The Anodyne Necklace

Martha Grimes

Mar 2013 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

The third in the bestselling Richard Jury mystery series by Martha Grimes.

A spinster whose passion was bird-watching, a dotty peer who pinched pennies, and a baffling murder made the tiny village of Littlebourne a most extraordinary place. And a severed finger made a ghastly clue in the killing that led local constables from a corpse to a boggy footpath to a beautiful lady’s mansion.

But Richard Jury refused, preferring to take the less traveled route to a slightly disreputable pub, the Anodyne Necklace. There, drinks all around loosened enough tongues to link a London mugging with the Littlebourne murder and a treasure map that would chart the way to yet another chilling crime.

Ratings and reviews

Another good addition to the Richard Jury series. Jury has just that slightest touch of melancholy that I remember so well. Melrose is once again stupendous. He is my favorite character. I did have a bit of a hard time envisioning the responsible as the killer, it seemed a bit like the ending was just kind of thrown together at the last minute. The characters didn't seem to think the culprit likely either, with several of them going on about how unlikely they were as a suspect. The ending made this a weaker novel than it otherwise was. I thought the characters were better developed than in The Old Fox Deceiv'd, but the ending was a weak point.

About the author

Bestselling author Martha Grimes is the author of more than thirty books, including twenty-two Richard Jury mysteries. She is also the author of Double Double, a dual memoir of alcoholism written with her son. The winner of the 2012 Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster Award, Grimes lives in Bethesda, Maryland.