The Grave Maurice (50 page)

 

“Blends almost Dickensian sketches of character and social class with glimpses of a ferocious marriage.”—
Time

 

“[Grimes's] best . . . as moving as it is entertaining.”

—
USA Today

 

Timeless, peaceful, and remote, the watery Lincolnshire fens seem an unlikely setting for murder. But two women—a notorious actress and a servant girl—have been killed there in the space of two weeks. The Lincolnshire police are sure the murders are connected—and they think a friend of Richard Jury is responsible. Jury is anxious to clear Jenny Kennington's name. But the secretive suspects and tight-lipped locals are leading him nowhere. And with the help of his colleague Melrose Plant, he must struggle to navigate a series of untruths in the hope of stopping a very determined killer.

 

“Masterful writing, skillful plotting, shrewd characterizations, subtle humor, and an illuminating look at what makes us humans tick . . . [an] outstanding story from one of today's most talented writers . . . brilliant.”

—
Booklist

 

“Dazzling. Deftly plotted . . . psychologically complex . . . delicious wit.”—
Publishers Weekly

 

After a luminous blonde leaves, reboards, then leaves the double-decker bus Richard Jury is on, he follows her up to the gates of Fulham Palace . . . and goes no farther. Days later, when he hears of the death in the palace's walled garden, Jury will wonder if he could have averted it. But is the victim the same woman Jury saw? As he and Melrose Plant follow the complex case from the Crippsian depths of London's East End to the headier heights of Mayfair's art scene, Jury will realize that in this captivating woman—dead or alive—he may have finally met his match. . . .

 

“A delightfully entertaining blend of irony, danger, and intrigue, liberally laced with wit and charm. . . . A must have from one of today's most gifted and intelligent writers.”—
Booklist
(starred review)

 

“The literary equivalent of a box of Godiva truffles . . . wonderful.”—
Los Angeles Times

 

With his good friend Richard Jury on a fool's errand in Northern Ireland, Melrose Plant tries—in vain—to escape his aunt and his Long Piddleton lethargy by fleeing to Cornwall. There, high on a rocky promontory overlooking the sea, he rents a house—one furnished with tragic memories. But his Cornwallian reveries are tempered by the local waiter/cab driver/amateur magician. The industrious Johnny Wells seems unflappable—until his beloved aunt disappears. Now Plant is dragged into the disturbing pasts of everyone involved—and a murder mystery that only Richard Jury can solve. . . .

 

“Swift and satisfying . . . grafts the old-fashioned ‘Golden Age' amateur-detective story to the contemporary police procedural . . . real charm.”—
The Wall Street Journal

 

“Entrancing. Grimes makes her own mark on du Maurier country.”—
The Orlando Sentinel

 

Mickey Haggerty, a DCI with the City police, has asked for Richard Jury's help. Two skeletons have been unearthed during the excavation of London's last bomb site, where once stood a pub called the Blue Last. The grandchild of brewery magnate Oliver Tynedale supposedly survived that December 1940 bombing . . . but did she? Then the son of the onetime owner of the Blue Last is found shot to death—the book he was writing about London during the German blitzkrieg . . . gone. A stolen life, a stolen book? Or is any of this what it seems? With Melrose Plant sent undercover, Jury calls into question identity, memory, and provenance in a case that resurrects his own hauntingly sad past. . . .

 

“Grimes's best . . .a cliffhanger ending.”—
USA Today

 

“Explosive . . . ranks among the best of its creator's distinguished work.”—
Richmond Times-Dispatch