The Man with a Load of Mischief

A Richard Jury Novel, Book 1

By: Martha Grimes

Narrated by: Steve West

Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

At the Man with a Load of Mischief, they found the dead body stuck in a keg of beer. At the Jack and Hammer, another body was stuck out on the beam of the pub's sign, replacing the mechanical man who kept the time. Two pubs. Two murders. One Scotland Yard inspector called in to help.

Detective Chief Inspector Richard Jury arrives in Long Piddleton and finds everyone in the postcard village looking outside of town for the killer - except for one Melrose Plant. A keen observer of human nature, he points Jury in the right direction: into the darkest parts of his neighbors' hearts.

©2013 Martha Grimes (P)2013 Simon & Schuster

Love this series, but FYI

I've just finished listening to book 13, and I have absolutely loved every one so far! The recurring characters and the relationships between them are very entertaining and often hilarious. I highly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys murder mysteries without all the stress.

The FYI part is this:

The first book in the series was published in 1981, and was contemporary fiction. Hard as it is for me to believe, 1981 was 33 years ago! I suspect, though, that the author never expected the series to take off and to still be writing the books all these years later. The main characters in the series are Richard Jury and Melrose Plant. I picture them in age as between 35-40. The thing is, I don't think they can ever get much older than that and have it all still work. However, time and technology continue to march on and, to keep the series contemporary, things like computers and cell phones have to come into play. Also, Jury having been a small child in WW2 was perfectly in line in 1981, but by now he would have to be elderly.

What I do is just mentally keep the characters in the same approximate age frame they started in, and ignore any references to the passage of time that the author inserts in the text. Just sort of let time and world events go by in the background, while the characters stay the same. There were enough comments in book 13 about the passage of time and people not changing after all these years, that I'm guessing the author was maybe poking a little fun at her predicament.

I'm awaiting the Audible release of the next book at the moment, but I hope that she hasn't done anything to blatantly age the characters in the rest of the books. I like things just the way they are. Once you know of and accept the time anomaly thing, it need not interfere with the enjoyment of the books. They are definitely worth a listen.

LOVE Steve West!

I have been a Richard Jury fan for years and couldn't pass up the chance to hear it read. The choice of having Steve West narrate was absolutely brilliant! Steve has captured the personality of each of the main characters perfectly. I have literally laughed out loud more than when I read the books the first, second and third + times just because of the tone of voice he uses for the different characters.

Aside from the murder mystery in each book, there are the wonderful adventures of Cyril the cat, the marvelously sarcastic relationship between Melrose Plant and his aunt "Lady" Ardry, the machinations of Carole-Anne Palutski, and of course the weird and mystical pharmacopeia of Sergeant Wiggins.

I guarantee a great read!

STILL A GOOD STORY

I read many of the Martha Grimes books many many years ago. I thought I would try them on Audible and this one still stands the test of time. The narrator was very good and I enjoyed listening to this book. I will download more of this series.

great new series I stumbled upon!

Really good - just stumbled on to this author and it's a great book! I agree with a previous comment that initially the narrator is a little dry but when the book gets going he is really good! You get very invested in the different characters and I definitely did not guess the murderer. Highly recommend and now listening to the 2nd book.

Trying too hard

Voice actors are excellent and I appreciate intelligent interactions
But too many characters with inner dialogue making storyline difficult to follow

Favorite Revisited

I was excited about revisiting - in audio - a series of books which I have so enjoyed over the years. In one way, I was not disappointed, because the performance by Steve West is quite good, and all the quirky characters I remembered are still there. The aristocrats, the wannabes, the shop-and-bar keepers.

But, on the whole, these characters have not aged particularly well. Although the "pub" title trademark remains interesting, "Aunt Agatha" and "Melrose Plant" now seem more the copies from older British mysteries that they actually are. There's a dated, self-conscious feeling here that is not as apparent in the original, classic series of Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Marjorie Allingham and, to some extent, Agatha Christie.

Is it possible that American authors really can't quite capture the traditional, cozy British who-done-it? Maybe - and I think I'd rather just remember the Jury/Plant series as something I really liked 25 years ago. No need to revisit.

Keep characters straight!

One only has to keep the characters and the pubs straight for a good shot at hitting the murderer!!

Not terribly exciting

I really had to force myself to finish this one. None of the characters were very interesting, and the murder mystery was lackluster as well. The narration was fairly well done. I just didn't enjoy this book very much.
There was a small amount of profanity in this book, but otherwise it was fairly clean.
I might try another Grimes book in the future, but it will have to hook me from the beginning.

Jury meets Plant

I love this multiple-murder puzzler, which introduces Inspector Jury to Melrose Plant, his loathe some Aunt Agatha, and the rest of Long Pid. All Grimes' Jury novels are good, but they're best read in sequence, and this one sets up some important relationships.
Recommended to those who love understated British humor and a bit of sad WWII childhood memories.

Best mystery I’ve listened to in a long time

What delightful characters, so quintessentially, English, excellent foreshadowing. Can’t wait to read the rest of her books.