The Grave Maurice

Martha Grimes has crafted a world of swirling mystery around England's out-of-the-way pubs. Her latest novel takes its inspiration from a sixteenth-century public-house sign. The sign represents the head of the Graf Moritz, Prince of Orange and Captain-General of the United Provinces. Grimes picks up the thread from her preceding novel about the world-weary detective Richard Jury, who carefully makes his way through trails of the most recalcitrant clues. When she left Jury in The Blue Last, he had been shot, and his fate was left hanging. In The Grave Maurice, he recovers to pursue a mystery even more difficult than the preceding one, accompanied by his boon companions, Sergeant Wiggins and Melrose Plant. As usual, however, the real mystery in this procedural is Richard Jury's soul.