The Black Cat

February 22, 2010
At the start of bestseller Grimes's muddled 22nd Richard Jury mystery (after Dust
), the body of an unidentified woman, who reminds Jury of a Pre-Raphaelite beauty, lies in a mortuary in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Shot outside the Black Cat, a local pub, the victim was wearing expensive clothes, decorous yet sexy. The Thames Valley police wonder why Jury, a Scotland Yard superintendent, is intruding on their turf. The victim proves to have been a professional escort, the only witness to her murder the pub's black cat. Cats and dogs can share their thoughts, mostly mundane, with one another, but, alas, not with humans. More escorts get killed. Unresolved cases from Dust
and its predecessor, Old Wine Shades
, complicate the plot to little purpose. Off-kilter details jar. No London copper would ask a London cabbie if the cabbie knows a particular street. This subpar effort from one of mystery's major stars will appeal mainly to fans of the talking animal subgenre. 8-city author tour.

February 15, 2010
The 22nd book in Grimes's cozy series (after "Dust") opens with the shooting death of a woman outside a village pub, The Black Cat. Though the case falls outside his jurisdiction, New Scotland Yard Superintendent Richard Jury is called in to investigate and quickly learns of the curious disappearance of the pub's own black cat. What bedevils him is the identity of the dead woman, who turns out to be a librarian who moonlighted as a call girl. The investigation leads Jury to con man Harry Johnson, whose dog, Mungo, comes to Jury's aid again, as he did in "The Old Wine Shades". Meanwhile, two other call girls are killed, this time in London. With the help of colleague Sergeant Wiggins and friend Melrose Plant, Jury searches for a deeper connection among the victims, even as he grapples with his feelings for his hospitalized lover. VERDICT The suspense, literary allusions, and humor are vintage Grimes with an uptick in the entertainment, thanks to Mungo's antics. For Grimes fans; this might also appeal to fans of animal mysteries. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 12/09.]Suzie Remilien, New York

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2010
Grimes opens another mystery with her trademark motif, a pub that plays a central role in the case. In this, the twenty-second novel starring New Scotland Yard detective (now superintendent) Richard Jury, the body of an extremely fashionably and expensively dressed young woman is found behind a pub, The Black Cat, in High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire. This woman led a double life: local plain-Jane librarian by day and glam-bimbo call girl by night (and by appointment). Jury is called from London to investigate, placing him in the middle of local police politics. The Jekyll-Hyde mystery is engrossing, though old-fashionedGrimes gives the merest nod toward contemporary forensic methods. More intriguing, as always, is Jury himself, ever brooding and introspective. This installment in the series has the added kick of being the follow-up to Dust (2007), in which Jurys lover, Detective Lu Aguilar, is horribly disabled in a car accident. The fact that Jury is still working through this tragedy provides a sensitive counterpoint to his solving the murder. Grimes is mostly on target here, but someone should tell her that Jurys sidekick, the epigram-spouting, effete Melrose Plant, belongs to the Victorian potted-plant era entirely and is an embarrassment in a modern mystery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)