Book Review: The Blue Last

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

The Blue Last     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Martha Grimes
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Police Procedural
Series: Richard Jury & Melrose Plant # 17
Viking, Sep 2001, $24.95, 384 pp.

Detective Chief Inspector Mickey Haggerty is dying from cancer and his work to complete his final case borders on obsession. Mickey begs his long time friend and fellow cop Richard Jury to take over the investigation because he knows Rich will not rest until he solves the investigation. Two skeletons were found amidst the ruins of THE BLUE LAST Pub. Forensics proves that the remains are that of a young woman and female infant killed during World War II.

Haggerty believes that the adult is Alexandra Tynedale, daughter of brewing magnate Oliver Tynedale. However, it is the infant that interests the dying cop. If she is who he thinks she is, then someone planted an impostor baby inside the Tynedale family and that child, now an adult, stands to inherit a fortune as the grandchild of a wealthy man. Though he wants nothing to remind him of the WW II bombings since his parents were killed by them, Rich begins to investigate for a friend. When a murder of a Tynedale friend occurs, Richard wonders if there is a tie to a cover-up of a five-decade-old scam or is Maisie really a Tynedale?

Richard Jury is always welcome and his latest tale includes a strong dose of his personal side through Haggerty and his thoughts about his deceased parents. The moving story line centers on the police investigation from a possible mystery over fifty years old; if there really is a mystery. Richard remains his irascible but lovable self in his sixteenth appearance and his creator, Martha Grimes, still has the magic touch to keep him fascinating.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner