Dust: A Richard Jury Mystery
Martha Grimes, , read by John Lee. . Penguin Audio, $39.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-14-305903-5
The rarely ruffled urbanity of Richard Jury is given an oral enhancement by reader Lee, whose plummy narration turns a bit more appropriately droll when it comes to delineating the New Scotland Yard superintendent's amateur partner in crime fighting, snooty, aristocratic novelist Melrose Plant. Both gentlemen detectives are involved in a complex but surprisingly obvious mystery surrounding the murder of a young man in a hotel room. Lee handles a gallery of contemporary British characters in addition to the leads, including Jury's lady friend, cool and collected Yard pathologist Dr. Phyllis Nancy; the working class and mildly abrasive detective assigned to the case, Ron Chilton; and an eager 13-year-old Jury protégé. They and the novel's grand dames, flirts, crusty old codgers, smarmy young hoteliers and feisty housekeepers fit easily into Lee's repertoire. So does sultry DI Lu Agular, who, Grimes writes, is beautiful enough to suck "all the oxygen out of the room." Happily, Lee has more than enough to breathe needed warmth, humor and suspense into a tale that holds off its sole riveting surprise—and a good one it is—until the very end.
Reviewed on: 02/26/2007
Genre: Audio
Compact Disc - 978-1-7997-3643-1
Downloadable Audio - 1 pages - 978-1-4159-6252-7
Hardcover - 342 pages - 978-0-670-03786-5
Hardcover - 495 pages - 978-1-59722-407-9
MP3 CD - 978-1-5436-0094-0
Paperback - 495 pages - 978-1-59413-238-4
