I Am the Only Running Footman
(Libby/OverDrive eAudiobook)

Grimes' series of mysteries featuring Scotland Yard Superintendent Richard Jury is distinguished by elegant writing, superb characterization, very chilly buildups to apocalyptic endings, and pubs that form the central setting and spirit (and provide the novels' titles). In the eighth series entry, a linkage is drawn by Superintendent Jury between the strangulation murder of a young woman in Devon and a similar murder in London. Jury is aided in the investigation by the tenacious Brian Macalvie, divisional commander of the Devon-Cornwall constabulary, and Jury's effete and effective chum, Melrose Plant. The novel is worth reading if only for Plant's P. G. Wodehouse-like commentary on the inmates of an accident-prone pub. But the detection process finds Macalvie and Jury at their tough-cop, wry-cop best. Grimes also presents a colorful clutch of dissolute and self-destructive gentry, and she crisply evokes the atmospheres of London, rural Devon, and blighted Brighton. CF. [OCLC] 86-15305

Though generally delightful, Grimes' mysteries for Superintendent Richard Jury--Jerusalem Inn, etc.--have sometimes bordered on the arch and over-convoluted, with outsized portions of fey British comedy (as concocted by an American writer). This time, however, the tone is darker, the narration is lean, and the story is a simple one, unfolding obliquely--as Grimes shows that she's a follower of Ruth Rendell as well as Ngaio Marsh. Who strangled ambitious young shopgirl Ivy Childess on a street near Berkeley Square one night? The obvious suspect (despite alibis) is Ivy's upscale gentle. man-friend David Marr, an aging ne'er-do-well from a fine old Sussex family. So Jury soon finds himself in the country, getting a close-up view of Mart, his imperious sister Marion, and his soulful nephew Edward--all of whom are still mourning the hit-and-run death of Marion's young daughter Phoebe, all of whom are estranged from Marion's husband Hugh. But, even if Marr (or some other family member) killed marriage-hungry upstart Ivy, how is her murder connected to a very similar strangling in Devon? And why do some of the chapters switch to Brighton, where London TV-weathergirl Dolly Sands has come for a rest? The answers become clear in a last-minute. rescue finale--one that doesn't fully succeed in generating Rendell-esque tension. Still: an intriguing, appealing, minor-key departure for Grimes and Jury--with only a few small appearances by Melrose Plant, the Superintendent's faintly precious part-time sidekick. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.