Product Description

In a village plagued by missing pets, Scotland Yard's Richard Jury and sidekick Melrose Plant face the worst of human nature when a chilling old crime leads them to a brand new way to die.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #293764 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780451411877
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
This is the seventh crime novel by Grimes, an American who writes wih assurance on the exploits of Scotland Yard's Richard Jury and his titled friend Malcolm Plant. They meet at The Deer Leap, a pub in Ashdown Dean where people and pets have been dying "accidentally." Plant focuses his attentions on a solitary, 15-year-old girl who calls herself Carrie Fleet. She's an amnesiac, rescued from London lowlifes who had found the child and were using her to collect government money for her support. Carrie's unlikely savior is a baroness, living on drunken fantasies in the decayed splendor of her late husband's estate. In an isolated corner of the grounds, Carrie maintains a sanctuary for abused animals. Her zealous care makes her a suspect in the destruction of the local fox-hunting headquarters, but Jury casts his net elsewhere. In the last act of the witty and deeply moving drama, retribution for heinous crime is exacted. Here gentle Plant plays a role so utterly unexpected that readers will feel its impact for a long time. November 26
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Charm and energy... A brilliantly interwoven multiple narrative. -- Time

[A] witty and deeply moving drama...Readers will feel its impact for a long time. -- Publishers Weekly

Review
Charm and energy... A brilliantly interwoven multiple narrative. (Time) [A] witty and deeply moving drama...Readers will feel its impact for a long time. (Publishers Weekly)

Customer Reviews

The Deer Leap
I am very much a fan of Martha Grimes; but in this offering, she loses the battle when trying to balance her sparkling, dry humor and an almost depressing sullenness. I don't want to ruin the book for anyone, but the ending leaves us completely drained emotionally. I am a big fan of Ms. Grimes and have read most of the Jury novels. I am not one to always expect a "storybook" ending; but the resolution of this one is decidedly dark (even Melrose Plant does something totally out of character). I would rate this the weakest entry of the 10 or so that I have read so far, although it is still superior to most current books of the same genre.
My advice is not to read this one if you are feeling blue and want a pick me up!

A tragedy
One of the main problems I have with Martha Grimes is that she uses references to things peculiar to England without really explaining them. In this novel she has a side plot about fox hunting with references to details that the readers have to figure out for themselves. Perhaps readers in the UK are more familiar with the issues. This is compounded by the repetition of some plot material from one novel to another.

There are young children running about who do not seem to be in school, some of them exploited by their parents (a cook in an inn, a dog watcher in London). One has to wonder, expecially when an Inspector from Scotland Yard is on the scene. Does the country have no child welfare?

The novel does have its moments. Inspector Jury meets his new upstairs neighbor, Carole-ann Palutski, who figures into following plots. Carole-ann is a 19 year old bombshell who can look 30 if the occasion calls for it. Fool that he is, Jury fends off Carole-ann's advances because he considers her too young. Instead he becomes involved with an older woman which almost leads to his death.

The novel has a dark ending which was not really necessary to the plot. I guess the author has a fixation on tragedies (kill the good people along with the bad. Let God sort them out).

Poignant, unfinished story
This is one of Martha Grimes' early Richard Jury novels, where some of the characters are almost stereotypical and not quite real--sometimes these early novels seem to me to be played out against cardboard sets in my mind. Despite this, this is a poignant, rather unfinished story about a child who seems to belong to no one and have no past and has given herself to protecting animals. Not even Richard Jury is able to protect Carrie Flood, and this is parinfully sad.

One of the fun things about this novel is the introduction of Carole-ann, definitely a mutilayered character, and to see the development of Mrs. Wasserman.