The Stargazey

Richard Jury #15

by Martha Grimes, Steve West (Reading)

Saturday night. It was not a night to be spending alone, riding a bus. When he was a teenager at the comprehensive, Saturday night without a girl, without a date, without at least your mates to raise hell with, Saturday night alone would have been shameful. One wouldn’t want to be seen alone on a Saturday night…. Who are you kidding? That was never your life, Jury, not yours.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Audiobook, British Literature, Detective

13 pages, Audiobook

First published November 5, 1998

About the author

Martha Grimes is an American author of detective fiction.

She was born May 2 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to D.W., a city solicitor, and to June, who owned the Mountain Lake Hotel in Western Maryland where Martha and her brother spent much of their childhood. Grimes earned her B.A. and M.A. at the University of Maryland. She has taught at the University of Iowa, Frostburg State University, and Montgomery College.

Grimes is best known for her series of novels featuring Richard Jury, an inspector with Scotland Yard, and his friend Melrose Plant, a British aristocrat who has given up his titles. Each of the Jury mysteries is named after a pub. Her page-turning, character-driven tales fall into the mystery subdivision of "cozies." In 1983, Grimes received the Nero Wolfe Award for best mystery of the year for The Anodyne Necklace.

The background to Hotel Paradise is drawn on the experiences she enjoyed spending summers at her mother's hotel in Mountain Lake Park, Maryland. One of the characters, Mr Britain, is drawn on Britten Leo Martin, Sr, who then ran Marti's Store which he owned with his father and brother. Martin's Store is accessible by a short walkway from Mountain Lake, the site of the former Hotel, which was torn down in 1967.

She splits her time between homes in Washington, D.C., and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Reviews

[K.B. Hallman · Rating 3 out of 5]

As always, for me, Melrose outshines all the other characters.

[Sherry Chandler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although they operate on the level of mystery, all Martha Grimes novels are also parodies. This one goes after noir -- cherchez la blonde in sable -- with a little bit of Nick and Nora Charles thrown in. Part Hitchcock, part Dashiell Hammett. Grimes is always more fun when she's having fun.

[Johnny · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I am a fan of the Richard Jury series, I have to confess that this mystery was the most improbable and disjointed effort of the series. While I wasn’t surprised as to the murderer, I was briefly taken aback by the identity of the same. I feel like this story depended far too much on capriciously handled international intrigue without the kind of emotional involvement I’m used to seeing in either Melrose Plant or Richard Jury. In this episode, it seems like Jury manipulates Melrose like a pawn in a chess game and that Melrose, the only character who truly seems to show emotion in this book, doesn’t really reveal his regard for one character in the book until it is too late. While that may be realistic with regard to how we humans tend to take people for granted, I didn’t feel like his strong feeling was established prior to the events that made his feelings almost moot.

The book offers two views of precocious children—one with tremendous potential and one with the hubris of a Greek tragedy. While I tremendously enjoyed the encounters with these characters, I felt like the author had crafted one of them too well to have her disappear halfway through the novel. Further, I keep finding myself losing patience with Melrose Plant’s covert affection for various women. I understand that he is a phlegmatic old fellow whose wealth and position have never forced him to accomplish anything (though he has certainly aided Jury in almost every case and those occasions must stand as accomplishments—just nothing he can put on a resume), but is he so unable to express his feelings that he can never let them out? Personally, I think his bottling up all that feeling is adding to my stress level.

I was also slightly disappointing in Superintendent Jury in this novel. Yes, he was obsessed with one particular murder to the exclusion of the rest of his workload, but there was no attempt for him to justify him working outside of his immediate jurisdiction, ignoring the higher profile cases handed to him by his own superior (in between bouts with Cyril the cat)and, at least tenuously, providing a “red herring” of their own (or perhaps, an unexplained or too lightly connected relationship) to the main case. In other police procedurals, we don’t see the protagonists completely ignoring their superiors without some kind of tension or cover-up (whether it’s P.D. James’ Dalgleish, M.J. Trow’s version of Inspector Lestrade, or Anne Perry’s Thomas Pitt). It just didn’t have verisimilitude.

