The Grave Maurice

Richard Jury, Book 18

By: Martha Grimes

Narrated by: Steve West

Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's Summary

"Chew on this," says Melrose Plant to Richard Jury, who's in the hospital being driven crazy by Hannibal, a nurse who likes to speculate on his chances for survival. Jury could use a good story, preferably one not ending with his own demise.

Plant tells Jury of something he overheard in The Grave Maurice, a pub near the hospital. A woman told an intriguing story about a girl named Nell Ryder, granddaughter to the owner of the Ryder Stud Farm in Cambridgeshire, who went missing more than a year before and has never been found. What is especially interesting to Plant is that Nell is also the daughter of Jury's surgeon.

But Nell's disappearance isn't the only mystery at the Ryder farm. A woman has been found dead on the track - a woman who was a stranger even to the Ryders.

But not to Plant. She's the woman he saw in The Grave Maurice. Together with Jury, Nell's family, and the Cambridgeshire police, Plant embarks on a search to find Nell and bring her home. But is there more to their mission than just restoring a 15-year-old girl to her family?

The Grave Maurice is the 18th entry in the Richard Jury series and, from its pastoral opening to its calamitous end, is full of the same suspense and humor that devoted listeners expect from Martha Grimes.

©2002 Martha Grimes (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

My favorite one

I love this womans writing,she is so gifted. The way she describes the antics of animals and children is preciously accurate. This has been my favorite Richard Jury novel. The plot is interesting and the characters entertaining,without the meandering that sometimes accompanies her stories. If you are looking for the stereotypical Hollywood endings, Martha Grimes' stories are not for you.

Most Depressing.......But It Is a Good Book

What did you love best about The Grave Maurice?

Richard Drury and Melrose Plants' conversations. They were hilarious in between the darkest of subject matters.

Which character – as performed by Steve West – was your favorite?

Melrose was the winner in this book.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Nell's back story

Any additional comments?

Loved and hated this book. Tragedy after tragedy and dark subject matter.

Superb!

Steve West embroiders a solid mystery story into a masterpiece! How can he legitimately sound as if he were a child, harridan mother of 10, old man, young woman, Scottish solicitor,
old woman, stable hand and Aunt Agatha?! His astounding talent is matched by the author.

Martha Grimes Knows How To Keep You Guessing

It was another amazing ride that Richard Jury and Melrose Plant go on trying to solve a murder mystery and a kidnapping. As usual there are twists and turns. You think you know who is involved but then Martha puts something else in your way and completely changes things so that your back to square one. But I absolutely love!

Side note: This story takes place weeks after Richard Jury got shot multiple times by one of his closest friends and fellow police officer in the book The Blue Last.

Excellent story and narration. Awful language!

Just wish that this author didn't think it necessary to "modernize" with such foul language. One would think that her incredibly good vocabulary would be sufficient to explain the story without it.

Kills off too many characters

Any additional comments?

Some entertaining banter between the main characters if a little too blase. A good basic plot and/but she blithely kills off more characters than is necessary or realistic for a good story.

Animal lovers beware

I've enjoyed all 17 previous books in this series, but this one I will be returning. There are two problems that I caused me to quit after about 2 hours.

Almost without exception the writers I consider my favorites, and who all have written series, stumble at some point and seem to lose interest in their characters. There will come a book that is so focused on a particular topic -- either historical event, political viewpoint, some social problem, etc. -- that the characters take a complete backseat and are almost inconsequential. It's like the author got so entranced with researching their topic that they felt they had to include every single thing they learned about it. This creates amazingly dull fiction reading, unless you are as caught up by the topic as the author is. If I want a tutorial on a topic, I will find one. I read fiction mostly for pleasurable escape.

In this book, there is an expose of animal abuse that I believe is meant to soften the hearts of those who might not otherwise care. I am already so soft-hearted about animals that it was painful to listen to.

Steve West comes through with his usual excellent narration.

I love all these books

Great story great characters great Steve West I love these books. It’s a wonderful take me away from it all… And I love to visit my friends. Jury and the lot.

Read the reviews first

I will say - read the reviews about this author and book to make your own mind up. i wish I had done this myself first.

My comment - why does this author write about a topic she hasn't researched properly and about a country in which she do not live and has no understanding about the cities, landscape, people or culture. I won't read her again (I've now read similar reviews of other books in the Jury series), and can't bring myself to plod through any more of this book. If it's possible to return it on Amazon I will.

I've given the performance full marks because the narrator was fine.