The Stargazey

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

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.......more

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 capricious......more

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 c......more

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 t......more