Finally, I was disappointed in that the antagonist had every opportunity to murder one of the main characters in the novel and that the antagonist had been presented as an individual which wouldn’t hesitate to do so. Yet, without even the likelihood of later apprehension, this person failed to accomplish the task to be expected. Indeed, there is also an occasion where only the most bizarre deus ex machine saves a character. Once again, it simply didn’t demonstrate verisimilitude.

In summary, I haven’t given up on the series and will read future novels as I come into contact with them, but this was the biggest disappointment in the series for me.

[Jaksen]

I feel like a terrible outlier on this because I do love me some Richard Jury...

And his various sidekicks, especially Melrose Plant, who gave up his title but still leads a life of wealth and luxury, and Plant's elderly, but highly entertaining/interfering Aunt Agatha. There's also Wiggins, Jury's assistant, who's always eager to share some new health aide or is fighting an imaginary cold or flu bug, however...

And to be honest, I couldn't get much past page 50. The book runs to 'obtuse,' and confusing, and all over the place. I might try again later as I do like the characters and as I've read so many books in this series, I feel I sort of 'know' them. Lovely settings. Diabolical bad guys. Great characters...

But story in this one, sort of dull.

No rating.

[Barb · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not sure why I kept with The Stargazey as I continued to get more bored and annoyed as I read. Martha Grimes has a passel of interesting characters in her quiver, Jury and Plant being my favorites, in spite of their crazy and flawed relationships with women. Maybe that was why I kept reading. The two men work very well together and I would have liked to see them face-t0-face for more of the novel. But no, they continued to, separately, get into dangerous and unlikely situations with flaky women of all ages; in sable coats, in herb gardens, with guns, and with unusual tastes in art. The plot was convoluted and many chapters did not seem to advance it in any way. Yet, I can't say I would not read another Martha Grimes book, this being my 6th. They do have a certain charm.

[Lizzytish · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s rather tiring seeing Jury get mixed up with the wrong woman, finding himself enjoying second hand smoke, and getting Plant to spy for him. Plant is the better detective in my book. Also, the Cripps are getting old for me.
I enjoyed the mystery and actually figured a lot of it out.
And wasn’t there another book where Jury followed another woman around, Only it was in a market.

[CatLady1000 · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF
I'm afraid that my suspicions were confirmed: Jury is a creep, and possibly a paedophile (or an ephebophile?). I've read every Jury book up until now, and this feeling has crept up until I couldn't escape the obvious. I kept on reading because I wasn't sure if Grimes was playing the long game and Jury would eventually become a villain. Sure, he gets involved with adult women, but the relationships always fail (mainly because he is emotionally immature). Book after book there are descriptions of beautiful girls (and by girls I mean 15 and under) and while that is pretty common in crime novels, I don't think that the main character, who is in his 40s or 50s, should need to 'remind himself' (clearly in a sexually attracted way) that the girl in front of him is an adolescent/pre-adolescent. This specific thing has happened in two books and at this point it's just weird.
Also in general, he seems like a creep. This book starts with him actually creeping on some stranger just because she's hot. He actually gets off a bus and follows her. Sure, it ends up leading to a murder mystery, but isn't it more disturbing that he thought it was okay to just randomly follow a lone woman for no obvious reason? I guess we are supposed to acknowledge his hidden genius as the lady turns out to be involved in murder. But I couldn't even get past the stalking.
The secondary main character, Melrose Plant, is probably the only reason I keep reading these books because unlike Jury he has a personality. Since I didn't finish this book, I'm not sure if his inexplicable pursuit of (again! maybe the problem here is Grimes) a much younger woman came to anything.

[J. Merwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never having read a Martha Grimes mystery before I was carried along by her delight in the eccentricities and detailed lives of her characters although there was such a barage of them that at times I wanted to scream "Get back to the plot!". One after the other in rapid succession, major and minor characters people the landscape of her story and occasionally elbow the main plot aside. But they are all so charmingly over-the-top British with their boiled eggs and 'soldiers', boiled wool dressing gowns...well the British do boil everything...even White Ellie's hilarious children, obnoxious and headed for social services though they may be. She takes such pleasure in describing the inhabitants of her world, (like Miss Read but with murders, Armani and martinis) that you are willing to keep going. I will have to read earlier ones as this was #15 in her series but I'm willing to bet this is her style and also why she's so popular.

[Arlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jury sees a woman in a sable coat on the bus. When she gets off the bus and walks a ways, then gets back on the bus, then gets off again, he follows her to the entrance to a public garden. The next day a woman is found dead in the garden wearing a sable coat. Is it the same woman? Then the coat on the dead woman is linked to a famous old movie star and the family of an art dealer. The case keeps Jury and his friend Plant puzzled. Another twisty English plot.
I didn't like this one as much as I have liked others of the series.

[Marian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Made me want to read all the other Richard Jury books - delightful balance of humor, mystery and great characters.

[Dorothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well into Martha Grimes' Richard Jury series, one finds the quality of each individual book sometimes a bit hit or miss. This one was definitely a hit for me. I enjoyed it quite a lot, even though I suspected pretty early on who the culprit(s) was(were). Or maybe it was because I figured it out pretty early and was able to watch Jury and his friend Melrose Plant struggle to the same conclusion.

It's a somewhat complicated plot with definite noir tendencies. It involves art forgery and theft, the consequences of political murder, the activities of a professional assassin, a couple of murders, and has the usual characters from Northants that we have come to expect and enjoy, as well as the London contingent of Scotland Yard, cats and dogs, Jury's neighbors, and the quirky Cripps family. Yes, all the essential elements are here and Grimes concocts a very tasty dish of them.

Jury, as always, is inexplicably lonely on a Saturday night. Such a handsome, intelligent, lovable man with a killer smile and yet, in Grimes' world, he just can't find anyone to love. Or to love him. Well, fiction is all about the suspension of disbelief, I suppose.

On a Saturday night, Jury takes a ride on a bus and notices a striking blonde woman in a sable coat. She gets on the bus, rides for a while, gets off for a while, then gets on again. When she gets off the second time, Jury decides to follow her. He follows her to an ecclesiastical palace and gardens, but does not follow her into the grounds of the place. The next day he reads in the paper that the murdered body of a blonde woman in a fur coat was found on one of the herb beds in the garden and reproaches himself that he did not continue to follow her.

The murder victim is unidentified and Jury contacts the local policeman in charge to tell him what he observed. He is asked to look at the body to see if it is the woman he saw. She is superficially like that person, but when he looks closer, he is able to see differences. It is not the same person. So, were there two blonde women in fur coats in those gardens the night before?

As usual, even though it isn't technically his case, Superintendent Richard Jury gets involved, and, as usual, he calls on his friend Melrose Plant to do some private investigating for him.

Melrose goes to London and checks into his father's old club where he meets several interesting if ossified old codgers. One of them turns out to be a former art critic. A very famous art critic. Since one of Melrose's assignments from Jury is to buy a painting at a local gallery owned by a family that had its origins in the Soviet Union, where it suffered the murder of the family patriarch, he cultivates a relationship with the critic and asks his help and advice.

It is unclear at first just what this art gallery and the family might have to do with the murdered woman, the theft of a famous Chagall painting from a museum in St. Petersburg, or an eventual second murder that takes place. The plot is made more perplexing because a second blonde woman in sable does turn up and, even though she denies it, Jury knows that she is actually the person that he saw on the bus and followed.

Well, this does all get quite intricate and confusing at times, but Grimes does a good job of blending it together and making sense of it in the end.

My only real qualm with the book was its ending. I found it unsatisfactory, but I wondered if perhaps we were left hanging because this plot is to be picked up in later books? Guess I'll just have to read them to find out.

