The Horse You Came In On

Richard Jury #12

by Martha Grimes

"Intricate and entertaining . . . A delicious puzzle."
- The Boston Globe

The murder is in America, but the call goes out to Scotland Yard superintendent Richard Jury. Accompanied by his aristocratic friend Melrose Plant and by Sergeant Wiggins, Jury arrives in Baltimore, Maryland, home of zealous Orioles fans, mouth-watering crabs, and Edgar Allan Poe.

In his efforts to solve the case, Jury rubs elbows with a delicious and suspicious cast of characters, embarking on a trail that leads to a unique tavern called 'The Horse You Came In On' . . .

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

371 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

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

[Teddi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I still enjoy the interactions of Plant, Jury and Wiggins but I really disliked this book and almost quit a couple of times.
I found it rambling and disjointed with way too much unnecessary babbling about sports and reading out loud of manuscripts.
If there were books just about the residents of Long Piddleton and what they get up to without all the unnecessary extraneous information, I'd enjoy them immensely!
Time to take a break from this series and read something else.

[Dorothy · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Prose seems to be falling off just a bit," said Jury..."Definitely fallen off," said Jury, yawning.

Yes, even Superintendent Richard Jury seems to acknowledge it in this Martha Grimes cozy mystery. The prose has definitely fallen off. Fallen off a cliff, in fact.

When I commit to reading a book, I stick with it to the very end. Even when I find myself skimming rapidly over sections of it because the writing is so bad. That certainly happened with this book. Frankly, it was one of those times when I seriously considered breaking my rule and quitting the book halfway or three-quarters of the way through, but I did persevere and managed to make it through to the bitter end. I deserve a medal for that.

What was Grimes thinking? What was she hoping to accomplish with this convoluted story? It has so many plots and counterplots that it is impossible to keep them all straight. Indeed, they are all so uninteresting that there is no incentive for trying to keep them all straight. I write this as one who has pretty much enjoyed the Inspector/Superintendent Richard Justice series up until now - some books more than others certainly - but it pains me to say that this one is a real stinker.

The book starts in England, with Justice growing increasingly restive in his position and considering a move out of London, possibly to one of the provinces. He's considering where there are job openings, where he might like to work, and who he might like to work with. Macalvie, maybe?

But then the story moves off on a tangent.

The nephew of a titled lady has been killed in Philadelphia and Justice is persuaded to cross the ocean and liaise with the Philadelphia police to investigate. Since he is currently on leave, he is able to accomplish this, but he also decides to take Sgt. Wiggins along with him "on holiday" because, after all, who is Justice without Wiggins?

And who is Justice without Melrose Plant?

Fortuitously, Melrose receives a call from an American friend, living in Baltimore, teaching at Johns Hopkins. A student of hers has recently been murdered on January 19, Edgar Allen Poe's birthday, near Poe's grave. The student had recently "found" a previously unknown manuscript in a trunk that was allegedly written by Poe. For some reason, this professor needs Melrose Plant's support, so, of course, he decides to hop on the plane with Justice and Wiggins and travel to America.

Most of the action takes place in Baltimore and it involves a lot of talk about spurious documents, Poe, plagiarism, genealogy and the transmission of peerage titles down through the generations, and whether or not Baltimore will get a new football franchise since the Colts have absconded. (This book was published in 1993.) Camden Yards, the beautiful and at that time new, baseball park also comes in for a fair amount of discussion and a visit by Justice.

Most agonizingly, much of our heroes' time in Baltimore is spent reading aloud from the "Poe manuscript" and more from the plagiarized writings of Melrose's friend. It is all truly awful.

Do you get the feeling that this is all just a hopeless mish-mash, a word soup with very little spice or flavoring? Well, that about sums it up, I think. Very disappointing.

