Product Description

The thirteenth mystery for Richard Jury finds the detective investigating the murder of two women in the Lincolnshire fens. Both victims are connected to the wealthy owner of the Fengate estate: one a kitchen maid, and the other, the owner's ex-wife. But Jury has more at stake than just catching a killer, as the prime suspect is a woman who's presence in his life is becoming meaningful in a way he can't explain....

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #160665 in Books
• Published on: 1998-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780451408686
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
Richard Jury, the brooding Scotland Yard detective-hero of many of Martha Grimes's mysteries, is back in The Case Has Altered, but--as usual--his sidekick Melrose Plant steals the show. Set in the fens of Lincolnshire, Jury must investigate two murders in which his true love, Jenny Kennington, is a suspect. But while Jury deals with the evidence, Melrose uncovers the local color, interviewing everyone from uncommunicative pub owners to chatty cooks. Even murder seems a little less grim with Melrose Plant around.

From Library Journal
Grimes returns with another Richard Jury mystery?this time, Jury must solve the murders of two women found in the misty fens?but now she's with a new publisher.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
``The worst things happened to Jury's women,'' muses his friend Melrose Plant all too accurately. The victim this time is Supt. Richard Jury's former lover Lady Jennifer Kennington, suspected first of shooting actress Verna Dunn, then two weeks later strangling Dorcas Reese, homely kitchen girl at Fengate, the residence of Verna's ex-husband Max Owen. Jury's first idea- -prying Plant loose from his litigious aunt's nuisance suit against inoffensive secondhand-shopkeeper Ada Crisp to send him undercover to Lincolnshire as the antiques appraiser who'll help evaluate Max's treasures--yields lots of data about Max, his understanding wife Grace, his sculptor nephew Jack Price, and their neighbors Major Linus Parker and Peter Emery, his blind groundskeeper. But despite the data, there are precious few conclusions. And when Jury confronts Jenny directly, she simply admits an undeniable motive for killing Verna and expands on the lies she's already told the police. So it's on to the courtroom, where procedural fireworks await. As always with Grimes (Hotel Paradise, 1996, etc.), the pace is leisurely, at times maddeningly so; yet the endless repetitions of the case's central questions--what was Dorcas so sorry she'd listened to and done? why did she tell her trusted intimates she was pregnant when she wasn't? why were the two murders committed with different weapons?--actually deepen their mystery instead of dispelling it. Even the farcical subplot--that nuisance lawsuit back home- -adds its counterweight to the Fen Country gloom to produce Grimes's best book in years. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

I Got A Bit Lost in This One
I will admit that NOT ONLY have I NOT read all of Grimes' work, but that what I have read has been all out of order. In her works before 2000, that didn't seem to matter too much. There was some related themes between the books - like Viv's engagment to Count Dracula - but mostly reading her books in any order was fine.

However, recently, there seems to be much more carryover between books. To start, there's a growing list of women that Jury and/or Plant both 'love' - Vivian, Polly Praed, Ellen Taylor, Bea Slocum, and Jenny Kennington to start with. Jenny Kennington was the focus of this one, but while apparently she is Jury's true love, I felt so detached because I had never read about her before. There were many other such references that went over my head while new 'regulars' had been added that I didn't really know.

In addition to being ripped out of my comfortable old crowd at the 'Jack and Hammer,' I sometimes felt like I must have missed reading a couple of chapters in this book. Grimes keeps referring to an event where Melrose searched all over for Jenny Kennington, and somehow this caused a problem with Jury. At first I thought this referred back to another case in another book, but as the tale went on it seemed like it happened at some point in this book. I was thoroughly confused.

For those who don't know, the main focus of the book is a double murder (one following the other by 2 weeks) out on the desolate fens of England. One victim is of the minor movie star Vera Dunn, the vicious ex-wife of Max Owen, who owns the estate where Dunn was visiting when killed. The other murder is of Owen's vegetable cook. This young cook was a nosy unattractive girl whom everyone overlooked and forgot. What motive could anyone possibly have to kill two such different woman?

My confusion aside, I still don't think this is one of Grimes' better efforts. If you haven't read any of her books, certainly don't start here. You'll appreciate it more if you have developed an affinity the characters.

If you have read Grimes, I would say that while I generally appreciate her trying new things, somehow this plot didn't fall together for her. She makes this one different by letting Jury be vulnerable and, essentially, out of control. He is no longer the smooth operator one step ahead of everyone else. However, something just didn't quite work here. I saw her clues easily planted and solved the case well before the end (which I NEVER do). It wasn't bad, and it was fun to reunite with Plant, Trueblood, etc., but I definitely prefer her other books more.

Not worth reading!
I have read all of the Inspector Jury novels and enjoyed each of them. Not so with this last. The writing was weak from beginning to middle (where I finally had had enough and put it aside). I am still hoping that the next book might revive the previously memorable characters to their former readable selves. I won't make the same mistake though and buy the book but will wait to get it from the library!

TIM CURRY IS MARTHA GRIMES' BEST AUDIO INTERPRETER!
Serious readers are wary of abridgements, often for good reason. Not having read this book in its unabridged form, I have my suspicions of what got cut from the audio version of "The Case" -- the background of the various suspects seems a bit less developed here, although I still wondered "whodunit" until the protagonists arrived at their conclusion. There also may have been some deleting of the descriptions of the bleak Lincolnshire fens, but with little loss to the overall effect of the tale.

And what a tale that is! Not so much due to Grimes taking the English detective mystery to any new level - she doesn't do that nor intends to. The real laurels here go to reader/actor Tim Curry. He gets all of the character nuances just right, moving with ease and flair across British class, age and gender lines. He brings out with brio the fullest comedic potential of the text, clearly relishing his fleshing out of the eccentricities and peculiarities of Grimes' range of characters and situations. This is the perfect tape set for anyone facing a long commute. You'll be well entertained and amused. For Curry's perfomrance: six stars!!