[MarilynLovesNature · Rating 4 out of 5]

Martha Grimes was once one of my favorite mystery writers, especially because of her Richard Jury Series. Superintendent Jury himself is not that likable a character except for his kindness to children and animals. Melrose Plant has always been my favorite character, who regularly adds humor to the series. Jury, his close friend, often requests his aid in obtaining information to solve a case. I also like the authors descriptions of children's behavior which sometimes acts as comic relief.
Not unlike this review, Grimes' mysteries tend to ramble a lot with sideline information which can be interesting to me and less interesting pub conversations when Richard Jury and Melrose Plant routinely meet their group of odd friends. This novel rambled quite a bit which made me sometimes lose track of the plot when I listened to the audio and then had to go back to reconnect, so reading might be better. The audios are well done except for the voice of Melrose's aunt which is grating and overly deep as can happen with a female imitating a male voice. His gold-digging aunt fortunately has few appearances, however. She is far more annoying than humorous, except for Melrose's responses to her, which I enjoy.
The plot revolves around the mystery of two identical-looking women: one is a murder victim and one is being pursued by Jury as a possible suspect or source of information. In this story, Jury requests Melrose to investigate some gallery owners by purchasing some paintings from them. Melrose discovers art by an acquaintance whom Melrose had no idea was a talented artist. As mentioned, I found the plot a bit complicated and difficult to follow (audio) so it might have been better to read it. At the same time it kept my interest and was rather clever.
'

[Tasula · Rating 4 out of 5]

Martha Grimes always comes out with a thoughtful mystery, and perambulates around the core mystery with vignettes of her favorite characters from Northants and London's Scotland Yard. If you read her books without a break between them, you might get tired of the descriptions of Wiggins' hypochondria, Carole Anne's charm, or Cyril the cat's ongoing war with Racer (Supt Jury's boss at Scotland Yard), but I guess for new readers, some of the descriptions are necessary. And some of the little side stories turn out to be important to the plot- as one did in this mystery. I enjoyed this story of a murdered blond woman wearing a sable coat- who Jury insisted wasn't the same woman he saw in the area the night of her death.

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I'm losing my taste for Martha Grimes. I get tired of her characters' self-conscious approach to everything--they're always feeling complicated things. Why is Jury so lame with women? Why is Melrose always sliding so easily into unlikely situations (and he's lame with women too)? These two characters have become very unnatural. I don't think they bear much resemblance to real men. I also thought this book was slow to get started and then the mystery itself was a little unconnected. I think this may be the last Martha Grimes I'll read. I didn't heartily dislike it, but as I said, I've just lost my taste for her style.

[Andrea M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Endlich mal wieder ein Jury-Fall, den ich verstanden habe ;-)
Spannende Geschichte und wieder sind es die Nebenrollen und Geschichten, die am meisten unterhalten. Ich mag Jury und seine Gang sehr.

[Cecile · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of my favorites: lots of Melrose Plant and almost none of Aunt Agatha or Jury’s boss.

(SPOILER ALERT) Also, watching Jury fall for the assassin after the reader had been filled in on her in the prologue. I wanted to say, watch out!

[Julie Shahin · Rating 2 out of 5]

D

[Judith Trail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grimes has written another delightful mystery, full of richly defined characters and a plot that takes multiple story lines and deftly brings them all together in the end. Her story telling is simply wonderful and I never can see in advance how she will bring everything together. Her writing is so good that you don't even get distracted by it: the story grabs you and runs until you finish. But when you stop and take the time, you can appreciate her ability to evoke a location with such detail that you know that you would be able to recognize it if you were ever actually present. But the best thing are her characters. Jury's gentle meloncholy, his longing for love and companionship and yet his inability to either pick the right woman or his timing is contrasted with his intelligence, humor and innate gentlemanliness make him a fascinating character. Melrose Plant, his friend, is also a wonderful creation. He tolerates his intolerable Aunt Agatha, indulges his friends Diane, Vivian, Martin Trueblood and the other residents of Long Piddleton, in their quirks and trials. He takes tea with the Cripps family (and their amazingly horrifying children) and down plays his aristocratic upbringing and kindness to animals and children. In fact, Jury and Melrose seem to run into the most amazing children and animals, and appreciate them in a non-condescending manner. Grimes will make you laugh out loud and then suffer darkness of the soul. But you will develop a crazy loyalty to these characters and enjoy every moment of their company.

