I had heard about this new biography and picked it up at a local book store. The author did a great job with this book, and finally someone has taken the time to present an excellent and fresh new history of General Grimes. So many books today say the same thing about the same officers. This book is based on hundreds of family letters, and so is very personal and exciting reading. It also has some great photos and detailed maps that are really good. There are a few typos in the book, but so what. I would rather read something new and original than the same old Pickett's Charge re-hash. Thanks to both the author and publisher for making this book available! I highly recommend it.

I have been a fan of the Richard Jury series since its beginning, but this, the latest installment, was incredibly disappointing. First, and most importantly, the "mystery" is secondary to Grimes' primary goal, which is to lambaste a real pharmaceutical company. She is an avid animal rights activist, (for which I do not fault her), but this format should not be a platform for her political agenda, at least without notifying her reader of her intentions. Her attacks dominate the book. (Biting the Moon, her unabashed effort to this end, is absolutely awful.) Beyond this, the editing was erratic, with numerous misplaced quotation marks and grammatical errors. Lastly, we can only conclude that Grimes views her American audience as blissfully ignorant and uncaring of UK geography. Check the proximity of Hadrian's Wall to Cambridge. All together a dismal disappointment, especially as the denouement to Jury bleeding out in the last novel.

I love Grimes' books and have looked forward to this one since Jury was left in the wounded lurch. But so much of this book is distracting: why does she seem to take such a cavalier attitude towards the very commendable AA programs? And why is her evident animosity towards the pharmaceutical company producing Premarin (news, Martha, from one who knows: it ain't just for hot flashes) so all consuming in this novel? And who the heck did the editing - p. 311 ..."she brought out a bottle of RED wine....'special occasion, Puligny-Montrachet.'

Grimes' tendancy to assume that every reader knows every nuance of all prior novels is especially irritating in this one. I started wth "The Old Silent," and figured my way back into the characters. But the last chapter here, with Gemma, would mean nothing to me had I not been addicted previously.

Guess all authors have contracts and deadlione to meet - not up to par at all.

Scotland Yard Superintendent Richard Jury lies in the hospital recovering from the near fatal shooting (see THE BLUE LAST) that left him in a coma. As he slowly begins to feel a little better, Richard is bored with inactivity, needs distraction, and struggles to ignore his starchy nurse.

Richard's assistant Melrose Plant provides the recuperating cop with a juicy tidbit that he overheard in the Grave Maurice Pub involving the daughter of the doctor tending to the injured law enforcement official. Two female patrons were discussing the disappearance of fifteen year old Nell Ryder and her family's valuable thoroughbred Aqueduct. The case of the teen's disappearance is officially cold, but Richard and Melrose begin discussing it. Soon the latter begins investigating the vanishing under Richard's bedside direction.

The latest Jury police procedural depends too much on coincidence and horse breeding than on hard core investigative skills, but fans of the series will enjoy seeing the star returning to his feisty self. Though the mystery is a bit weak as Jury novels go, Melrose and Nurse Bell make the tale fun for readers with their radically different personalities playing the stage through Richard. Predominantly for Martha Grimes' fans, THE GRAVE MAURICE is overall an entertaining tale, just a pint short of what the audience expects from this talented author.

Harriet Klausner