Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Jury Discovers Passion, a Delicious Plot, a Literary Journey for Melrose Plant, and More Wine with Harry Johnson, 12 Feb 2007
Martha Grimes packed enough material into this book to make at least six normal detective novels. Pay close attention . . . the detail all counts.
If you want Ms. Grimes to write more books that remind you of The Dirty Duck, I suggest you go back and re-read the first 19 books in the series. She's clearly decided to take her hero and her series in new directions.
There's good news and bad about that. The good news is that the stories now open themselves up in new ways. The bad news is that many readers won't car for the new ways.
It's hard to write about this book without including a spoiler accidentally. Any description is also bound to be very misleading in terms of what the book is about. I'll do my best.
As the book opens, young Benny Keegan finds himself unexpectedly delivering room service coffee for two in the restaurant with rooms, Zetter's, where he works. When no one answers, Benny pushes the door open and discovers the dead body of a man who has obviously been killed. Concerned about his vulnerability as a homeless child to a murder investigation, Benny calls Richard Jury at home. Jury brings a doctor with him and quickly inserts himself into the investigation, hoping to shelter Benny from any fall out. Things are going along normally until Jury meets Lu Aguilar, who will be running the investigation for the local police. As an investigatory team, they are most unusual in the history of detective fiction.
Jury knows the victim's grandfather and makes some of the most delicate contacts. But as Jury delves into the past, he finds much to be surprised about in the present. Why does a wealthy young man, Billy Maples, of no particular interests sprinkle gifts on artists who show little potential? Why does the same young man choose to live in Lamb's House, where Henry James wrote such masterpieces? No one claims to dislike the victim, and there's no will. The heirs are already quite wealthy. Who benefits?
Casting his net ever wider, Jury looks deeply into the pasts of all those who knew the victim and finds all kinds of unexpected connections. In terms of solving the mystery, Jury is at a loss until he receives some unexpected information near the end of the story. But it's clear that Harry Johnson sees it as an open-and-shut case (if you remember him from The Old Wine Shades).
What's the book's weakness? Some will say it's the character development. That part worked all right for me. Others will be annoyed with the unusual number of red herrings. I didn't mind those either. I found that the story contained unnecessary elements that seemed to be there mostly to appease long-term fans. Cut to the chase, Ms. Grimes.
I liked all of the surprises in the story. They whet my appetite for deeper and more appealing mysteries in the future involving Richard Jury. Clearly, Ms. Grimes is going to be taking us to new, and more interesting, places in the future. I'm looking forward to the journey!
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
a decent read, 10 Mar 2007
I had decided against reading this latest Richard Jury installment. While many of her later Richard Jury novels (and we won't include "The Old Wine Shades" here) have been largely decent reads in spite of certain factors (characters and subplots that hijack the novel even though they have precious little to do with the main plot), these later installments really pale in comparison to her earlier stellar work. And so I had decided not to bother about reading "Dust" especially when I had heard that Jury's main preoccupation here was about bedding the detective in charge of the case he's horned in on, Detective Inspector Lu Aguilar. But a weekend looming with nothing to read, made me breakdown and borrow the book. And in the end I'm glad that I did. True, there was the unfortunate Jury-Aguilar diversion, but for the most part, in spite of the slowish start, "Dust" turned out to be a decent read.
When young Benny Keegan discovers the dead body of a guest in the patio of one of the room's at Zetter's (a rather posh London hotel), his first thought, after ascertaining that the man is actually dead, is to call up his friend Richard Jury of New Scotland Yard. After all, as an underaged child working illegally at the hotel, Benny cannot afford to be caught in the middle of a murder investigation, and that's where Jury comes in -- to stand between the wheels of an official investigation and Benny. For Jury however, this investigation poses a whole set of different problems. To begin with there is the murder victim, Billy Maples, a rich young man, given to lavish spending, mood swings, and who was such an aficionado of Henry James' that he rented James' cottage in Rye from the National Trust. Why was Maples murdered? For gain, or for revenge? Satisfied with none of the many hypothesis floating around, Jury sends Melrose Plant (once again) under cover, to see if Melrose can uncover some dirt that would shed light on Billy's murder. More disturbingly, though, is Jury's attraction to Detective Lu Aguilar, especially since it is an attraction that seems to be getting in the way of the investigation...
There are several things to appreciate about "Dust" -- the lyrically beautiful descriptions of scenes for example, and the manner in which Martha Grimes has incorporated Henry James into the plot. Another thing I truly appreciated is that the side show characters (Agatha, Vivian, Trueblood and Carole-anne) were confined to a few paragraphs here and there. So no chance for them to steal the book. Though, I was dismayed that Harry Johnson turned up in "Dust." (I suppose it was futile of me to wish that this character would either fade into the woodwork or else just be killed off ?) The storyline was a rather good and intriguing one too, even though it did get off to a slowish start and really didn't pick up until Melrose Plant makes an appearance. Who would've thought that the day would come when Melrose Plant would liven things up?
However, there were things that were unsatisfying too. The poor editing for example; and the fact that the mystery subplot was never really properly developed to my satisfaction. Could this have been the reason why it lacked complexity and subtlety? On another note, I'm embarrassed to admit that the whole kindertransport bit confused me a little. How could Roderick have been part of this, given that he wasn't a Jewish child or from one of the occupied countries? And since the last trip was in 1940, before things began to look bad for the Germans, his father would have had little incentive to smuggle him out of Germany? Which leads me to my last gripe: the ending was really not very satisfying at all. Who pushed those girls of the raft/boat?
All in all, it wasn't as bad as I feared it might be, and in many ways I rather enjoyed "Dust." I'd rate "Dust" as a 3 1/2 star read -- more good bits than bad, and end with the fervent hope that the next Jury novel will be the one that will wholeheartedly satisfy.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Hazily Disappointing, 23 Feb 2008
I, like another reviewer, had decided to not read any more Jury novels. They began well, and were good old detective stories with some interesting characters poping up in them all. Now, they seem to drift about all over the place. It also seems to me as though Miss Grimes wants us to know that she isn't just a detective story writer, she's pretty good at philosopy and culture as well. She may well be, but I like her detective stories when that's all they were. Dust was disappointing because I couldn't get into it until over half way through. The ending was hazy and not explained properly, although I did gather that Grandma Ames was the one who pushed the girls off the boat. Also, if Jury was a war child, that would make him over 60 now. He doesn't talk or behave like any 60 year old I know, and I'm one of them! I have become rather disappointed with the way Miss Grimes has started to kill off one or two more characters near the end of her books, quite unecessarily it seems to me. She is almost becoming predictable in that area, and it spoils the books for me. Lu seems to have been 'It' this time. I would once again have decided not to read any more Jury novels after Dust , but I expect that now I've got to, if I want to know what happens about Lu and Dr Nancy! Miss Grimes' cunning plot maybe?
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