tani reviewed on 7/20/2013

I almost always enjoy Grimes' books, and this one was no exception, because I like the humor, the good mysteries, and the fact that the reader is spared painful and gruesome details of the murders that get solved. I also appreciate the lack of detailed sex scenes such as those some publishers see fit to allow in the hopes of finding more readers.

After the first scene, the book was a bit slow getting going, and I was bored by the parts about Grace Owen, but the main thing that bothered me about this book was Jury's complete cluelessness about a Jenny K's personality, in spite of his appearing to be more than half in love with her. I guess I wanted to think he was more intelligent than that. After all, being a smart detective usually entails being good at deciphering the feeling of others, doesn't it? I guess we are just expected to excuse Jury on the grounds that love can make fools of people. But he strikes me as impossibly adolescent in this book. I liked Melrose Plant better than Jury, this time.

By the way, I am too busy to go back and reread, and I read this book in bits and snatches, but I want to warn potential readers to pay more attention than I did when "the Red Last" starts coming up. It was intriguing, and a whole section bears its name, but I still don't know exactly what, if anything, it has to do with the solving of the mystery.

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