Martha Grimes

A little black cat watches the antics of three skeletons sledding in the snow.

As his country is torn apart by social and political anarchy, A Void's protagonist, Anton Vowl, a chronic insomniac, is unaccountably found missing. Ransacking his Paris flat, a group of his faithful companions trawl through his diary for any indication, for any faint hint, as to his location. All that it brings to light, though, is Vowl's liking (uncannily similar to his author's) for parody, wordplay and dazzling fictional constructs, constructs which continually risk spiralling out of control. And, gradually, insidiously, a ghost from Vowl's past starts to cast its malignant shadow...

"An elderly tapister keels over in Exeter Cathedral while viewing the famous embroidered rondels. A woman's body is found in Salisbury, and in London yet another woman dies from supposed "natural causes." But there are no natural causes in a Martha Grimes novel or in the world inhabited by Scotland Yard Chief Superintendent Richard Jury.". "Is there a link connecting these three women? Of course. Jury is convinced that the link is Santa Fe, New Mexico. Leaving Melrose Plant, ex-earl and amateur sleuth, to pursue inquiries in London, Jury heads over to the States, where, surrounded by turquoise jewelry and a thirteen-year-old girl with a pet coyote, he searches for and finds an astonishing web of greed, murder, and mayhem."--BOOK JACKET.

"Une jolie blonde en manteau de zibeline se livre à un étrange manège dans Fulham Road. Le commissaire Richard Jury lui emboîte le pas : il va être conduit à enquêter dans le milieu artistique londonien.

As Richard Jury and Melrose Plant of Scotland Yard investigate the murder of Simon Lean, they're led to a London pub, the Five Bells and Bladebone where the "shady lady named Sadie" might have been of help if she hadn't been murdered first.

Delightful mystery featuring a cast of characters that are featured in all the books.

This omnibus contains three books from Martha Grimes' acclaimed Inspector Richard Jury series. The book descriptions below are from marthagrimes.com. NOTE: For some reason--possibly due to the publication dates of different editions--the books appear in this omnibus in reverse order. If you want to read in series order, proceed as follows: Book 6: Help the Poor Struggler on or around page 447 Book 7: The Deer Leap on or around page 210 Book 8: I Am the Only Running Footman on or around page 4. I Am the Only Running Footman (Series book 8 / 1986 / Begins on page 4) In a rainy ditch in a Devon wood, a hitchhiker is found dead. Almost a year later, on another rainy night, another murder; this time, however, the victim is found just outside a pub called I Am the Only Running Footman, near Berkeley Square in London’s fashionable Mayfair District. Devon policeman Brian Macalvie is convinced that the two murders are connected. And thus, in his eighth case, Richard Jury is drawn into the so-called Porphyria killings. A particularly elusive pair of murders. From the streets of London to the village of Somers Abbas, Jury and Macalvie are joined by the stolid if hypochondriac Sergeant Wiggins and the reluctant Melrose Plant. They meet in another pub, the Mortal Man, and, amidst the clatter and cry of the Warboys family, they ponder a labyrinthine set of clues. The Deer Leap (Series book 7 / 1st edition January 1, 1985 / ~ page 210) In her latest Richard Jury adventure, Martha Grimes takes us to Ashdown Dean, a little English village where animals are dying in a series of seemingly innocuous accidents. While the puzzling deaths of village pets may raise some idle gossip over a pint or two at the Deer Leap, the village pub, this hardly seems a case for Superintendent Jury of Scotland yard. Nor does it seem much of a challenge for the combined deductive powers of Jury and Melrose, the affable former Earl of Caverness. It is his mystery writing-writing, amethyst-eyed friend, Polly Praed, who drags Plant and Jury to Ashdown Dean. The impatient Polly, having yanked open a call box in the pouring rain, is ill prepared for what lands at her feet. The now-deadly case is cause for calling in Scotland Yard. Help the Poor Struggler (Series book 6 / 1st edition January 1, 1985 / ~ page 447) Around bleak Dartmoor, where the Hound of the Baskervilles once bayed, three children have been brutally murdered. Now Richard Jury of Scotland Yard joins forces with a hot-tempered local constable named Brian Macalvie to track down the killer. The trail begins at a desolate pub, Help the Poor Struggler. It leads straight to the estate of Lady Jessica, a ten-year-old orphaned heiress who lives with her mysterious uncle and ever-changing series of governesses. And as suspense spreads across the forbidding landscape, an old injustice returns to haunt Macalvie…with clues that link a murder in the distant past with a killing yet to come.

Richard Jury considers the authenticity of a fantastical tale, told by a stranger and fellow patron at the Old Wine Shades pub in London, about a string theory scientist's wife, son, and dog, who disappeared without a trace nine months earlier.

"When the body of a French woman washes up on a wild inlet off the Cornish coast, Brian Macalvie, divisional commander with the Devon-Cornwall police is called in. Who could have killed this beautiful tourist, the only visible footprints nearby belonging to the two little girls who found her? While Macalvie reexamines the scene in the Scilly Islands, inspector Richard Jury-twenty miles away on Land's End-is at The Old Success pub, sharing a drink with the legendary former CID detective Tom Brownell, a man renowned for solving every case he undertook. Except one. In the days following the mysterious slaying of the Parisian tourist, two other murders take place: first, a man is shot at a country estate, then a holy duster turns up murdered in Exeter Cathedral. Macalvie, Jury, and Brownell set out to discover whether these three killings, though very different in execution, are connected"--

Richard Jury returns in the 5-week New York Times bestsellerA strange and unsolved case of abduction is reopened by Melrose Plant, reexamined by Richard Jury-and revisited by a killer...

Superintendent Richard Tury of Scotland Yard spends his Christmas holiday at a colorful country inn near a vast estate inhabited by the titled, the rich, the famous, and--suddenly--the deceased.

Cycle Commissaire Richard Jury, tome 12

Brian Macalvie and Richard Jury are joined by Sergeant Wiggins and Melrose Plant in the investigation of the Porphyria killings.

Die 12-jährige Emma Graham lässt sich durch nichts so leicht erschüttern, nicht einmal durch die schrecklichen Verbrechen, die sich in ihrem Heimatort La Porte ereignet haben: die Morde an Mary-Evelyn Deverau, Rose Queen und Fern Queen sowie die Entführung eines erst wenige Monate alten Babys. Vielmehr ist dadurch erst die Neugier der Hobby-Detektivin geweckt. Sie macht sich daran herauszufinden, was vor 20 Jahren in Belle Rouen, dem Luxushotel ihrer Mutter, geschehen ist.