I have the next two Richard Justice mysteries still in my reading queue on my Kindle and I guess I will read them - because that's what I do. But I'm going to give myself a break from Grimes for a while and hope that she had returned to her earlier, crisper writing with the next one.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot in this Richard Jury mystery was so convoluted I couldn't keep track of it. Most of the story takes place in Baltimore, Maryland. I much prefer Jury and his friends to stay in England.

[Michael Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

I began reading this series at the beginning, intending to work my way straight through to the end. It started out okay, and I enjoyed the characters the author developed -- not only Detective Superintendent Richard Jury and his wealthy, once-titled buddy, Melrose Plant, but also the recurring villagers of Plant’s acquaintance and Jury’s apartment house neighbors and colleagues at work. Often they were better done than the actual plot, which are mostly getting sloppier and less thoughtful. This time, Jury is prevailed upon to undertake the investigation of an odd murder in Philadelphia -- at the same time Plant decides to journey to Baltimore to visit a young novelist in whom he developed a semi-romantic interest in the last book (. . . and who has now suddenly morphed into a full-fledged faculty member at Johns Hopkins), so it’s off to America for both of them, plus the hypochondriac Sgt. Wiggins. And there, the book begins to fall apart. Both of the mysteries, naturally, coincidentally, turn out to be involved with each other and both are connected to a newly-discovered manuscript which might turn out to be an unknown Edgar Allan Poe story -- or it might be a fake. But Grimes appears driven, for some reason, to churn out pages and pages and pages of truly dreadful pseudo-Poe. And even though Grimes is an American, her account of the Brits’ experiences reads like an insular British mystery writer’s conception of what America is like. Also, time passes at the normal rate in this series, so the main characters, who were in their 40s at the beginning, are now nearly sixty years old. And yet they behave like guys in their late twenties. (It’s been fifteen years since this book was published, and Grimes is still cranking them out, so I hate to think what her seventy-year-old cop is getting up to.) Anyway, I found I couldn’t make myself finish this one, and I won’t be hunting out the next one.

[Cindy B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like this series: plots, cast, and humor (usually there is some). Some vulgarity, no sex or graphic violence. Read well by Steve West. Recommended.

[Kamas Kirian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite Jury novel. I do remember reading this before when it first came out and thought it not up to par with most of the earlier novels, and this second time through confirmed that impression for me.

Plenty of Melrose. Actually, I really like the mystery part dealing with Melrose, Jury and Wiggins. But none of the new characters involved pulled me in, most were simply there and flat. The whole thing with the stories (those written by Melrose, Trueblood, Ellen, Salve and Poe) being read out by the characters were annoying at best. I liked the setting in Baltimore, and it was kind of nostalgic hearing about the quest for a new NFL team. All in all, I was rather underwhelmed by half the book and thought it was saved by the parts actually dealing with the main characters investigating the murders.

The hardcover was formatted well with only a couple of spelling/grammar errors.

[Alice Harbin · Rating 1 out of 5]

A convoluted story within several minor stories and several characters. The setting is in England initially and then moves to Baltimore, MD. Three murders have occurred there which are seemingly unrelated. Several of the characters are writers, one of who has lots of writer’s block and has a competitor who is stealing the content of her novels. Some small romances are ongoing. The conversations are misleading as so much of the time, no one wants to really say what they are thinking. There are secrets between them, which have little to do with the crimes. English blood lines are discussed in detail and the way in which titles are passed down the family tree. I found it hard to follow the plot and did not enjoy it, but finished it. It kept putting me to sleep.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one is all over the place. It jumps around in a very confusing way. And the end is just “thud.”

[C. (Comment, never msg). · Rating 3 out of 5]

My pleasure last reached five stars in volume 7. This novel shakes off a ‘cozy’ label, where its more adult ‘standard mystery’ tone becomes clear. People are aghast at modern vocabulary but inanely deem murder, guns, fantasy and war sagas, or animal death stories acceptable. Our world needs to get busy protesting harm instead.

