Mystery/Thriller Book Reviews
Page Three of FourThe Lamorna Wink by Martha Grimes
Viking, Oct., 1999.Hardcover, 368 pages.
ISBN: 0670888702.
Ordering information:
Amazon.com.
With Superintendent Richard Jury out of the way on
a case, it is up to Jury's good friend and sometime
sidekick, Melrose Plant, to step in when murder
visits the village of Bletchley in Cornwall. Plant has
leased a romantic looking home (he is sure it was the
house used in the film, The Uninvited), and
becomes caught up in the house's tragic history.
Two children mysteriously drowned, and the tragedy
has haunted everyone involved with it. When
bright lad Johnny Wells' aunt disappears, Johnny
asks his new friend Plant for help. Plant goes to
Brian Macalvie, a commander in the Devon and
Cornwall police for assistance. It turns out that
Macalvie is working on a murder case which may
be connected with Chris Wells' disappearance.
With Jury out of town, Plant really shines on his
own as a detective. With shades of Lord Peter Wimsey,
the aristocratic Plant charms the notoriously
truculent locals, studiously avoids his frightful
Aunt Agatha, while managing to find an
excellent chef to tend to his culinary needs.
Plant's London friends also toodle down to provide
a spot of comic relief. Jury blows in at the last
minute to clean up the loose ends, but it is
Plant who is the star in this outstanding
addition to the popular series. Long on plot
complications and delightful prose, the
joy of this series is really in spending time with
Plant and friends. Highly Recommended.
--Claire E. White
The Jakarta Plot by R. Karl Largent
Leisure Books, August, 1999.Paperback, 368 pages.
ISBN: 0843945680.
Ordering information:
Amazon.com.
Ex-CIA agent, and former Air Force Colonel
Gideon Stone is called out of
retirement to help the agency with a
sensitive situation: a plane recently went down
under suspicious circumstances fifteen miles off
the coast of Java. Everyone on board was killed.
One man on the plane was carrying to the U.S.
the top secret details of a proposed coup in Jakarta
by the radical leader Sarawak. The stakes heat up when
Sarawak's terrorists take over the hotel which is hosting
the meeting of the World Economic Council.
With world leaders, including the Vice President of the
United States being held as hostages, Stone and his
group have their work cut out for them. The body count
is high and the action is intense. Readers who love
lots of action and hi-tech weaponry will love this one.
Mystery Reviews
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