The Old Contemptibles (Richard Jury Mysteries Book 11)

Sad to say, while I enjoy the books in this series (some more than others) I find that I forget them pretty quickly after reading them. Show me the book and I can't tell you what happened within the pages. Maybe it's the titles don't tie well to the stories? This one I remembered after I read it. It's very twisty, turny. A good mystery, well drawn characters, and a bit sad. I like the books, and the main characters, however, it's aad in that the main characters are written such that they appear to equate sex with love, as though that's all it take to have a relationship. And they are men who are very much about looks, far less about depth. Even the friendship with the cartoonish Carole Ann isn't based on anything on the main character's side, though its one of the strongest in the series. Relationships never work out because they are never in relationships. Which is disappointing. The author is good with writing light friendships and even light unfriendships, but nothing more tangible for her characters.

When the woman with whom Richard Jury is engaged in a passionate affair is found dead of a barbiturate overdose in her flat, it seems that Jury's famously bad luck with women has reached its nadir. Since the death is considered "suspicious," Scotland Yard investigates, and since, because of his relationship with her, Jury is considered a possible suspect, he is suspended from the force. Unable to participate himself, he deploys his friend Melrose Plant to go to the woman's family home in the Lake District and go undercover to find out what he can about their relationships.The fabulously wealthy Plant impersonates a down-at-heels librarian who hires himself out to the family in order to catalog and organize their library. He is soon discovering all kinds of interesting things about the family.For one thing, this family seems extraordinarily unlucky. They have suffered four suspicious deaths in a period of five or six years. One was definitely a suicide and the latest one, who is the widow of the suicide, may be also. But the other two deaths were put down as accidents. Melrose suspects something more sinister.We have most of the usual characters that we've come to care about, but also there are a dismaying number of characters either in or somehow connected to the family and it is hard to keep them all straight. Too, it is hard to get much more than a very passing sense of who they are and what their motives might be.As usual, we can depend on Grimes giving us charming children characters who are usually much smarter and more accomplished than the adults in their lives. In this instance, we have the teenage son of Jury's dead paramour and an eleven-year-old girl named Millie who has a black cat named Sorcerer. (Yes, we can depend on having a perspicacious animal involved as well.) Grimes clearly has a soft spot for such characters and they are always lovingly drawn.She also gives us the curmudgeonly patriarch of the family - the one with all the money - who chooses to live in a retirement home rather than with his family, most members of whom he doesn't like much. He does like and value Alex, the paramour's son, and Millie. He has some interesting friends that we get to know at the retirement home, especially one named Lady Cray who plays an important role in the ending, where rough justice is efficiently dispensed.I do enjoy Grimes' writing. In general, it is very crisp. Her plots flow (seemingly) effortlessly and, based on her output, she seems to have an inexhaustible supply of them.That being said, I thought this book was just a bit weak. Part of the problem, I think, was the plethora of characters and being unable to really home in on the most important ones. I can usually figure out whodunit from the clues scattered throughout, but I didn't get this one, and even after the denouement, I found it a bit confusing.But I did like Millie and Sorcerer.

Martha Grimes introduces one of her most delightful characters in Lady Cray, who cann't resist stealing red ribbons in THE OLD CONTEMPTIBLES. Richard Jury meets a widow in an open air market and embarks on a torrid affair. But the lovely Jane Holdsworth ends up dead, discovered by her young son when he is sent down from school for playing poker and the ponies.Jury is warned to remain in London as he was the last person to see Mrs. Holdsworth alive. In desperation he sends Melrose Plant, posing as a weird librarian to discover why so many children in the family are having deadly accidents.This one is funny clear through to the end as Lady Cray demonstrates how far someone will go to protect the innocent.Nash Black, author of SANDPRINTS OF DEATH.

I have always loved the Richard Jury series and respected the writing of Martha Grimes, but this one didn't measure up in plot or mystery. Parts felt rushed or contrived, others felt too over done or unnecessary. A case of poor editing? Rushed manuscript? It felt more like a draft copy. I wonder if the authors, once they are successful, feel too much pressure to churn out the books--perhaps too soon--and so the quality suffers.

Um.... why is Amazon asking me what did I use this product for???It is a book. I read it and enjoyed it very much

Great read

The book covers have damage and the pages are yellowed. It may not have been read before, but it is not in new condition.

I enjoy this series.

This is a great book for a relaxing read escaping to an earlier eraNot expensive so recommended to other readers

Wieder ein großartiges Buch voller Tragik, Spannun, aber auch Witz. Erstaunlich, dass eine Amerikanerin so durch und durch Englisch schreiben und englische Charaktere so punktgenau treffen kann. kann. Ich habe wieder angefangen, die Grimes Bücher zu lesen, die ich bis auf 2 noch alle habe und bin genauso hingerissen wie vor vielen Jahren!Das Buch war in sehr gutem Zustand und wurde schnell geliefert. Danke AwesomeBooks Deutschland!!

Another great book.

Wonderful !!!!

Another Jury winner. Plant is hilarious character. Grimes has it nailed