“The Horse You Came In On” is creatively set in Boston and Maryland, the eastern American coast, where swearing is blended into everyday dialogue. Tying in an old expression with a flourish, it was a fun nod to her culture’s provocative colour, for cab drivers to argue, “Fuck off and the horse you came in on”! Maybe Martha Grimes wanted to get rid of that misbranded ‘cozy’ designation too.

An interesting note is this 1993 novel was the second she published, since she stopped drinking in 1990. Imagining that manuscripts are drafted in advance, perhaps the next book was her first sober creation.

The variety of factors that toppled my feedback to three stars were unlikely, scattered plot pieces. Layering crime origins is impressive if it works. The motives this book assembled besides being too many, were implausible stretches. Using Edgar Allen Poe is a temptation for many authors, especially where he lived. Titles of nobility were folded in as motives and long demonstrations of frustrated authors at work, via Emma Taylor and a thesis student. Deafness and homelessness were additional themes. I appreciated the intended tour of Boston. We needed a clear, tightly constructed mystery. Connecting Boston with Maryland was another stretch too far.

Emma was a bitch to Melrose. Fine: you only wanted to be friends! It was bizarrely, eminently stupid for her to chain herself to a writing desk.

My favourite scenes were of Melrose following an outdated, hilariously dramatised, family travel guide!

[Bill Dauster · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this Richard Jury mystery, Grimes takes her British detective to Grimes’s native Maryland. There, in Baltimore, the idea of a newly-found Poe story provides a fun side mystery to that of three murders, to which the book devotes too little attention. The book aspires to be an account of writing and authenticity, but few readers will be patient enough to enjoy its message. The protagonist’s catty, class-conscious British acquaintances may bemuse regular followers of the series, but are just as likely to bore a casual reader with their tedious distraction from the main mystery. It takes a fifth of the book to get the investigator to the country in which the crimes were committed. The detective spends little if any time in Philadelphia, the site of the murder he ostensibly came to the U.S. to solve. It takes two-fifths of the book before we learn that one of the victims was an African American woman. Tedious, as well, is the mystery writer writing self-referentially about mystery writers, as if to say, “How difficult is my life!” The book is laden with digressions, from Plant’s Russian shaggy-dog story, to the inaccurate guiding of a Baltimore cabbie, to the now-dated prospects of Baltimore regaining a football team, to Plant’s fugue-state remembrances of past loves from prior novels. Overly cute are the names of characters like Jury for the law enforcer, Trueblood for the antiquarian, Onions for the distasteful author, Brown for the African American student, Loser for the failed seller of things down and out, Vlasic for the sour professor, and Lamb for the pale white-skinned professor. For those who wish to retain hope for Grimes, this installment is reportedly not typical of her series.

[Barb · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my favorite Martha Grimes book. A change of scenery from England to Baltimore and a change of pace from curious and quick to plodding and confusing. I grew up in Baltimore and it was never this boring. Always love Sergeant Wiggins for comic relief though!

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of her better books. It was OK but I have enjoyed other ones more.

[Karol · Rating 4 out of 5]

I continue to love this series. In this one, the characters cross the Atlantic to investigate a murder in Baltimore involving an Edgar Allan Poe manuscript . . . is it an previously unknown original, or is it a clever fake? I enjoyed reading about Poe, Baltimore, and Americans in general from a decidedly British perspective. As always with Martha Grimes, there is a wonderful mix of interesting mystery, great characters, and a bit of dark humor.

[Susie James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found a copy of "The Horse You Came In On" not long ago at a used book sale at the Winona, Miss., library -- finally read it over the weekend, on the heels of having enjoyed Martha Grimes's latest "pub" named Richard Jury novels, "The Knowledge". Just had a blast reading both of these novels, featuring among other favorite characters, such as Melrose Plant, Sergeant Wiggins and Marshall Trueblood ... Such a treat, really, both of these meandering adventures.

