Dust: A Richard Jury Mystery

by Martha Grimes

2007

Status

Available

Publication

Berkley (2007), Edition: Reprint, 432 pages

Description

Fiction. Mystery. HTML:A young friend pulls Scotland Yard’s Richard Jury into the life—and death—of a wealthy bachelor… The once-charismatic Billy Maples was last seen in a club named Dust, before his murder in a trendy London hotel. Proving as inscrutable—and challenging—to Jury as the case is the beautiful chief inspecting officer... Before his death, Maples was a patron of London’s finest art galleries and caretaker of author Henry James’s house in Rye. It’s there where Jury installs Melrose Plant, who takes his job to heart, as Jury closes in on the dark secrets behind Maples’s friends and family….

User reviews

LibraryThing member Kathy89
Snobby, boring mystery. Read early Richard Jury mysteries in the 80's after vacationing in England and enjoyed them. Now I find them really tiresome. I think the author tried to update it by adding a sexually aggressive female police inspector. Plot involved murder of a young wealthy patron of the
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arts.
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LibraryThing member brochettes
First of all, I don't like books that end in cliffhangers. To me, it smacks of desperation on the author's part; as if they feel that their writing isn't good enough to make the reader come back for more after a self-contained story. What little resolution there was in this book was vague and not
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particularly gripping, and I'm not sure whether it was my general lack of interest that made me skip parts or whether there were some giant plot holes in the story. All in all, not a book I would recommend when introducing anyone to the Richard Jury series, but somehow it still managed to hold my interest just enough for me to want to know the outcome of this. The comfortable familiarity with the characters means that if there is a sequel to this, I will probably read it, albeit reluctantly. Al least this one had no superhero dog.
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LibraryThing member whimsicalkitten
It saddens me to read Martha Grimes these days - she's completely discarded the notion of plotting or character development. But her ability to evoke an atmosphere still charms.
LibraryThing member cameling
Oh no.. she's done it again...another Inspector Jury with the cliff hanger for an ending. Really, these should come with a warning that a) they should be read in sequence, and b) you're not going to find out who did the dastardly deed until you get hold of the next in the series.

So in 'Dust'
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Inspector Jury is trying to tie up the loose ends from a previous case, referenced sporadically in this book, when he's called into the scene of a murdered man in a hotel. All evidence seem to point to the killer interrupting him during his dinner and killing him. But the killer inconveniently leaves no fingerprints or clues as to his identity behind.

Inspector Jury also finds himself in unfamiliar territory with the delectable Detective Inspector Lu Aguilar. There's more attention given to sex in this book rather than laying out paths to solving the murder. The way the various links to the murdered man unfolds keeps this a very engaging book though, which makes it all the more frustrating to get to the end of the book only to find not just that you still don't know who did it, but that there now seems to be a new mystery to solve... in the next book.
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LibraryThing member krsball
Another good mystery by Martha Grimes. Jury never disappoints!
LibraryThing member reannon
Martha Grimes is still writing well her long-running Richard Drury series. This book concerns the murder of a likeable young man who supported artists and liked Henry James.
LibraryThing member picardyrose
Confusing timeline -- was it the 1980s? -- but the ending is great. I had to go back nearly a third into the book to find the killer's motivation.
LibraryThing member lorielibrarian
maybe I'm just getting tired of Jury et al.
LibraryThing member whyteb
Tiresome and without substance.
LibraryThing member ChazziFrazz
Richard Jury is called in to help solve the murder by a young boy he has befriended in the past on another case. He finds that he also knows the grandfather of the murdered man from working with him on another case. He now has two people expecting him to come up with the murderer. The problem is
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the lack of clues, or the subtlety of them. He is also paired with a beautiful detective whose presence sparks an animal attraction between the two of them that just adds distraction to the whole case.

Characters from previous cases appear in this tale. Some providing help and others distraction. Jury is a bit of a somber character who sometimes seems to over analyze to the point that he can't see the forest for the trees.

For me, I enjoy Melrose Plant as he tends to add a nice touch of humour and levity. He is useful to Jury in his investigating behind the scenes. He can go where Jury can't as people won't always tell the truth to the police.

I enjoy Martha Grimes' mysteries as they can be read at a leisurely pace and don't reveal everything all at once. Gives you something to ruminate about.
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LibraryThing member jetangen4571
law-enforcement, murder-investigation, British-detective -----
There may be only one murder investigation, but it's still as convoluted as ever. Plant gets to emulate Henry James in order to investigate part of the victim's life, Jury is ambushed by a barracuda, and World War 2 history invades the
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present. A very busy book which needs a second reading to catch up with the nuances hiding clues. A good read.
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LibraryThing member 4leschats
When young Benny finds a body in the hotel room where he is delivering coffee, he immediately calls Jury. The case seems to point to the past and WWII, but each suspect doesn't quite fit until Jury has a revelatory conversation with Wiggins.
LibraryThing member phoenixcomet
The first in the series that I truly detested, mostly because suddenly Richard Jury is cheating on his girlfriend, Phyllis Nancy with detective Lu Aguilar, a force of nature, ignoring Carol Anne and in general being a prig. Melrose Plant is as delightful as always, and I hate when Grimes doesn't
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wrap up the story but leaves you guessing as to the ending - it's clear as mud to me. This doesn't change the fact that I'll be reading the next book in the series, just that I'm irritated by this entry. Oh well.

Oh, about the story - Benny Keegan and Sparky go to deliver room service to Billy Maples, a youngish playboy (aged 32) and finds him shot through the heart. He calls Jury to get him on the case. The case is entwined with the seavacs and the kindertrains from WWII. One of the issues for me is that it is no longer clear to me when the modern stories are supposed to be set - early 1990s, 2000s? By now Richard should be retired.

This blog entry explores what the ending meant or didn't mean. http://maebookblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/dust-by-martha-grimes_14.html
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2007

Physical description

432 p.; 4.3 inches

ISBN

0451222660 / 9780451222664

Barcode

1601703
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