[PrettyFlamingo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up in a charity book sale as I’m rather a police procedural fan. I’d not heard of Martha Grimes or her work before; I was quite disappointed by this tale. The style of police work, mixed with village life and characters, was suggestive of Midsomer Murders and the like; too twee for me. The opening prologue suggested quite a hard-hitting story though it turned out to contain far too much whimsy. I appreciate that this is book 15 in a series and that Richard Jury has quite a following. However, I didn’t get to know Jury at all through this story. There was too much emphasis on the peripheral characters and as a casual reader I thought Melrose Plant (who was a great character) to be the protagonist; a real failing for non-series readers. The inside cover features a review which states that Grimes draws characters part realistic, part caricature, and I would definitely agree. Richard Jury wasn’t particularly well-drawn and was relegated to the back seat in this story. I was interested enough to find out who the killer was. I appreciated all the clues and how Melrose put things together but overall there was much missing for me and it didn’t tempt me to read any others in the series.

[Dona · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this series and read them one after the other.

Marth Grimes is a master of words, weaving intricate story lines with unusual characters and a sense of humor that I found uproariously funny at times. Some of the humor was so subtle that it is possible people without the ability to pick up on subtle humor might not catch on.

Occasionally throughout the books, the repetitive personal love interests got tiresome from the lack of growth of the characters. But the strength of the rest of the story(s) made the tiresome aspects irrelevant.

These books are definitely worth the time and cost to read. Thoroughly enjoyable and I am HOPING that there are more in the series to come.

[Stobby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy reading a light mystery once and a while. Martha Grimes creates fast paced, well-written pocketbooks that aren't pieces of literature you feel morally committed to, although some of intertwining characters can require a pen and paper.

In my opinion, Stargazey wasn’t as entertaining as her other novels. I predicted the climax while meandering through her endless descriptions of rooms and gardens. The dialogue induced a laugh or two but the crux of the book was a thriller and I didn’t finish very thrilled.

[Stephen Prelewicz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another enjoyable entry in this top notch series. This one includes great work by Melrose Plant as assistant to Richard Jury. At this point in the series I felt I was sitting back with a welcoming crew of old friends. If you decide to read this series try to start with the first book (although not necessary). I find that with each story the characters develop in a very enjoyable manner. I highly recommend this series for consistently good writing and plottinh that includes a core cast of characters and much humor.

[Kyrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

All the classic pieces - Jury, Carole-Anne, Plant, some random kids, and the Cripps family, too. This time it combines to make a twisted plot that was intriguing (rather than annoying) to read.

Jury is riding a bus and for reasons unknown to him, decided to follow one of his passengers. After she disappears into a garden, he quits. If he hadn't, there wouldn't be much of a story to tell. It involves art and Russian history, and lots of other oddball things.

[Deb W · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this paperback up from a Little Library kiosk in our neighborhood. It's taken me weeks to read it -- not at all hard to put down, but I DID keep reading it, which is saying something. Having not gotten past the third chapter in any book in ages, I guess that is saying a lot.

Still, I am not motivated to look for more works by this definitely forgettable author.

[Linda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Second act problems. You could take the first 50 pages and the last 50 pages and it would be the book. Nothing happened in the middle. I was really bored and could not wait until it ended, which it did quickly in the last few pages, with a really bad, disappointing ending. This is the second book by her that I have read that has been unsatisfying. Doubt that I will read another.

[Laila · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. I think I'm getting burned out on the Jury mysteries. This one took forever to get action going, although I did enjoy the development with Melrose and a certain young woman - about time he got some action! I may take a break from this series for a while.

[Lin Wollen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Martha Grimes is another really, really good mystery author. Her characters live their lives inside your brain. You care about the murder ( it's always murder!) but you care more about the characters.

[ruth stringfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much fun reading this book probably because Martha Grimes includes most of her loveable characters. It is a long book and I would advise should not be read as a first in the series so that the reader can reference some of the characters. Love Melrose; he makes me chuckle.

[Marge · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the fifteenth book in the Richard Jury series and another clever story that adds another layer to the friendship between Jury and Melrose Plant.

[Annie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Haven't read the other books so maybe they're different but found the plot confusing and hard to follow, the characters were somewhat boring and the whole thing was rather slow and vague.