[Lizzytish · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I enjoy these books more for hanging out with Plant and the gang. Somehow they are in Maryland, involved in a convoluted murder mystery. There are also several stories within the story. Stories that are written by Plant and a Poe imitator. Of course, there is a child involved, and all the inane silliness about Vivian.

[Andrea M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wenn ich Länderpunkte vergeben könnte, dann Amerika einen, England vier.
Ich gebe zu: ich mag die Figur Ellen und ihre Büchergeschichte nicht.
Dieses Buch hatte einige Längen, zu viel Sport, zu viel Poe, für meinen Geschmack.
Ich werde die Serie trotzdem weiterlesen, weil ich die Figuren mag.
Und wie wird es mit Vivian weitergehen...

[Sheila Myers · Rating 3 out of 5]

A huge disappointment. The main characters are the same great people as in all of the other books of this series. However, the plot has so many conversations and actions that have nothing to do with the main plot and only serve as a distraction to what would have otherwise been a very good plot.

[Penelope · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 to 2 Stars for THE HORSE YOU CAME IN ON, #12 in this series. This is one which is not among my favorite Richard Jury Mysteries.

MY RATING GUIDE: 1= I NEARLY DNF; What was that?; 2= NOPE; NOT FOR ME; 3= This was okay/cute; 3.5= I enjoyed it; 4= I liked it a lot; 5= I Loved it, it was great! (I seldom give 5 Stars).

THE HORSE YOU CAME IN ON was a reread for me as I read it first soon after its original publishing years ago. After enjoying most of the earlier Richard Jury novels, recently I had been wondering what caused me to stop enjoying these mysteries. But after struggling to complete THE HORSE YOU CAME IN ON I began to remember. Long sections of the first half of THYCIO moved extremely slowly, almost aimlessly, concentrating on rather endless lines of self-introspection individually with Melrose, Jury, and secondary characters - seemingly for no apparent or particular purpose - I caught myself nearly falling asleep 3 separate times, breaking away to pick up and finish entirely different novels in between. I finished THYCIO only because of my compulsion to see it to the end. Some readers may (possibly) enjoy THYCIO, claiming it is a clever novel with several subplots intertwining, pulled together in the conclusion but I simply found it exhausting and pointless. THE HORSE YOU CAME IN ON finds vacationing Superintendent Richard Jury, Sgrt Wiggins, and Melrose Plant together in Baltimore, US. Jury’s boss, Chief Superintendent Racer sends Jury to the US to investigate the murder of the nephew of an influential British Lady; the woman also an acquaintance of Jury. Side plots included - an Edgar Allen Poe element, the larking around of Jury’s Long Piddleton friends, and an unfinished business with a US professor/author, also an acquaintance of “Jury and Friends” from a previous novel (an unfinished mystery which will presumably to be solved in a later book, or not, as is sometimes the case with Grimes’ books).

The Superintendent Richard Jury novels are somewhere between Cozy Mysteries and Grisly Thrillers - depending on the particular title; a few have been rather dark. These mysteries aren’t particularly angst-filled generally but they certainly aren’t HEAs - Richard Jury simple isn’t that fortunate. His family home was destroyed and his parents killed during the WWII bombing of London in Jury’s youth. Subsequently, Jury was orphan-raised and alone until years later when an uncle finally claimed him. Jury is a intelligent detective - educated, intuitive, compassionate, observant, thoughtful with a talent and a gift for detection. He is blessed in his friendships but cursed by his boss and female relationships. Jury struggles with PTSD memories from childhood and occasional depression.

