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    The Old Contemptibles
    The Old Contemptibles
    The Old Contemptibles
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Old Contemptibles

    Written by Martha Grimes

    Narrated by Steve West

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Following a passionate and troubled love affair with a pretty widow named Jane Holdsworth, Jury finds himself, unaccountably, a suspect in a murder investigation. Detained in London, Jury sends his friend Melrose Plant, former Earl of Caverness, to the Holdsworth family’s Lake District home to pose as an eccentric librarian. Plant discovers that his catalogue cards contain less data on Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey than they do on tantalizing questions about the Holdsworths: What happened to Crabbe Holdsworth’s first wife? What happened to his son, Graham? What happened to the cook Annie?
    And what might happen to the two children, favorites of rich old Adam Holdworth, who prefers the ambience of a swank retirement home, Castle Howe, where he and the elegant Lady Cray can drive the staff crazy? Jury and Sergeant Wiggins finally join Melrose at the Old Contemptibles pub, where they arrive at a solution that Jury detests, for no matter what he does, innocence will suffer.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJan 28, 2014
    ISBN9781442363175
    Author

    Martha Grimes

    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.

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    Reviews for The Old Contemptibles

    4/5

    231 ratings9 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I do enjoy Steve West’s reading (do we call it acting?) and look forward to every book. This one was very twisty. No figuring it out.
    • 5/5
      Have read this x 5. I have enjoyed all of the Jury/Plant series.
    • 4/5
      Martha Grimes draws a reader into her story in the first chapter. Richard Jury meets a new woman and hopelessly falls in love with Jane Holdsworth and plans to ask Jane to marry him. Tragedy befalls and Jane dies from a drug overdose. Is this suicide or murder? Martha Grimes entertains with the wonderful settings and well-developed characters. The book titles always feature a name of a local pub, and what a treat. Grimes presents the cast of supporting people: Carol-Anne Palutski, Melrose Plant, Vivian Rivington, Sergeant Wiggins, Aunt Agatha, and Marshall Trueblood. What a delight these people give the reader. Not only must Richard Jury discover the truth concerning Jane Holdsworth, he must uncover the truth about four other deaths relating to the Holdsworth family. In sinister fashion the killer faces a judgement that Agatha Christie employed in The Orient Express. This reader will not spill the beans, you must learn on your own. As a true lover of literature, Martha Grimes mentions several books such as Death in Venice and The Ambassadors giving the reader insight into the characters and setting.
    • 5/5
      Agnosco vestigia flamea, from the Aeneid, I perceive the vestiges of an old flame. Jury goes brain dead over a seriously troubled woman and winds up in deep grief and on suspect list! Melrose Plant goes undercover and finds a weird family with too many suicides in recent memory. Great tale!This is also narrated ably by Steve West.
    • 5/5
      Quite possibly my favorite Richard Jury novel to date. Superintendent Jury gets himself involved with Jane Holdsworth. Two weeks later, she commits suicide. But was it really? Her son, whom she loved dearly, doesn't think so. Jury is suspended from service as a suspect and so Melrose Plant goes undercover as an out of work librarian to get to the bottom of things. A cast and crew of comical characters including 89 year old Adam Holdsworth and kleptomaniac Lady Grey make this a fun-filled romp into murder and mayhem. Grimes signature use of children having a role to play is upheld with the backstory of Millie Thale whose mother also committed suicide after Graham Holdsworth died. Simply put - too many people in or connected to the Holdsworths end up dead.
    • 4/5
      A typical Martha Grimes cast (Jury, Plant, Trueblood, Wiggins, Vivian, etc) but with Jury playing a key, but largely off-stage, role. A murder mystery where the murderer is allegedly found, but never caught, and sentences, but never tried.
    • 3/5
      Intriguing mystery, with members of a household getting picked off one by one and attributed to accident or suicide, but I'm just not a fan of this series. I get awfully tired of the ubiquitous precocious children. In this one, an 11-year-old girl is working as a cook, living in the household after her mother's death instead of going to live with her aunt, so she can investigate her mother's death. Uh-huh. If you go by this series, English children pretty much run things, and all the adults are idiots or obsessed by weird things or otherwise unworldly. Except for Richard Jury, of course, who sees all, knows all, and is irresistible to all women. Like I said. I just don't like the series.
    • 4/5
      The woman that Richard Jury is dating is found murdered and he is a suspect and suspended for awhile from the force. He gets his friend Melrose Plant to go to the her in-laws estate as an undercover librarian to help with the investigation.
    • 4/5
      No. 11 in the Richard Jury series.Jury, in Camden Passage with Carole-anne Palutski, his beautiful (if maddening) upstairs neighbor more or less loafing around while Carole-anne shops for antique costume jewelry and other items, meets as if by accident an attractive and intriguing widow, Jane Holdsworth, also shopping in the open-air market. They go off together for a drink at a pub and then, almost as an afterthought, find themselves in Jury’s flat, where they become lovers. Within two weeks, Jury is convinced that he is in love with Jane, and intends to ask her to marry him.Meanwhile, Jane’s son Alex has been sent down from school for gambling. However, when he enters his home, to his shock he finds his mother dead, and reports his discovery to the police. Logically fearing that the Social will send him to his grandparents, whom he detests. he manages to escape from the house undetected, eludes the pursuit, and makes his way to his grandparents’ place in the Lakes District—but to see his great-grandfather, Adam Holdsworth.Jury, to his stunned disbelief, receives a call from a London police inspector notifying him of Jane’s death. Because he was the last to see Jane alive and there is a question of unnatural death, Jury becomes the prime (and only suspect) for the potential murder.Because he can’t leave London, Jury, desperate, enlists the help of Melrose Plant, asking him to pose as a somewhat down-at-the-heels librarian in order to apply for a job at Tarn House, the Holdsworth family seat. Melrose, just back from a trip to Venice with co-conspirator Marshall Trueblood in their ever-lasting quest to delay if not totally deter Vivian Rivington’s wedding to an Italian count by any means necessary, manages to tear himself away from Long Piddleton long enough to assist Jury.This installment is one of the better in the series. It’s well plotted, with the usual cast of not-to-be-forgotten characters, especially Lady Cray and old Adam Holdsworth. Alex Holdsworth is yet another of Grimes’ legion of intelligent, unorthodox children whose unusual circumstances—usually although not always involving the death of one or more parents—inspires precocious behavior, especially under stress of survival. Another welcome addition is Pete Apted, Q.C., who is not your stereotypical English detective story advocate.Naturally, the Long Piddleton crew with their eternal cabals against Count Dracula, Vivian’s long-time finance, provide most of the humor. Cyril the Cat makes another appearance with his usual aplomb even under dire circumstances.The climax is startling for a Richard Jury mystery and manages to resolve the story and yet leave it hanging in thin air as well, no mean feat. All in all, well written, page-turning and well worth reading. Highly recommended.