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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
My reviews for Martha Grimes are like a roller coaster. Some I love and others not so much. This one had me until the end. I thought it ended abruptly. The story built well, the tension seemed to be climaxing at the right moment and then it ended. I don't necessary need a policeman wrap up but it just felt incomplete.
I didn't really see the motive for the murders in this one. Still I enjoy reading about Wiggins and his ailments!
It had moments of humor and character development, but the murder plot was a bit convoluted for me and hard to follow. I could've forgiven that had the ending tied things up in a neat bow but sadly it was just as convoluted as the rest of the story. The ending was so abrupt I checked to make sure my used copy wasn't simply missing pages! This was the first Martha Grimes novel I tried so I'm not going to write off the whole series. Perhaps this particular book was the victim of an unyielding deadline!
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Having just finished Middlemarch, I felt the need for a short, light, quick read to give myself a change of pace. Well, Martha Grimes' Richard Jury mysteries usually fill that bill and I've been slowly reading my way through them, so I decided to pick up the next one in the series, I am the Only Running Footman. It was indeed a quick read, but that's just about the only praise I can give it.
What was the woman thinking? Her writing is usually pretty crisp and flows smoothly, but this book, published in 1986, was confused and disjointed in its plotting. I had a hard time maintaining interest and it was a struggle just to finish it. If it hadn't been so short, perhaps I wouldn't have. Really, the book had the feeling of having been cobbled together with leftover ideas from other plots and they didn't hang together very well at all.
This book again features Macalvie, the obsessive but brilliant policeman who was introduced in the last book. He's an attractive character, but I don't know why Grimes stuck him in this story because she barely used him.
The same might be said of Melrose Plant, Superintendent Richard Jury's friend from the provinces who frequently assists the police with their inquiries. He's present but hardly heard from.
We do hear quite a lot from Sgt. Wiggins who, in spite of his annoying hypochondria, is presented as an invaluable assistant to Jury and an empathetic interviewer for crime victims and their families.
The mystery here involves the murder of two women. The first one was killed on Macalvie's patch and he was unable to solve the crime which rankles him. Almost a year later, another young woman is killed in a similar manner in Mayfair and Jury is assigned to that case. Soon the two cases are melded and Jury starts looking for connections between the two victims.
He eventually finds a possible link to a very close-knit family, a member of whom had been involved romantically with the Mayfair victim. That person has an alibi, though it seems a bit flimsy. But what could be the motive? The key to the mystery lies in the family's tragic past, but will Jury ever be able to make the connections?
On the list of things that annoyed me about this book, number one is the abrupt ending. Jury finally has one of his patented epiphanies and supposedly figures the whole thing out, but I read the ending twice and I'm still not sure what happened or which of two characters was the perpetrator. Moreover, I did not see any real clues sprinkled throughout the narrative and that's just not playing fair. Oh, for the days, when Hercule Poirot gathered everyone together in the library and laid it all out for us, step by step, leaving no confusion.
I won't give up on this series, yet. I do like the characters of Jury and Wiggins, and especially Cyril the cat who inhabits the offices of Jury's superior, to his enormous irritation. But I'm going to take a rest from it for awhile and I certainly hope Grimes picks up her game with the next entry.
What was the woman thinking? Her writing is usually pretty crisp and flows smoothly, but this book, published in 1986, was confused and disjointed in its plotting. I had a hard time maintaining interest and it was a struggle just to finish it. If it hadn't been so short, perhaps I wouldn't have. Really, the book had the feeling of having been cobbled together with leftover ideas from other plots and they didn't hang together very well at all.
This book again features Macalvie, the obsessive but brilliant policeman who was introduced in the last book. He's an attractive character, but I don't know why Grimes stuck him in this story because she barely used him.
The same might be said of Melrose Plant, Superintendent Richard Jury's friend from the provinces who frequently assists the police with their inquiries. He's present but hardly heard from.
We do hear quite a lot from Sgt. Wiggins who, in spite of his annoying hypochondria, is presented as an invaluable assistant to Jury and an empathetic interviewer for crime victims and their families.
The mystery here involves the murder of two women. The first one was killed on Macalvie's patch and he was unable to solve the crime which rankles him. Almost a year later, another young woman is killed in a similar manner in Mayfair and Jury is assigned to that case. Soon the two cases are melded and Jury starts looking for connections between the two victims.
He eventually finds a possible link to a very close-knit family, a member of whom had been involved romantically with the Mayfair victim. That person has an alibi, though it seems a bit flimsy. But what could be the motive? The key to the mystery lies in the family's tragic past, but will Jury ever be able to make the connections?
On the list of things that annoyed me about this book, number one is the abrupt ending. Jury finally has one of his patented epiphanies and supposedly figures the whole thing out, but I read the ending twice and I'm still not sure what happened or which of two characters was the perpetrator. Moreover, I did not see any real clues sprinkled throughout the narrative and that's just not playing fair. Oh, for the days, when Hercule Poirot gathered everyone together in the library and laid it all out for us, step by step, leaving no confusion.
I won't give up on this series, yet. I do like the characters of Jury and Wiggins, and especially Cyril the cat who inhabits the offices of Jury's superior, to his enormous irritation. But I'm going to take a rest from it for awhile and I certainly hope Grimes picks up her game with the next entry.
dark
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
All over the place with a very absurd end. Two of the usual characters are window dressing (Plant and Macalvie) and there are too many plot points that go nowhere. One bright thing, well actually two, Wiggins is still my favourite and he has a somewhat interesting part in this book and the Warboys family who's pub/inn is just too good to be real in a catastrophic way. A very weak 2 stars.
My reviews for Martha Grimes are like a roller coaster. Some I love and others not so much. This one had me until the end. I thought it ended abruptly. The story built well, the tension seemed to be climaxing at the right moment and then it ended. I don't necessary need a policeman wrap up but it just felt incomplete.