THE HORSE YOU CAME IN ON can be read as a stand-alone title but there are many personal relationships which weave through the series and sub-plots that pop up and are solved several books later - all of which are better understood in context. By book #12, there is a rich cast of secondary characters that feature more or less in each book - Jury’s wealthy and relaxed personal friend, former earl Melrose Plant; Plant’s assorted friends and acquaintances from Long Piddleton; Jury’s sarcastic and pompous Scotland Yard superior, Chief Superintendent Racer; Racer’s flirtatious secretary, Fiona Cligmore; the sneaky Scotland Yard CID “office” cat, Cyrus; Jury’s loyal, efficient, insightful and hypochondriac assistant Detective Sargent Higgins; Superintendent Jury’s London flat WWII survivor and PTSD inflicted Jewish downstairs neighbor, Mrs Wasserman and Jury’s sexy and impulsive, young upstairs-flat neighbor, Carole-anne Palutski.

This was a reread of the Richard Jury Mystery series for me. I’ve enjoyed certain titles more than others; THE HORSE YOU CAME IN ON is one I enjoyed considerably less than others (especially the earlier books or more recently, The Old Contempables, The Old Success, The Knowledge). I found it practically forgettable, barely worth the time.

READER CAUTIONS -
PROFANITY - Yes. Strong language is used on occasion.
VIOLENCE - This is a murder mystery with 3 deaths which occurred before the story begins. No real details included.
SEXUAL SITUATIONS - None.

[C.C. Yager · Rating 2 out of 5]

A nice, fat murder mystery with eccentric characters, this Richard Jury novel somehow fell flat for me. I've read other Richard Jury mysteries that I thoroughly enjoyed. This one was different, however, because the murder occurred off stage and in another country -- America. As it turned out, there were actually 3 murders that turned out to be related, and the reason behind them left me feeling indifferent rather than riveted.

Martha Grimes writes extremely well, and has created a group of memorable characters surrounding Richard Jury. Their idiosyncrasies didn't amuse me this time. In fact, it was quite a stretch for Jury to take anyone else with him when he flew to Baltimore to consult on the murder as a favor to a friend. I didn't quite believe that would happen. Grimes this time deprives the reader of the crime scene (because Jury doesn't see it with the body still there), and of a sympathetic victim. At one point, Melrose Plant takes over the investigation even though Jury is the one who's supposed to be investigating.

Maybe it was because I read this mystery before bed and in small increments. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for a Brit coming to Baltimore to solve a murder. But this novel just didn't grab me the way other Martha Grimes books have.

To be fair, I'm still going to say that Martha Grimes fans might really enjoy this book, or mystery readers looking for eccentric characters. I think I'd rather Jury stay in England.

[Sharon Fitzgerald · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like many previous reviewers I found the story within a story device taken too far and with many tracks hard to follow. With so many abbreviated stories it was also hard to develop any character empathy or interest in their conclusion.
One saving grace is Melrose Plant in Baltimore adjusting to American cabbies and losing his bespoke wardrobe piece by piece as he gathers the essential clues to the motive for the murders. Meanwhile Jury is on his usual melancholy journey, leaving two possibly interesting characters stranded, one in Philadelphia who has inherited one victim's cabin and the other a bullied child in a Baltimore shop. I was hoping one or both of these story lines would have born more fruit but sadly not.
I will keep reading the Jury series as the ensemble, especially with Melrose and then Wiggins for comic relief are a joy to follow. At one point near the end Jury surveys his Piddleton friends from on high while sipping tea and eating muffins he doesn't like (of course he doesn't like them) and I could see how his gang and the ultimate writing prank he plays on them grounds him. The realities of his work certainly calling for this respite.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always had a feeling that Martha Grimes should be classified on the edge of fantasy because there are weird under currents of mental strangeness about the characters and their actions. This one is set mostly in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, and really deals with the writing process. Where do ideas come from, what is style and how is it achieved? What is plagiarism and how do you recognize it? These ideas are paralleled with the matter of identity: who are you, what are you, and who are your people? Does finding out facts from the past change who you are? The deaths are a means of pointing out the nature of the 'who are you?' question. I liked this better than most of the others I've read in this series because the questions asked are important ones.
Re-reading this 7 years later I agree with most of what I said earlier although I am feeling a little more comfortable with Grimes' books. I have a feeling of Jury being very similar to Elizabeth George's detective but without the aristocratic background and sometimes he even seems to have that. I like Melvin Plant more now, too.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

#12 in the New Scotland Yard Superintendent Richard Jury mystery series. This mystery is composed of a umber of disparate elements which somewhat come together at the end. Typical of the Jury series, a umber of plot items are left unresolved.

