About the author: This is #15 of 25 books featuring Richard Jury. See this Wikipedia article for biography and list of the 25 Richard Jury books. Click this Martha Grimes label to see all my reviews of this series.
Major characters:
- Nancy Pastis, the victim in the herb garden
- Kate McBride, lookalike to Nancy Pastis
- Simeon Pitt, retired art critic
- the Fabricant family, art gallery owners
- Beatrice Slocum, artist
- Mona Dresser, retired actress
- Superintendent Richard Jury, of Scotland Yard
- Melrose Plant, a.k.a. Lord Ardry, his friend
Locale: London
Synopsis: Richard Jury is riding a double-decker bus early one evening and is enthralled with a stylish blonde woman wearing a sable coat. He sees her exit the bus, walk several blocks, reboard, and get off at the next stop. Jury, curious, also deboards and follows her as she turns into historical site Fulham Palace; at which point he turns around for home.
The next day, Jury hears a woman was found shot to death in the herb garden of Fulham Palace, and was wearing a sable coat. Jury, fearful it was the woman he had seen, inquires to find the woman resembled the woman on the bus, but it was not her. The question is: how did the sable coat get from woman A to woman B?
The dead woman is identified as Nancy Pastis. Jury tracks down the woman he had seen, who turns out to be Kate McBride. She is arrested on suspicion. Jury insists it was she on the bus, but she denies it.
The trail of the sable coat leads to the art gallery owned by the complicated Fabricant family, and retired actress Mona Dresser, original owner of the coat.
Review: It was a bit confusing following which blonde-in-the-coat was which, but it did finally settle down to Nancy Pastis being the dead one and Kate McBride being the live one. I guessed the "secret" of the white paintings right away, when it was stated the artist was painting on sandpaper mounted on the canvas!
The episodes at the Cripps home is always fun, and a bit disgusting all at once. But that's where Bea Slocum lives, so we had to visit.
I'm beginning to think that every Jury novel has a 10-year-old girl who has a secret clue which only Melrose Plant can pry out. That's OK, every 10-year-old girl has been different except for her age.
The "usuals" only put in a brief appearance in the pub. Overall, an enjoyable read; although I did miss Aunt Agatha in this one.
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