Jerusalem Inn by Martha Grimes (1988)

 

About the author: This is #5 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:

• Helen Minton, a building tour guide
• Robin "Robbie" Lyte
• Frederick Parmenger, a painter
• Grace Seaingham
• Elizabeth, Lady St. Leger
• Beatrice Slight, a writer
• William MacQuade, a writer
• Tommy Whittaker, a snooker/oboe/piano player
• Richard Jury
• Melrose Plant
• Aunt Agatha, Melrose's aunt
• Vivian Rivington

Synopsis: Richard Jury is en route to his cousin's for the Christmas holidays, more out of a feeling of obligation than desire. He stops in the village of Washington and while wandering around encounters a young woman, Helen Minton, in the churchyard cemetery. She is studying some gravestones and making notes. She feels faint upon standing, and Jury is concerned and offers to escort her home. They have a visit and drinks; and set up a dinner date upon his return. 

Jury continues to his cousin's place, and stops in Washington again on the return. He finds the authorities present at Old Hall, a historic site in which Helen was a tour guide. She had been found dead in the upstairs bedroom, a vial of pills at hand. The autopsy finds poison.

Melrose Plant winds up snowed in at Spinney Abbey mansion with a lot of writers, artists, critics, titled persons, and of course, his Aunt Agatha (Lady Ardry). One of the writers, Beatrice Slight, is found dead outside while wearing Grace Seaingham's stole. Was Beatrice the intended victim, or was it mistaken identity? Melrose finds an interesting young companion, Tommy Whittaker, who likes to sneak out to the local pub, The Jerusalem Inn, to play snooker.

Richard Jury arrives, looking for Frederick Parmenger, who was a cousin to Helen Minton. Parmenger is at the mansion to paint a portrait of Grace Seaingham. He is found to be the only person present who knew both victims, and Jury looks for a connection and motive. 

Review: This is the fourth Jury I have read, I found it rather ho-hum overall. It started out well with the budding relationship between Jury and Helen Minton, and I was sorry to find her become a victim. The long discussions of the privileged class at Spinney Abbey was wearing. Getting Melrose Plant and Jury to find each other by accident was a bit of a stretch; as well as the eventual connection between the two victims. The explanation was a bit too long and involved and I did check out without trying to understand the various relationships involved. In short, too many characters. I stopped noting them down at 17.

Vivian Rivington, Jury's unrequited love, appears as well. Her engagement to the Italian count appears to be on the rocks (Jury hopes), but nothing more progresses - being saved for future books no doubt.

Tommy Whittaker is a great character, and I enjoyed reading about him. I did skim the play-by-play descriptions of his snooker games, not being familiar with it.

I enjoyed the conversations between Plant and his butler Ruthven, especially as Plant tries to get Ruthven to loosen up and be a friend. 

Aunt Agatha was in good form, and the descriptions of her cheating at bridge while trying to impress her other players was quite funny.

Also see this review by Bev Hankins on My Reader's Block.