Jury is on leave and feeling a bit down, wondering whether he wants to continue at Scotland Yard and is contacting friends in other police forces as to whether they would hire him. The death of an aristocrat's friend who Jury met earlier ask Jury's superiors to assign him to help her discover why the friend's son was murdered in America. Accompanied by his aristocratic friend Melrose Plant and by Sergeant Wiggins, Jury arrives in Baltimore, Maryland to informally investigate. Genealogy will play an important role. Other elements involve a possible loss Edgar Allan Poe manuscript, an author struggling to continue her next novel along with dealing with a woman who is copying her style and plot, another murder, homeless people and an orphan young girl originally from England who asks Jury is he discover more about her.

[Lynne Tull · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like any mystery that involves an English detective and an English cast of characters. This series by Ms. Grimes fits that bill. However, this particular story was not my favorite. In fact it was really strange. For some reason, there were a couple of stories within the mystery story. I don't think the actual stories added anything to the mystery. I can't be sure because I skipped most of them. I kept checking to see if I was missing something. At the end they didn't seem to added much to the capture of the murderer. The mystery seems to have taken second place to the trial and tribulations of Melrose Plant.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

These books are always worth reading, but the last couple have been a bit messy. The mystery is wrapped up quickly and not always clearly, as if it's less important than the series characters. Of course, in many ways, that's true in mystery series, but still....

This one also has way too many "book excerpts" that don't advance the plot and are rather ripe and tedious. I hope Melrose doesn't continue in this vein.

All of that said, the characters are well developed and amusing. And Jury seems to have come through a "mid-career crisis," at least that seems to be the case.

I do hope the next ones are a bit tighter.

[Juliann]

Gosh, I'd forgotten how much I love Richard Jury and his cohorts. This is one of my favorites because the murder isn't one that rips at my heartstrings and makes me emotional. It's a puzzle and I like those. I am rather partial to this one as well because it brings Jury, Wiggins and Plant to America. I happened to leave near Baltimore at the time this book came out so it was fun reading these very British characters' take on something familiar to me. Ellen is a fun foil for Plant, I like her better than Vivian or Polly. and again, enjoyed the mystery in this one.

[Kelly RAley · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book seems much more indulgent than the last few. During the first 5-6 books, Melrose never complained about leaving home or anything and now he spends the first half of this book complaining about how he never wants to leave his local. There is an intolerable scene about a writer with writer’s block. I didn’t care at all about Ellen as she is so pompous and not really likable. Bring back Aunt Agatha and her tea cakes.

[Cie Patterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a fan of this one - while I didn't mind the trek to the US, huge football fan myself and did understand the plot, I CANNOT STAND Ellen Taylor. I sincerely hope she isn't in too many more. I started this series way back when Ms. Grimes first began writing them and then lost track for a long time - moves, kids, jobs, LIFE - but found them again on Audible and have enjoyed the stories up to this book. I'm going on to the next, Rainbow's End, hopefully it's better....

[Kathy Bryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had read this years ago, remembered that much of it took place in Baltimore with connections to Poe, but had forgotten so much.

(Spoiler alert) loved where the successful novelist has to chain herself to a table to force a writing session in her office.

Probably enjoyed it even more this time.

[✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Une divertissante enquête de Richard Jury et Melrose Plant.

[Cathy Coco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Convoluted yes. Too many characters to keep track, yes. Not the best in series,definitely a yes. Will keep reading, well yes! A gracious 3 star rating only because of Melrose Plant.