The Winds Of Change: A Richard Jury Novel (Richard Jury Mysteries (Hardcover))

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Summary: Jury finds himself in a whole new puzzle
Review: Fans of Martha Grimes will relish the return of the sage Superintendent Richard Jury, who in Winds Of Change has recovered from his near death at the end of the last adventure and now finds himself on a new case involving a deceased family member. Striking a little too close to home for comfort is the murder of a child and once teamed up with Brian Macalvie and his old pays, Jury finds himself in a whole new puzzle.

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Summary: It seems too long between Richard Jury novels.
Review: I am a HUGE fan of Martha Grimes, and I eagerly await each new addition to her long-running Richard Jury series. I really enjoyed this newest book in the series. Jury has matured and developed into a wonderful character, and there are still the wonderful eccentric secondary characters in this book (although we don't see too much of the Jack and Hammer crowd this time round). But we do see Melrose Plant, and he is as usual a wonderful foil for Jury's broodiness and solitariness. Ms. Grimes also does such a wonderful job with children in her stories, and this book is no exception. The indomitable Lulu is a treat! But the story behind the mystery is not so agreeable. Ms. Grimes has tread where angels fear to go with this book. She enters the seedy world of the up-scale pedophile. As usual she handles this odious subject with her usual painter's hand, and it puts us right there with Jury and Macalvie as they try to solve a number of cases that all seem connected - the disappearance of a small girl three years ago, the death of a woman on a country estate in Cornwall and a pedophile ring that has escaped the law for far too long. Nothing is as it seems (as is usual in a Richard Jury mystery), but boy do we have a lot of fun getting there in the end. Martha Grimes is a wonderful author.

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Summary: A dark, brooding entry into the Jury Series
Review: I am a huge fan of the Richard Jury series. I found this entry darker and deeper than most and ultimately quite satisfying.

In many ways, the book is a series of meditations on childhood. Not happy childhoods, of course (this is Martha Grimes)--but ones that are troubled, have undercurrents, or end suddenly and violently.

The book opens with the murder of a five year old child. In the early part of the book, Jury links the murder to a home of pedophilia near the site. In an interesting twist, the alleged backer of the pedophiliac brothel has also lost his daughter through a suspected kidnapping several years before. Jury begins connecting the dots and his journey takes him to some seamy and sordid venues. In addition, Jury himself has recently lost his last relative, a cousin, who had challenged his memories of his sad, orphaned childhood in the near past.

Jury's circle of eccentric friends--Melrose Plant, Aunt Agatha et al.--make all too brief appearances. The book is a bit too dark to have too much of their lighthearted banter.

I definitely enjoyed this installment of the Jury series. At times, I felt Grimes could have linked the plots and the sub-plots better; however, overall, it is a very satisfying read.

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Summary: Great book except for one page
Review: I'm a big Martha Grimes fan and have read all of her books several times each. I enjoyed "The Winds of Change" very much, except for one thing. Page 188 reads, "With William in the back parlor was a sodden-faced lad with the small, closely set eyes and puttylike countenance of a child cursed by Down syndrome." Grimes goes on to give an unflattering view of the child. These thoughts are not those of one of the book's characters - - they must be those of Grimes herself. She's obviously not had much contact with individuals who have Down syndrome. It is not a curse! My son has Down syndrome, and though his features are characteristic of the syndrome, I wouldn't classify them as sodden or puttylike. He is a wonderful, active, animated child with a loving heart and great potential. I felt I needed to write on behalf of all those who know and love individuals with Down syndrome. Martha Grimes' books have always shown great compassion to children - - until now.

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Summary: Very disappointing
Review: I've always loved this series, and Martha Grimes is clearly a gifted writer. However, I'm beginning to feel that authors should know when to end a series. I'm not surprised Knopf didn't want to publish any more in this one--I often think it should have ended after "The Old Contemptibles." This latest offering is no more than excuse to trot out all the cliches in the series--the regular characters, who in no way advance the plot (why does Melrose need to infiltrate Declan Scott's household??), which is barely discernible in any case, the stock children, who in no way resemble any child I've ever encountered. Jury's personal angst, which lingers on and on, from book to book. Enough is enough. Also, I quite agree with the reader who objected to Grimes' description of a child with Down syndrome. I was shocked to read those pages, particularly Wiggins' aversion to the boy. I don't know what message that was meant to send.

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Summary: Not the best in the series
Review: Martha Grimes is back with another entry in the Richard Jury series. This book revolves around three murders, a little girl shot found shot the in the head, the death of Jury's cousin, his last living relative, and the death of a strange woman found in the garden of house named Angel Gate. The owner of the Angel Gate's young stepdaughter vanished three years ago, but is not the little girl who was found shot.

Much of this story is introspective for Richard Jury as he examines his feelings about the death of his cousin who he had really never liked in life. That part of the book was very slow moving for me and ultimately did not work. Melrose Plant, a fixture in many prior Jury books was brought into this story, but seemed to be so extraneous that it seemed ridiculous. If you a fan of Richard Jury, then I would recommend reading it, but for others the prior Jury novels are much better. This one was a bit of a chore to get through.

