Honestly, I couldn't get past the first 100 pages of this dark novel. Too much negativity in the world already, I don't feel that I need to spend my leisure time reading depressing material.
Martha Grimes does have a talent for writing.
I will definitely give her another. My understanding is that her earlier novels weren't so depressing. ( )

"Declan Scott stood inside the room looking at Jury as if he were one more disappointment in a long list of them. Police. private investigators -- all has failed to find the child Flora..

"Brian Macalvie of the Devon and Cornwall police takes this failure especially hard, since he had headed up the investigation three years ago when Flora disappeared one day from the Lost Gardens of Heligan.

"Scott's step-daughter has vanished. His wife Mary has died.

" 'He really doesn't need a body in his garden,' says Macalvie, as he looks down at an unidentified woman murdered in the gardens of the Scott estate, Angel Gate.

"And on a shabby London street, another child lies dead. When Richard Jury bends over the body of the little girl, he knows this will be one of the saddest investigations of his life.

"Saddest, and most serpentine, for Flora and this child appear to be connected, and in the worst possible way -- by an iniquitous house in North London.

" 'It's these little kids. It's what happens to them ... Why should the have to pay for what we do? ... What I do, what I try to do, is put myself in that place, in their place, you know? Feel what they must fell. Terror. Like that.'

" 'Maybe you shouldn't go there, Macalvie.'

"Macalvie looked down at the dregs of his drink. 'Neither should they.'

Joined by the intrepid Melrose Plant, now a gardener at Angel Gate, Jury and Macalvie rake over the present and the past in a pub near Launceston called the Winds of Change. In a case where the victim is as hard to identify as the murderer and where no one is exactly who he seems, how can Jury be sure that he himself hasn't been duped in some game of illusion?"
~~front & back flap

A lovely mystery, as all the Jury mysteries are. And definitely serpentine. Galore with bad guys, women with several personas, a nasty woman running a degrading house, and of course Declan Scott -- searching for his lost stepdaughter.

Jury slowly unpacks layer after layer, working towards a surprise ending that was under his nose all along. Brilliant. ( )

Richard Jury is called upon by Brian Macalvie of the Devon and Cornwall police, to assist on a cold case of a missing child. The child disappeared three years ago and there was no trail nor any ransom demanded.

There is suspicion that the child’s biological father may have arranged it, but there is no evidence. The man is well placed in society, but there is a very dark side he keeps hidden.

The child’s mother died about six months after the disappearance. The only one left is her stepfather.

To help investigate, Jury calls on his friend, Melrose Plant, to take the part of a landscape specialist as the gardens at Angels Gate, the estate of the stepfather, are being restored. Melrose does some quick reading to give him a smattering of knowledge to play the part.

The body of a murdered woman is found on the property of Angels Gate. There is nothing to identify the woman and no way to connect her to the previous kidnapping.

The clues are elusive and don’t seem related, but then maybe they are, subtle but there. It isn’t easy to join the clues up for the solution. I did find myself going back over earlier pages to see the connections and come to a conclusion. I enjoyed that. ( )

I much preferred Martha Grimes' style when she affected classic British literature; however, her novels make more sense now with well defined plots and characters who are old friends and written as the American that she is. Richard Jury is called to a murder site of a 5 year old girl and his heart breaks. At the same time, a disappearing child case from 3 years ago is found to be connected to the dead girl. Flora Baumann, daughter of Victor Baumann and step-daughter of Declan Scott disappeared 3 years prior. Mary Scott, Flora's mother, died 6 months after her daughter's disappearance. Victor is believed to run a high-end child pornography ring with a house located across from where the unidentified 5 year old was shot. Richard, Melrose and Macalvie are determined to get to the bottom of this case.

For once, a relatively happy ending. As usual, children are deftly deployed throughout the novel. ( )

Richard Jury — murder disappearance, child involved
good but UGH — again

Richard Jury embarks on the darkest investigation of his career when the dead body of a young London girl leads to the cold case of a missing girl in Launceston-an unsolved mystery that has haunted Police Officer Brian Macalvie for years.