Crime Fiction Alphabet: Letter J

Kerrie over at Mysteries in Paradise sponsors The Alphabet in Crime Fiction community meme. Your post MUST be related to the first letter of the book's title, the first letter of the author's first name or the first letter of the author's surname. You can write a book review or a bio of an author so long as it fits the rules somehow. (It's okay too to skip a week.) Linkt your post for the week back to Kerrie's site.

This week features the letter J.

J is for Jerusalem Inn by Martha Grimes. It could also be for Richard Jury, Grimes' star detective in her long-running mystery series which takes its titles from the names of British pubs. Jerusalem Inn is another title sitting on my TBR list for the year (and it's been sitting on the TBR shelves longer than that)--slated for several of the challenges I've signed up for; it will be read. It's just a matter of when.

This particular Jury novel is set at Christmas and it begins with bad tidings for both Jury and his civilian sidekick, Melrose Plant. From the back of the book: The woman in the snow-covered graveyard is beautiful and sensual--just what Richard Jury needs to warm up a dreary Newcastle Christmas. But the next time Jury sees her, she is dead. Melrose Plant doesn't fare much better. Snowbound at a stately mansion with a group of artists, critics, and idle-but-titled rich, he, too, encounters a lovely lady--by stumbling over her corpse. All that connect the two yuletide murders is a remote country inn where holiday cheer turns to fear....

I anticipate another terrific detective story from one of the late 20th & 21st century's best mystery writers. She has yet to disappoint me with a Richard Jury story. (We won't talk about The End of the Pier....). The cast of characters she has surrounded Jury with are a delight and her mysteries always satisfy. I expect no less from Jerusalem Inn.