- Hardcover: 432 pages
- Publisher: Viking USA; 1 edition (Aug 27 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0670030457
- ISBN-13: 978-0670030453
- Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 15.7 x 3.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 748 g
- Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,904,840 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
In this, the 18th outing in Martha Grimes's popular series featuring Scotland Yard Superintendent Richard Jury and his aristocrat pal Melrose Plant, Jury, recuperating from a near-fatal shooting (The Blue Last) hears about the two-year-old abduction of his doctor's talented young daughter, Nell Ryder, who disappeared from her grandfather's stud farm, along with a champion thoroughbred horse. Pursuing the stalled investigation when he's released from the hospital, Jury stumbles on a complicated scheme involving murder, insurance fraud, and a scheme to replicate a popular menopause drug derived from the urine of pregnant mares. As readers of this popular series know, while there's a mystery at the heart of every Jury novel, the real payoff is in Grimes's lucent prose, wit, and complex characterizations. Fans of British mystery writer Dick Francis, who's made the world of thoroughbreds his own turf, will find this a delightful diversion, particularly since Francis recently announced his retirement from the genre. --Jane Adams
From Publishers Weekly
In the 18th entry in this popular series (after 2001's The Blue Last), Grimes serves up a convoluted hodgepodge of rape, kidnapping and murder, then throws in corporate greed, animal rights issues and assorted satires of modern British society. Supt. Jury is hospitalized following a shooting in an earlier case. His aristocratic assistant, Melrose Plant (aka Lord Ardry) overhears two women in a pub curiously called the Grave Maurice discussing the disappearance of horse enthusiast Nell Ryder, who turns out to be the daughter of Jury's doctor, the first of many implausible coincidences. Nell's devoted 16-year-old cousin, who's also named Maurice, has been in a grave mood following Nell's apparent abduction. This poor lad must also cope with his father's death, his mother's flight to America and a growth spurt that has left him too tall to be a jockey, his life's ambition. Most of this long and winding tale deals with the world of horse racing and its seamier sides. Pregnant mares are being badly treated at a stud farm where their urine is collected for a commercial menopause drug. People and prize thoroughbreds get snatched away in the night, and, to the dismay of his elders, a greedy stepbrother has left the Ryder farm to peddle IPOs in London. Jury's investigation gets off to a tardy start, by which time Plant has dug himself in deep, even buying his own horse to try to understand the lore of racing. Frequent digressions divert the sleuths (and the reader) from the investigative trail. (Aug. 26) Forecast: A 10-city author tour, on top of national print publicity and advertising, should help launch this one into bestseller territory.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Riddles Wrapped into a Mystery Springing from a Tragedy,
By Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 112,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (#1 HALL OF FAME)
This review is from: Grave Maurice (Hardcover)
This novel reminded me of one of those Russian nesting dolls, where you keep finding another doll inside of the one you are holding, when you take the doll apart. There's enough plot and character development here for 6 novels. I graded the book down mostly because no one should read this novel without having read quite a few of the earlier ones in the series. Most of the best references and ironies won't mean much otherwise. And many of them are rather long sections. Even in a series, authors need to make novels as stand-alone as they can. I also graded the book down because one plot element just didn't make sense to me (the location of the missing heroine for two years). On the other hand, I thought that the development of the theme of honoring animal rights was well done. I don't remember a novel that does it any better. Along the way, I had a lot of fun. Regular Richard Jury and Martha Grimes fans should definitely read this one! The Grave Maurice is one of Melrose Plant's best and most humorous outings. You see new sides of Richard Jury, and they will make him more appealing to you. I also appreciated the reference to Josephine Tey's wonderful book about Richard III. The Grave Maurice is also as steeped in English horse racing as the typical Dick Francis effort, which made the book all the more appealing to me. After you finish this story, think about the moral priorities for you in protecting life and liberty! What comes first?
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Farfetched coincidences, don't you think?,
By Empress (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Grave Maurice (Mass Market Paperback)
Warning! Gives away plot!A young girl is kidnapped and raped and they let her have the run of the farm? She has the run of the farm and she doesn't run away immediately? I can barely accept Maurice believing that his dead(!) father needs to speak to Nell (why?) but after realizing Nell is kidnapped, why would he keep silent? He knows who talked to him! Jockeys on the wrong horse? His wife jumps at the chance to identify someone else as her dead husband? No one misses the real dead guy? And then it's a case of revenge from a character we barely know? Oh, dear, this one really strains the imagination. And after all that, Nell dies? The only thing that might have saved this book for me is if Nell ended up with Vernon. I love Martha Grimes and I have been happily wending my way through the Richard Jury novels, but this one I wish I had missed.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
A good book? Neigh...,
By A Customer
This review is from: Grave Maurice (Hardcover)
In one of Martha Grimes's most recent books, a mystery writer complains about how she's become shackled to her fictional detective series to the degree that she'd be laughed at if she wrote "serious" fiction. Well, if Grimes herself is having the same kind of identity crisis, and this is the kind of "serious" fiction for which she wants to be known, then I'd rather she stop writing altogether. It won't be that great a stretch, as "The Grave Maurice" is hardly "writing" at all. It's some plotting, some character description and a lot of pontificating -- but it's not much of a book. I would say it's not up to Grimes's usual standards, but unfortunately, as her usual standards have plummeted in the past few years, this is sadly par for the course. So many of the once great mystery series out there (this one, Sue Grafton's Alphabet Series, Janet Evanovich's once-hilarious Stephanie Plum novels, most particulary Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta books -- even the great P.D.James's latest) have taken on a stale, musty been-there-done-that, send-me-the royalty-checks quality. Writers do nothing more than insult the intelligence of loyal fans when they churn out chewed-over, by-the-numbers tripe. If you have nothing to say, ladies, don't say it. (And that goes for James Patterson and any number of male mystery authors who could never put two words together in the first place.) My apologies, folks, for the over-hyphenated (there I go again!) diatribe. I guess I'm just madder about wasting my time than I'd thought.
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