The Old Fox Deceiv'D: A Richard Jury Novel

Rating:
Summary: Curry and Grimes a winning combination
Review: A beautiful woman lies dead, her blood covering her party costume, and smearing her Harlequin face paint. She is a stranger, so not only do people wonder who killed her, but why kill a stranger? Detective Chief Inspector Richard Jury and his pal Melrose Plant are sharing a pint at the local pub The Old Fox Deceiv'd, when this came swirling with danger and deception touches them. Foxes are abound - the pub carries one in the name, Jury and Melrose find the only way to trap a foxy
killer is to ride to the foxes.

It's typically Grimes all the way, the humor dry and droll, and brought to life by the ever-so-talent Tim Curry. I just cannot imagine anyone but Curry reading Grimes. He brings all the characters to life. While my preferred medium is reading in print, I cannot resist all the Curry-Grimes tapes. They are just too perfect!

If you love British Mysteries, you cannot pass on these tapes. If you are a Curry fan, you simply need to hear him doing Aunt Agatha and Gwendolyn! This was the second in the Jury-Plant series.

Rating:
Summary: More Plant, Please!
Review: Anticipating more of the humor and eccentricities that characterized the first in this series, The Man with a Load of Mischief, I was disappointed to find much of it missing in this second book, The Old Fox Deceiv'd. The plot is as intelligent and intriguing as all of Grimes' stories in the Richard Jury series, but I prefer it balanced with the charm and delightful characterizations of the denizes of that English village Long Piddleton. While Richard Jury is Grimes' hero in this series, the character of Melrose Plant is the one that makes me keep returning to these books for more.

Rating:
Summary: intriguing but not as funny
Review: As the previous reviewer said, I enjoyed The Man with a Load of Mischief largely for the humor, and that was provided by the characters of Melrose Plant and his Aunt Agatha and by the setting of Long Piddleton. I was relieved to find Plant eventually turning up in this plot as well, but only through a farfetched coincidence. The overall tone was gloomier than in the first book, which was disappointing, since I get plenty of gloom from Elizabeth George's wonderful, but depressing, books. I'm also waiting to see (I haven't read any other books in the series yet) if the character of Jury is ever developed more fully. We're told that he tends to get depressed, he wonders if he's a good policeman, and he likes to make tracks in fresh snow -- and as far as I can remember, that's about it. Almost every character in the book seems to have more of a distinct personality than Jury does. I will keep reading the series but will hope for more Aunt Agatha and less fog.