Chief Inspector Richard Jury is surrounded by colorful characters – from the idle rich Melrose Plant (who gave up his hereditary title of Lord) who assists him on cases, to his assistant Sergeant Alfred Wiggins (a hypochondriac and tea lover of the highest order), to the copper-haired fortune teller Carole Anne (is Jury her father figure or a “person of interest”) who lives two floors above him, and the residents of Long Piddington, his frequent stop from London to the scene of the crime.

Jury is intuitive and methodical and always “gets his man” – but despite his new romantic interest who cuts up bodies in the morgue – he never seems to get his woman. Jury just doesn’t fare well in love. We can assume from descriptions and responses that he is handsome and attractive, but the melancholy war orphan sabotages relationships at every turn. Unrequited love is always a wonderful plot device!

The plots are both humorous and dark – and occasionally get a bit too charmingly convoluted. But if you like your murder mysteries laced and paced with psychological reflection, Richard Jury is your man.

By the way, if you shake your head when you see individual book titles – The Dirty Duck, The Stargazey, The Horse You Came In On –  Grimes names most books after an English pub.

Martha Grimes’ 23rd Jury novel, Vertigo 42, released on June 2, 2014.

I won’t do a full review but I’ll note:

• Sargent Wiggins can still be distracted by a piece of cake and hot cup of tea, but Grimes is letting the plodder show some real detecting skills in Vertigo 42. He seems to be coming into his own.
• Did child-waif, free-spirited Carole Anne do some grown up flirting with Jury? I think she did.
• Yes, Vertigo 42 is another London bar – but not the usual quaint neighborhood pub, but a sleek sophisticated spot 42 floors above the city.
• Jury and Plant have always had a good-natured rivalry, but they seem to be picking at each other in this novel more like … dare I say it … nah … I’ll leave it at that.
• Yes – the plot is convoluted – but as is almost always the case with a Jury novel, very satisfying!