The beautiful red-haired woman was dressed in Yves Saint Laurent and Jimmy Choo, shot dead on the back patio of a rather seedy little Chesham pub. Two days after she was found, no one had yet come forward to indentify her. Superintendent Richard Jury, detective with New Scotland Yard, finds himself all over the tabloids while assisting Thames Valley Police on the case. Inspector Morse jokes aside, he finds them perfectly capable on their own, so why ask the Met for assistance? All puzzlement is put aside when similar women in fine clothes and designer shoes are found murdered in small London neighborhoods, and his old nemesis, Harry Johnson, is close enough to the scene of each crime to be a 'person of interest'.

The case is a welcome distraction for Jury. After a car accident, his lover Lu Aguilar lies in hospital, prognosis uncertain. She talks of returning to Brazil, as she sees no future for herself with London CID.

Many familiar faces, including Mungo the dog, the beautiful Carole-Anne and of course Melrose Plant are threaded seamlessly through the weave of a mystery involving masks and double lives that keeps you turning pages, uncertain of the identity of the killer until Jury himself knows. At the culmination the foreshadowing leaps out in high relief, making me want to turn to the beginning and read it all again, with fresh eyes.

As I have come to expect from Grimes, THE BLACK CAT balances deeply moving scenes with comedy both subtle and brash. Even the characters who inhabit a mere paragraph are drawn with distinctive lines, memorable for their own sake, and not just for how they are tied to the central mystery.

Book Summary

The inimitable Richard Jury returns in a thrilling tale of mystery, madness, and mistaken identity

Three months have passed since Richard Jury was left bereft and guilt- ridden after his lover's tragic auto accident, and he is now more wary than ever. He is deeply suspicious when requested on a case far out of his jurisdiction in an outlying village where a young woman has been murdered behind the local pub. The only witness is the establishment's black cat, who gives neither crook nor clue as to the girl's identity or her killer's.

Identifying the girl becomes tricky when she's recognized as both the shy local librarian and a posh city escort, and Jury must use all his wits and intuition to determine the connection to subse­quent escort murders. Meanwhile, Jury's nemesis, Harry Johnson, continues to goad Jury down a dangerous path. And Johnson, along with the imperturbable dog Mungo, just may be the key to it all.

Written with Martha Grimes's trademark insight and grace, The Black Cat signals the thrilling return of her greatest character. The superintendent is a man possessed of prodigious analytical gifts and charm, yet vulnerable in the most perplexing ways.