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Summary: Grimes and Jury: a fantastic team!
Review: Martha Grimes' eagerly awaited new Richard Jury mystery is another in a long line of police procedurals worth the wait.

In "Winds of Change," Grimes' characters get involved in pedophilia, child kidnapping, and, quite literally, a garden maze of labyrinthine proportions. Grimes' regular characters once again prop up the plot as Jury sets out to solve the case, the 19th in her incredibly popular series.

Granted, the sheer weight of the subject matter is cause for a dark, uneasy feeling with readers. Grimes seems intent on this atmosphere and succeed she does. Grimes has always had a soft spot for precocious children and the relationships she shows with them and Jury and Melrose Plant are always welcomed.

Besides getting the case taken care of, Grimes' social statements are hard to ignore, one of the characteristics of a good book, I should think. Jury is Jury, and Grimes spends more time in "Winds of Change" getting inside the psyche of him, which is not a bad thing, although noticeably she seems to drift away from much of her regular characters. And perhaps new readers may find some of the references and allusions to earlier books a bit confusing.

But Jury is Jury! He's worth the examination. So's the book.



Rating:
Summary: interesting
Review: Normally, a book with a pedophilia focus would be too disturbing to read, but being a Grimes fan, I decided to try it anyway. Grimes manages to make this story readable without ignoring the horror of the topic. Most of the book focuses on Jury's search to find the murderer of a child and to solve the (related?) mystery of another child who has been missing for several years. As usual, Grime's writing is fascinating with a complex, twisting plot. You'll laugh at how Lulu (a child) gives Jury and Melrose a hard time; you'll wonder who done it as Grimes presents you with several plausible answers; and you'll experience a "take that!" moment when the good guys score one. Just one quibble: The answer to what happened to the missing child isn't very credible. Jury would have to be less perceptive than we give him credit for in order for the ending to be believable. But the fact is that Grimes has done it again--she's given us another well-written, can't-put-it-down book.

Rating:
Summary: A literary mystery that will delight lovers of the genre
Review: Once again "the game's afoot" in the latest Martha Grimes novel, THE WINDS OF CHANGE. The regulars who comprise her ensemble cast are on hand as Richard Jury, Melrose Plant and Wiggins tackle multiple cases --- the tragedy of a little girl, shot in the head on a North London street; the disappearance of another child three years before in Cornwall; the murder of a woman who was shot with a .22-caliber gun, her body found on the grounds of an estate called "Angel Gate"; and the ongoing investigation of a pedophilia ring, thought to be working out of a house near where the dead little girl was found. Would any of these cases play a role in the other cases at hand, or are they merely coincidences? Jury, like most lawmen, doesn't believe in coincidences.

As if this was not enough to keep Jury and company busy, his only living blood relative, a cousin who lived in Newcastle, dies suddenly. While the two were not really "kissin' cousins," her death has a profound impact on him: "Death had a way of kicking out the props, of smashing one's carefully constructed defenses. It was fine for him to say he saw his cousin seldom and that he wasn't close to her and that, actually, they had never liked each other. That could work in life; it didn't work in death."

The themes of memory and identity are at the core of THE WINDS OF CHANGE. Why is it that too often things are not what they seem, and what we think we remember today has a slightly different caste tomorrow? Jury wrestles with these notions while his old friend, the crusty Commander Macalvie, who brings along the recently promoted DS Cody Platt to help with the investigations, joins him and Melrose Plant. They take over "The Winds of Change ... a pub located in the village of South Petherwin." The questions about memories and identities are not far from Jury's consciousness as he listens to the outline of the now three-year-old disappearance of Flora Baumann and is also filled in on the death of the unknown woman whose body was found on Flora's stepfather's property.

Martha Grimes is a master of her genre and a writer of extraordinary power and imagination. In this, her nineteenth Richard Jury novel, she has produced a literary mystery that will delight lovers of the genre. Readers who enjoy a good tease about where a quote comes from, or what book a character has peeked out of, or allusions to writers and works, will find themselves immersed in literary trivia that will add new depth to the armchair sleuth's enjoyment. Quotes from Shakespeare and Robert Frost to Emily Dickinson's line, "Split the lark and you'll find the music" and Philip Larkin's words, "The trees are coming into leaf/ Like something almost being said", pepper the plot. Grimes repeatedly refers to Henry James's characters, books and style. She inserts and insinuates the names of characters, and shadows well-known plots from other classic writers. Even Brown's Hotel in London and Agatha Christie get the nod in this kaleidoscopic diorama of murder, mayhem and hugger-mugger crime.

The police procedural may never be the same after word gets out about how successful and fulfilling THE WINDS OF CHANGE is as a novel, a mystery, a whodunit, and a pastiche of literary hijinks. The timing of this book's release is also sage since it's far more than a summer fling. Enjoy! (...)

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Summary: Finally, a happy ending
Review: Thank you Mrs. Grimes for letting us have a lighter ending than most of the stories in this series.