Reading The Red Queen by Martha Grimes was like saying hello to an old friend. Grimes began writing the Richard Jury mysteries in 1981. Set in various locales around London, Inspector Jury is involved in solving puzzling crimes that baffle other agencies. Since The Red Queen is the newest novel, anyone wanting to start at the beginning will be in for a treat. The Man with a Load of Mischief is the first book and you will have 21 novels to catch up to the characters. The Red Queen is a stand-alone novel but I think it’s so much more fun to immerse yourself in the whole series. As a matter of fact, I may just start over!
Grimes has not released a new Richard Jury book in years. When I saw The Red Queen, I immediately bought it for my Nook. Grimes is 94 years old and I couldn’t wait to read what might be her last book in the series. It did not disappoint. All of my favorite characters were still there including Cyril, the cat, the nemesis of Jury’s boss.
A sudden murder in an English pub begins a search for a killer and then unbelievably, a search for the real dead man. Jury has his hands full with first, trying to determine who the dead man is and second, why he was murdered in such a bizarre way. Luckily he still has plenty of help and good food from the inimitable Melrose Plant. The twist and turns were presented in such a way that confusion resulted before the killer was finally unveiled and it all made sense.
Taylor Jenkins Reed has the ability to pull me out of my reading comfort zone and bring me into a world of young rock singers. In her book, Atmosphere, we meet a tennis champion trying for a comeback, a woman with seven husbands and now into the stars themselves. This book is so mesmerizing that I didn’t even realize how much I was learning about stars, rockets and NASA. Joan is an astronomer/astrophysicist who in the 1980s can finally realize her dream of becoming an astronaut. She lives a quiet life as a professor, spending most of her free time with her beloved niece Frances.
Joan begins her training as an astronaut with a majority of men and several women. She meets Valerie, a fellow candidate, and they make an immediate connection. Unprepared for an emotional connection, the women realize how falling in love in a world wildly intolerant of their relationship can upend their lives.
With threats of losing their places in the program the two women make courageous decisions impacting Joan’s niece and their future together. On what could be the last mission for both of them, they realize they are a part of a wider universe than they ever imagined. They want their own space in the galaxy together. Be prepared for a heart stopping ending.
