The Old Wine Shades by Martha Grimes

Description

Bibliographic Details

• Author: Martha Grimes
• Title: The Old Wine Shades (A Richard Jury Mystery)
• Publisher: ‎ Viking Books
• Publication Date: February 21, 2006
• Language: ‎ English
• Format: Hardcover – 341 pages
• ISBN-10: ‎ 0670034797
• ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0670034796
• Item Weight: ‎ 1.35 pounds
• Dimensions: ‎ 6.5 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher
• Book Condition: New / Like New – Excellent
• Dust Jacket Condition: Excellent

Synopsis:

"The dog came back."

"This is a joke, right?"

"No, it isn't … So do you want to hear the rest of it?" Dumbly, Jury nodded.

The rest of it is told by Harry Johnson, who sits down by Richard Jury in the Old Wine Shades. Over three successive nights, Harry spins out this story of a good friend of his whose wife and son (and dog) disappeared one day when they were in Surrey. No trace, no clue, no lead as to what happened.

He's a fascinating bloke, this Harry Johnson – rich, handsome and brainy on the subject of quantum mechanics and superstring theory, which has some pretty funny notions about the nature of reality.

Jury wonders, Is Harry Johnson winding me up? The dog did come back – but how? And from where?

When Jury investigates, all seems to be just as Harry described it.

Until they find the body.

About the Author:

Martha Grimes (born May 2, 1931) is an American writer of detective fiction. She is best known for a series featuring Richard Jury, a Scotland Yard inspector, and Melrose Plant, an aristocrat turned amateur sleuth.

Grimes was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to William Dermit Grimes, Pittsburgh's city solicitor, and June Dunnington, who owned the Mountain Lake Hotel in Western Maryland, where Martha and her brother spent much of their childhood. Grimes earned her B.A. and M.A. at the University of Maryland and did postgraduate work at the University of Iowa. She has taught at the University of Iowa, Frostburg State University, and Montgomery College (Takoma Park).

In 1983, Grimes received the Nero Wolfe Award for best mystery of the year for The Anodyne Necklace. In 2012, Grimes was named Grand Master by the Edgar Awards Mystery Writers of America.

Grimes initially became known for her series of novels featuring Richard Jury, an inspector with Scotland Yard, and his friend Melrose Plant, a British aristocrat who has given up his titles. Each of the Jury mysteries is named after a pub.

Her Emma Graham quartet of novels beginning with Hotel Paradise is set in an atmospheric aging lake resort in western Maryland, and delves into mysteries of past secrets and human nature. The background of the series draws from the experiences that she enjoyed while spending summers at her mother's hotel in Mountain Lake Park, Maryland. One of the characters, Mr. Britten, is drawn on Britten Leo Martin Sr., who then ran Martin's Store, which he owned with his father and brother. Martin's Store is accessible by a short walkway from the Mountain Lake Hotel, the site of the former hotel, which was torn down in 1967.

The two Andi Oliver novels center on a young drifter with amnesia, making her way in the northern U.S. Midwest armed with a strong sense of right and wrong and great compassion. Grimes has donated a large portion of her profits from these novels to animal-protection organizations.

Grimes lives in Bethesda, Maryland and is a vegetarian.