The Old Wine Shades (Richard Jury Mystery)
by Martha Grimes
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Book Summary Information
Author: Martha GrimesEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-03-06
ISBN: 0451220722
Number of pages: 391
Publisher: Signet
Book Reviews of The Old Wine Shades (Richard Jury Mystery)
Book Review: good start, deplorable finish
Summary: 1 Stars
I'm not a huge mystery reader but picked this one up in the library and enjoyed the first chapters. Indeed I looked forward to reading it each day. It piqued my interest, let's say, and I liked the characters. There were irritating aspects such as the fact that reference kept obviously being made to other books I hadn't read, and everyone seemed able to quote poetry and classic novels, which is certainly not my life experience, and they kept talking about physics theories incessantly (superstring theory in particular, which I happen to understand but wonder whether others would be put off -- and why the cat, over and over and over again?), however, at this point it was at least interesting enough to want to continue.
Then it started to get worse. For example, a group of characters suddenly appeared at some afternoon drinking laze-about (oh, did I mention that everyone is constantly drinking alcohol in this book? In real life they would not be functioning so well) to discuss the mystery, and one of the women makes a parting sentence that is very important to the (ridiculous - but we'll get to that) solution but doesn't explain herself. No, that would be too easy. We, the readers, couldn't possibly be smart enough to have noticed this clue ourselves, so we have to have it thrust upon us. The author wants us to see this clue, has no faith in us but can't outright tell us, can she? So she has to throw it in, in a far-fetched manner.
And I'm not even at the bad part yet.
Then suddenly we start getting first-person accounts from the dog, who doesn't think like a dog but rather like a human trapped in a dog's body. This dog and the cat send messages back and forth with mental telepathy. And then the humans start getting the odd message from the dog too! How convenient! Or it would be, except these messages are not very helpful and I wonder why they are sent at all. Oh, but the humans all notice how intelligent the dog is, and how helpful. How and why? Because he looks pleadingly at them? And what was the point of the kitten being hidden all over the place? And the bloody footprints? Of course there must be some red herrings in a mystery novel but I don't think a dog making bloody footprints with a slipper in his mouth (yes, really)is a true red herring; it's a pointless addition. Since this novel seems so ill thought out, perhaps the author threw it in to do something with it later and then forgot.
But this isn't even the worst of the book. The worst is the completely unbelievable "solution" to the mystery. I use quotes because after forcing ourselves to read through the last torturous third of the book we never truly get a solution. Seeing how utterly improbable the whole concept was, I think the author herself was at a loss about how to bring closure and so just didn't.
If she left the perpetrator free in order to use him in future books, I'm afraid I won't be learning whatever happens to him. As others here have suggested might be the case, this book is the first I've read by this author,and has scared me away from reading any other. I can't imagine how it got published.
Summary of The Old Wine Shades (Richard Jury Mystery)
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