A favorite detective back in action in ‘Dust’
Published 9:00 pm Saturday, February 17, 2007
Martha Grimes is a fine writer whose new novel, “Dust,” continues the series her fans seem to like most, the whodunits featuring Richard Jury of Scotland Yard.
Jury’s friend Melrose Plant is in it, too, though not the rest of his pals, most of whom can be annoying. Jury says of Plant, “He’s not some crazy who’s running around London thinking he’s Sherlock Holmes.” Then Grimes chimes in: “Actually, he was, but Jury saw no reason to share that with DI Aguilar.”
Detective Inspector Lu Aguilar is Jury’s latest romantic interest, and the book starts as though it’s about their sex life. The two are like a magnet and metal, flying together from the moment they meet.
Despite that, “Dust” is a murder mystery.
Billy Maples, 30-ish and a wealthy heir, has been shot dead in a swanky hotel room. A waiter finds him, with a partly eaten dinner, when he delivers coffee for two later in the evening. Jury interviews people who knew Maples but seems to be getting nowhere.
Suddenly, he develops a remarkable theory involving long-delayed revenge and Kindertransport, in which German children were sent to safety in England shortly before World War II.
Jury explains who did the murder and how. His wonderfully drawn sergeant, Wiggins, isn’t sure of the “who” in the motive, and some readers might have the same problem.
And something happens at the very end that seems to promise that this book will have a sequel – and it can’t come too soon.
