About the author: This is #11 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:
- Jane Holdsworth, Jury's short-lived flame
- Madeline Galloway, Jane's sister
- Alex Holdsworth, Jane's 16-year old son
- Genevieve Holdsworth, Jane's stepmother
- Crabbe Holdsworth, Jane's father
- George Holdworth, Jane's uncle (Crabbe's brother)
- Adam Holdsworth, Jane's grandfather
- Francis Fellows, Crabbe's cousin
- Graham Holdsworth, Jane's deceased husband
- Virginia Holdsworth, Crabbe's deceased first wife
- Millie Thale, 11-year old kitchen worker
- Annie Thale, Millie's deceased mother
- Mrs. Callow, the cook
- Hawkes, the butler
- Detective Inspector Hanif Kamir
- Inspector Richard Jury
- Marshall Trueblood, antiques dealer
- Melrose Plant
Locale: England (mostly) and Italy (a little)
Synopsis: Inspector Richard Jury encounters an attractive widow, Jane Holdsworth, while browsing the flea market. This begins a rather torrid affair. Jane has a 16-year old son, Alex Holdsworth, attending private school but more interested in horse racing schemes.
Jury's friend, Melrose Plant, and antiques dealer Marshall Trueblood have journeyed to Italy with a plan: to delay Vivian Rivington's marriage to The Count as long as possible, with an eye to getting her back to England and hooked up with Jury instead. Distressing word comes about Jury's new affair, and even that he has purchased an engagement ring.
No sooner has Jury obtained the ring and prepared to pop the question, when Jane is found dead by her son, Alex. The cause is apparently suicide by overdose of pills. Detective Inspector Hanif Kamir finds Jury a possible suspect and cautions him to not leave London.
Alex does not buy the suicide theory. He leaves the area and heads to the Holdsworth family home to seek his favorite relative, his great-grandfather Adam Holdsworth - who splits his time between the family home and a nearby retirement home.
Jury, unable to leave London, suspects family involvement. He gets Melrose Plant to travel to the Holdsworth home and take a position ostensibly cataloging the family library, but in reality spying on them. Melrose befriends 11-year old Millie Thale, a worker in the family kitchen.
Review: There is a big cast - and they are all related - but I have sorted them out for you in the list above, which took some effort - as the relationships are only revealed piecemeal. (Ones highlighted in grey were deceased prior to the story.)
This was a most enjoyable title in the Jury series, even though Aunt Agatha does not make an appearance. Jury and Jane started out strong and I was surprised at her sudden demise.
Efforts by Melrose Plant and flamboyant Marshall Trueblood to derail Vivian's wedding and redirect her to a more appropriate partner (Jury) are quite amusing. It makes me wonder if they will ever get together later in the series.
The only weak point was the oversize space allotted to attempts to interpret Alex's dream - it didn't move the story along and didn't add much.
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