Rating: 
Summary: High on the list of the ten worst mysteries I have ever read
Review: Save your money, eyes and brain. This is THE WORST! This author has lost me...PERMANENTLY!
Rating: 
Summary: TIM CURRY IS MARTHA GRIMES' BEST AUDIO INTERPRETER!
Review: Serious readers are wary of abridgements, often for good reason. Not having read this book in its unabridged form, I have my suspicions of what got cut from the audio version of "The Case" -- the background of the various suspects seems a bit less developed here, although I still wondered "whodunit" until the protagonists arrived at their conclusion. There also may have been some deleting of the descriptions of the bleak Lincolnshire fens, but with little loss to the overall effect of the tale.And what a tale that is! Not so much due to Grimes taking the English detective mystery to any new level - she doesn't do that nor intends to. The real laurels here go to reader/actor Tim Curry. He gets all of the character nuances just right, moving with ease and flair across British class, age and gender lines. He brings out with brio the fullest comedic potential of the text, clearly relishing his fleshing out of the eccentricities and peculiarities of Grimes' range of characters and situations. This is the perfect tape set for anyone facing a long commute. You'll be well entertained and amused. For Curry's perfomrance: six stars!!
Rating: 
Summary: Martha Grimes is Good, but she makes me nuts
Review: Somebody please help me
I keep reading the Richard Jury novels and I
keep hoping to figure out the characters and
I never do
Richard J. Needs a life. Melrose Plant needs a
life. All those people in Long Pidd do,
Real people just don't behave that way.
For god's sake, Richard, if you want to know
what's up with Jenny, ask her! What's with this
ten-year-long mooning around?
Still, Martha writes so well. The prose is so
smooth. The plots are so interesting. And MG
does great things with her strange child characters
Why at the end of every novel am I left
frustrated and unsatisfied?
Any answers would be appreciated>
Rating:
Summary: Grimes needs to retire Jury, her tired detective.
Review: The Case Has Altered disappoints on several levels. Ms. Grimes has obviously run out of steam and her weary characterization of Richard Jury in this latest offering shows it. He's not running the show --big mistake-- and is written like a supporting character, disappearing from the scene for several chapters in a row. The minor characters are more interesting than the majors who are, with the exception of Melrose Plant, colorless and enigmatic to the point of being obscure. The author's attempt to cast suspicion on them by cloaking them in mysterious motivations and cryptic dialogue backfires. We could hardly care less about Grace and Max Owens, Jenny and company. Probably the worst flaw in the novel is the author's tiresome and endless retelling of the events of the crimes. Every character must rehearse these tidbits until the reader is ready to scream, "enough!" This latest in the series featuring English pubs is stretched so thin that if it weren't for the author's track record, I doubt if it would have made it into print. She has also committed the unpardonable sin of raising a question and then leaving it unanswered. What IS Zel's real name?
Rating:
Summary: I did not reconize the characters in this latest Jury novel.
Review: The names are the same in the Richard Jury series,but the personalities are so different in the previous books. I have read all of the books in the series and I think Ms. Grimes needs to kill off most of the characters and start a new series.
Rating: 
Summary: retirement long overdue
Review: The next book should probably feature Melrose Plant instead as the lead. He's the most interesting and fully developed character in the entire series, and the only one worth reading about.
Rating:
Summary: We get set on an answer, nearly impossible to dislodge.
Review: The writing is smooth, competent. The location is the fens. Two women from the same area are murdered by different means. Richard Jury arrives, even though Scotland Yard has not received a summons for help.
The scene is set in an interesting fashion by this experienced author. A friend of Jury's, Jennifer Kennington, is a suspect. She was a house guest at Fengate. Fengate is a problem since another guest there, Max Owen's first wife, Verna, and a maid servant are the victims in question. Since Jury wants to have a police plant in the house, Melrose Plant, (interesting play on the name), pretends to be an antiques specialist. Jury knows which pieces Max Owen wants to have valued and so Marshall Trueblood teaches Melrose about these specific pieces.
The title is, surely not surprising to readers of this series, the name of a pub. In a scene where Melrose Plant is drinking Old Peculiar one wonders whether there really is such a thing. Max Owen has an eclectic collection, Matisse next to Landseer, and that sort of thing. Grace Owen calls her husband's sculpture hall the cold ladies. Melrose finds it difficult to impersonate an antiques dealer. Max Owen thinks that most dealers have a talent for the past. Max is enthralled with his possessions. He admits that he really wants someone to talk to about them.
The servant, Dorcas, died in Wyndham Fens, acres of waterland in the care of the National Trust. Verna Dunn died two weeks previously. She had been an actress and trouble maker. The cook advises Melrose that Dorcas had been a terrible snoop. The local police are ready to arrest Jennifer Kennington because she and Verna had been related to each other and there had been long-standing animosity.
Investigation reveals that Verna had been present when gun shots had resulted in the blindness of one person and the indirect death of the stepson of Max. She had been a good marksman. The trial outcome for Jennifer Kennington is release but not acquittal. Another trial, a slip and fall case involving Melrose's Aunt Agatha, is comic relief.
Any prospective reader will find this enjoyable. It is possible to obtain stray information. For example, I did not know that Limehouse had been gentrified.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: This is the first of Martha Grimes' books that I have read, so I don't have much to compare it with, but I really loved it. The characters are vivid and interesting, and there is a wonderful sense of place here. I hadn't thought much about the English fens, but this book makes you want to look at pictures of them or go there. Grimes' descriptions of the light on the fens are particularly good. I figured out who the murderer was fairly early on here, but, as with many of the mystery writers that I like, who did it isn't as important as how you get there, and this is an excellent book from that perspective. The characterizations are wonderful, and the child character of Zell is particularly spendid. One comment here is that this books seems to exist out of time. I know that it is supposed to be set in the present, but there is very little way to tell that as you read. Some might say that this is not a good thing--is English life that changeless in the upper classes? but I found it interesting and perhaps intentional.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: This is the first of Martha Grimes' books that I have read, so I don't have much to compare it with, but I really loved it. The characters are vivid and interesting, and there is a wonderful sense of place here. I hadn't thought much about the English fens, but this book makes you want to look at pictures of them or go there. Grimes' descriptions of the light on the fens are particularly good. I figured out who the murderer was fairly early on here, but, as with many of the mystery writers that I like, who did it isn't as important as how you get there, and this is an excellent book from that perspective. The characterizations are wonderful, and the child character of Zell is particularly spendid. One comment here is that this books seems to exist out of time. I know that it is supposed to be set in the present, but there is very little way to tell that as you read. Some might say that this is not a good thing--is English life that changeless in the upper classes? but I found it interesting and perhaps intentional.
Rating:
Summary: An absolute must for the lover of this genre!!
Review: What a book!! The best I've read since I've forgotten when. It made me realize why I love the English language so, beautifully written. I understand perfectly why Miss Cornwell says Grimes' work is poetry for the way she writes and the words Miss Grimes uses are those of a poet. Beautiful scenery, lifelike characters and a thoroughly satisfying end. Undoubtetly it has been said before but for once I don't mind repeating another man's words: an absolute must!! Since this was the first Richard Jury (and Martha Grimes) book I've read I'll be drawn inside every bookshop by an irresistable force: the other books by Martha Grimes!!
| 
