Grimes's popular mysteries are named after British pubs, and Rees's excellent performance here will make readers feel as if they're at the bar themselves, listening to the actor spin a good, old-fashioned detective story. Grimes (The Blue Last) has updated Josephine Tey's famous Daughter of Time
by having her detective, Scotland Yard's own Richard Jury, solve a mystery while spending time in a hospital. Jury's friend, the aristocratic and occasionally ponderous Melrose Plant, overhears two women talking in the Grave Maurice about Richard's surgeon, whose daughter disappeared two years before from the racing stable where she worked. With Plant doing the legwork, Jury manages to solve the case without getting out of his pajamas. Rees, known for playing an arrogant British ambassador on The West Wing, nicely delineates Plant from the saltier, more ironic Jury, presenting a satisfying tale that should delight mystery fans. Simultaneous release with the Viking hardcover (Forecasts, Aug. 5). (Aug.)
