- January 24, 2006
The Winds of Change by Martha Grimes

I�ve been a fan of detective stories since I was a child. The first books I remember reading were The Bobbsey Twins. These weren�t actually mystery books, but rather problem solving adventures. I wonder if children still read them. There were 72 books in the series but I outgrew them before I managed to read them all. My mother gave me a Nancy Drew book one year for my birthday, because she had enjoyed the series when she was a girl. The first book came out in 1930 and the series continued for 78 books until 1985. Obviously I didn�t read all of them but I read quite a few. For some reason the title of one in particular has stuck with me - The Whispering Statue. I don�t actually remember what it was about, but it was exciting and a little scary in any case. Later I became an avid Agatha Christy fan and although I wasn�t systematic about it, I expect I did read almost all of her 80 some odd books. I even used one of them several times when I was teaching English in school. There was a simplified version of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd for the tenth grade and I always enjoyed teaching it. Of course, some of the students were terribly put off by it, but you can never please everyone.

Although my tastes have changed quite a bit, I still enjoy a certain kind of mystery or detective novel. My favorites have several things in common. They are a series with the same basic characters in each book, almost always set in England. There is a minimum amount of violence and the characters develop over time. A dab of humor is always welcome. There are several series that fit this description and the latest book I have finished is from one of them.

The Winds of Change is the latest in the Richard Jury series by Martha Grimes. She is a little unusual in that her stories take place in England and are very English in tone and character, but she herself is American and lives in America. I was surprised when I found this out, but it doesn�t bother me because she does a good job of creating atmosphere. Her main character is a Scotland Yard detective who has several demons of his own to contend with, aside from the sometimes horrible cases he has to solve. The subject this time is very dark � child abduction and prostitution. She portrays this realistically, at least as far as I can tell, and at the same time with a lot of sensitivity. There is nothing sensationalist in her story, but there is a lot of sadness. She balances this with several humorous characters and, as in all her books, a young precocious girl who isn�t easily fooled, although she might not understand everything going on around her.

Martha Grimes isn�t my number one favorite author of detective fiction, but she is certainly among the top five and I�m always glad to see another book by her appear.

previous - next

Paradise Now - February 01, 2006older_entries%%

Donating blood - January 31, 2006older_entries%%

An Eventful Sunday - January 30, 2006older_entries%%

The Broker by John Grisham - January 26, 2006older_entries%%

The Winds of Change by Martha Grimes - January 24, 2006older_entries%%