I saw the TV movie, so I knew the storyline already. And honestly, I don't think I would have understood what happened in the last few pages, if I hadn't seen it. Nothing seems to actually be explained properly, and while I don't necessarily mind if the crime doesn't get solvedd to the tiniest detail, this was just not enough to fully make sense on its own.

Heh, good times. Strange case, but good times.

An orphan is taken in by a baroness. Later, mysterious muders occur to keep the orphan's true identity a secret

A tight, fast-paced mystery with believable characters. I have an issue (or perhaps a question): what motive did the murderer have? Not the murders that Jury works on, but the original one. Why would Rose Mulvanney be killed in such a violent and horrible way in the first place? And what circumstances surrounded his demise? It's never explained. And if X did write letters to Rose, where are they and how come they didn't turn up in the initial investigation? They would have been evidence that would have prevented a wrongful conviction. If they were destroyed, that is not described. I've read this book at least 4 times over 20 years and every time, I come up short. I don't read Grimes for the "thrill" of the murders; I read for the interplay between Jury and all the cast of characters, but that doesn't mean the demands of the genre can be ignored...

3.5 stars

The misogynistic descriptions were less egregious than in dirty duck but now i am sensitised, i cant unsee them anymore.
Also there were so many characters, I completely lost track of everything.

Love the series but get frustrated with the out-of-no-where info the reader can’t know.

Of course, obviously better than anything I could write.

This is a good crime thriller that follows Richard Jury, a superintendent from Scotland Yard, as he finds himself embroiled in a case where children are being murdered in the south west of England and an investigation led by an interesting but temperamental detective that gets results while irritating most of his colleagues. It was a bit old fashioned in places but that is due to the time of writing and it doesn't take away from the story as it moves along at pace and local intrigue is revealed.

For some reason I had trouble following this one. There were a lot of intertwining storylines and the reader needed more reminders of who was who and what happened when, particularly in the end. I got the feeling that this one was rushed to be published as there were some significant editing errors in my library copy and it felt less thought-through than some of the previous ones.