Wednesday, July 20, 2022

The Old Silent by Martha Grimes, 1989

 


About the author: This is #10 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:
  • Roger Healey, arts/music critic
  • Nell Citrine Healey, his wife
  • Billy Healey, their son
  • Toby Hoyt, Bill's friend
  • Charles Citrine, Nell's father
  • Irene "Rena" Citrine, Nells' aunt (Charles' sister)
  • Martin Smart, publisher
  • Mavis Crewes, editor of Travelure, a Smart publication
  • Charlie Raine, heart-throb musician
  • Morpeth Duckworth, American musician
  • Ann Delholme
The regulars:
  • Superintendent Richard Jury
  • Divisional Commander Brian Macalvie
  • Melrose Plant
  • Vivian Rivington
  • Marshall Trueblood, antique dealer
  • Carol-anne Palutski, Richard's upstairs neighbor
  • Mrs. Wasserman, Richard's downstairs neighbor

Synopsis: Superintendent Richard Jury is having some time off and idly watching an attractive woman, Nell Healey, visiting shops. Jury stops in the Old Silent Pub and is surprised when she comes in and meets briefly with a man - they have words, she pulls out a gun and shoots him dead right in front of Jury.

The victim turns out to be her husband, arts critic Roger Healey. The authorities respond under the supervision of Divisional Commander Brian Macalvie. The Healeys are known to him: eight years earlier, their young son, Billy Healey, and his friend, Toby Holt, were kidnapped and never seen again after the family refused to pay the ransom demand.

The rest of the book concerns sheep, rock musicians, dogs, cats, motorcycles, guitars, and various random people.

Review: This one started out strong but I lost interest about halfway, after a few side plots I had trouble following. 

The good:

I enjoyed the obligatory scene of Racer, Fiona Clingmore, and the cat Cyril. I also enjoyed the accounts of Vivian Rivington as she prepared to go to Italy (this is the tenth book in the series, and she is still preparing).

The not-so-good:

I had trouble relating two side stories (1. Melrose and his long visit to the little girls who live in a sheep barn, and 2. the long accounts of Charlie Raine and his band) to the main plot (the kidnapping of the boys and the murder of Roger Healey. They did not seem relevant.

Grimes starts off many side stories cold, without the reader being introduced to the situation or the characters. One long passage had me mystified until I finally caught on it was a stream-0f-consciousness account by a sheepdog as he was herding sheep!

We have only a minimal pub scene, which is too bad. The pub scenes are the best elements of these stories. And no appearance by Aunt Agatha!

(Spoiler follows, select text to reveal): Here's the big thing: We have two missing kids - Billy and Toby. It is never revealed exactly what happened to them. We also have two bodies to account for - is it them? Well, one might be Billy. Toby turns up alive at the end. So at least one of the bodies is someone else, but we never find out what happened to Billy, nor who the bodies really are.



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