puligny-Montrachet.' Grimes' tendancy to assume that every reader knows every nuance of all prior novels is especially irritating in this one. I started wth "The Old Silent," and figured my way back into the characters. But the last chapter here, with Gemma, would mean nothing to me had I not been addicted previously. Guess all authors have contracts and deadlione to meet - not up to par at all.
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