Jerusalem Inn

Martha Grimes

Apr 2013 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this eBook

From the rough but colorful pub that provides the book’s title, to the snowboard Gothic estate nearby, the chilly English landscape has never held more atmosphere—or thwarted romance. And Jury will never have a more mysterious Christmas.

Five Days Before Christmas: On his way to a brief holiday (he thinks) Jury meets a woman he could fall in love with. He meets her in a snow-covered graveyard—not, he thinks, the best way to begin an attachment.

Four Days Before Christmas: Jury meets Father Rourke, who draws for him the semiotic square—“a structure that might simplify thought,” says the priest, but Jury’s thoughts need more than symbols.

Three Days Before Christmas: Melrose Plant, Jury’s aristocratic and unofficial assistant, arrives at Spinney Abbey, now home to a well-known critic. Among the assembled snowbound guests he meets—Lady Assington, Beatrice Sleight, and the painter Edward Parmenger. When they all assemble in the dining room, Lady Assington announces, “I think we should have a murder.”

Ratings and reviews

A well done and somewhat surprising thriller. Jury started out a rather wretched character, visiting his only family, a cousin, for Christmas in the north, and meeting another woeful soul in a cemetery. And while they hit it off (apparently misery loves company) she ends up dead when he goes to pick her up for Christmas dinner. Surprisingly, once he stops moping around and feeling sorry for himself, he actually seems to be in a fairly good mood. Once Melrose, Vivian and Agatha show up the pacing seems to pick up. I liked the story, but some of the characters seemed so underdeveloped they could have been completely left out. While some of the plot was quite transparent I was surprised at who the responsible was. There were a couple of quibbles I had though. One of the police officers wanted to run a ballistics test on a .410 shotgun. Not sure what the point of that would be, as it isn't rifled so won't have any striations on the projectile. Another small quibble is that dawn was around 7 AM, which seems a little early for late December.

I love Jury and Plant concoctions! This one is one of the best!

Enjoyable character driven plot, Grimes scores again.

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.