I Am the Only Running Footman (Richard Jury Series #8)

Her characters are very well drawn and believable. The police work is never boring and one must pay attention to the details and how people act. Grimes also works the psychological aspects giving us clues to what isn't explained, but she expects the reader to stay alert because the causes behind many characters' actions will finally expose the perp. Most of the time she reveals answers before I can guess the ending. Clever and fun entertainment with wonderful descriptions of these certain English people and their style of living. I am a real fan!

Overall, I liked it, but I think I'm getting burnt out on Jury right now. I think I'll have to take a break, read something different next. Another novel with Macalvie, though in not as big a part. Melrose didn't seem to have a real big part either, but was rather funny in what he was in. It was somewhat different in structure (I think Grimes likes to play around with the structure of her novels from one to the next) in that we follow the killer for parts, as well as what seems like an unrelated sided story of two sisters that doesn't get tied in until the final pages. Carole-Anne and Mrs. Wasserman make a very brief appearance near the end, but we do get little glimpse at Jury's girlfriend. Jury certainly didn't seem to be melancholy in this novel. The killer's motive wasn't clear until the end, which made guessing who it was more difficult. Though there were a very limited number of suspects to begin with. The pacing seemed a little slower than some prior novels as well. This hardcover book was formatted well with no obvious spelling/grammar errors.

Eighth in the Richard Jury series.A young woman is strangled on a lonely highway pulloff--on Brian Macalvie's turf. 10 months later, another young woman is strangled the same way outside a Mayfair pub of the title, bringing in Richard Jury. suspicion falls on the latter woman's lover, David Marr, a member of a very wealthy and very close knit family. Melrose Plant becomes involved when another young woman, in love with Marr, pleads with Melrose to visit Marr and his family--neighbors--to see for himself that David could not be the killer. Encouraged as always by Jury to be a mole, Plant travels to Somers Abbas and stays at The Mortal Man, a local inn. Which allows Grimes to invent yet another of her wildly eccentric families, the Warboys, owners and operators of the inn. More "normal" than the Cripps family of London's Catchcoach St, that still leaves enormous leeway for bizarre behavior and relationships within the Warboys family, resulting in an excruciatingly funny chapter in the book. In addition, Grimes introduces a number of other characters who will recur in the series, and a new job for Carole-anne Palutski as a fortune-teller in an occult shop in Covent Garden--a location that will recur as well.That said, there isn't much more to recommend the book. Grimes gives a fairly good look at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton as local color backdrop for the climax of the book. The plot is pretty pedestrian and not very interesting. Normally, at least one child plays a crucial role in the series; in the 6th and 7th books of the series, the plot actually revolves around a young person. In this book, as in the first book, Man With a Load of Mischief, 2 young children have critical information for Jury and Macalvie, but in cameo roles.Grimesism: "Wiggens, thought Jury, would have taken shock treatments to ward off the flu."While Grimes' wit and inventiveness with characters enlivens this book, it can't cover the plodding story.