LemonSky reviewed JERUSALEM INN. by Martha Grimes
Review of 'JERUSALEM INN.' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
"Workingman’s place. Scruffy. Fights and lock-ins. Jerusalem Inn, it’s called.”
It is at Christmastime and Richard Jury, as usual,is alone. He's one of those people who could be alone in the middle of a crowd. Things cheer up for him, though, when he meets the attractive Helen Minton in a graveyard. They immediately hit it off. When they part, Jury has an uneasy feeling.
"That was when he first thought it: that a meeting in a graveyard was not the best way to begin an attachment. The sparrow fluttered near him, but he shook it off. The next time he saw her, he would certainly find out why she was unhappy. The next time he saw her she was dead."
Jury goes to visit his cousin and her family, but is quickly distracted by a police investigation in the same area he had just left.
"Death had heightened the pallor, …
"Workingman’s place. Scruffy. Fights and lock-ins. Jerusalem Inn, it’s called.”
It is at Christmastime and Richard Jury, as usual,is alone. He's one of those people who could be alone in the middle of a crowd. Things cheer up for him, though, when he meets the attractive Helen Minton in a graveyard. They immediately hit it off. When they part, Jury has an uneasy feeling.
"That was when he first thought it: that a meeting in a graveyard was not the best way to begin an attachment. The sparrow fluttered near him, but he shook it off. The next time he saw her, he would certainly find out why she was unhappy. The next time he saw her she was dead."
Jury goes to visit his cousin and her family, but is quickly distracted by a police investigation in the same area he had just left.
"Death had heightened the pallor, made her face whiter against the dark spread and the reddish brown hair.
Wake up. Blindly irrational, he told himself mistakes had been made before. Maybe now. Snow drove against the panes, piling up on the sills. Seeing her lying here in this room full of history, this mysterious and dramatic setting, he could not get over the notion that it was just a stage-set mockery of death. She would open her eyes and smile and plant her feet on solid ground. Get up, that part of his mind ordered her.
But the dead don’t rise, despite the season."
For Jury, his interest in this murder case is personal. He quickly finds ties to the members of a party. It quickly becomes obvious that several members of the party have close ties to Helen Minton - some have very close ties to her indeed.
This is one of the better Jury/Plant books. The mystery is intriguing and fun, and the secondary characters are interesting and amusing. At times it almost reminded me of Agatha Christie, which is the highest compliment I can pay. This one isn't quite as cheerful as the other volumes. There's a definite sense of melancholy hanging over everything.
