The case has altered / Martha Grimes.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The accusation that Jenny Kensington, whom he has long loved, is behind the murders of two women recently connected with the Fengate estate, leads Richard Jury to the conclusion that he needs someone inside Fengate--someone who can impersonate an antiques expert. Enter Melrose Plant, detective manque. And in his wake follows a cast of characters that Martha Grimes's fans have come to love in this affecting story that is by turns crushingly sad and wonderfully funny.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Poor Dorcas, dead in a ditch in the fens. And she's not the only one. Vera Dunn, the manipulative ex-wife of Max Owen, master of the local estate, Fengate (where Dorcas was a servant), is also dead. Enter Grimes stalward Richard Jury, who's not officially on the case but who gets involved anyway because Lady Kenningston, a woman he cherishes, has been accused of doing in Dunn, with whom she has been seen quarreling. Jury gets pal Melrose Plant to pose as an antiques dealer so that he can snoop around Fengate, then goes off to do some investigating on his own. Naturally, there are puzzles, e.g., why was Dorcas out on the fens that night? Why didn't Lady Kenningston come clean on her relation with nasty Verna? The result is a delicious ebb and flow of tension‘first, we get a trial for Lady Kennington, then more twists and turns as the real killer is finally, surprisingly revealed. In the process, there's beautifully rendered atmosphere and perhaps a bit too much of Melrose's litigious aunt. Vintage Grimes; for all collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 7/97.]‘Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal" (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Grimes is dazzling in this deftly plotted, 13th Richard Jury mystery (the last was Rainbow's End, 1995). Psychologically complex and muted in tone, with the characters' elliptical relationships reflecting the setting of England's dreamlike fen country, the novel also boasts Grimes's delicious wit. Most of her eccentric regulars are here: detective-manqué Melrose Plant, Lord Ardry; his infuriating Aunt Agatha; hypochondriac Sgt. Wiggins; pompous antiquarian Marshall Trueblood. Jennifer Kennington, the woman whom Jury has loved‘mainly from afar‘for 10 years is the prime suspect in two murders. One victim is her cousin, Verna Dunn, with whom she was a guest at the antiques-strewn estate of Verna's ex-husband, Max Owen, and his second wife; the other is the Owens' servant, Dorcas Reese. The Lincolnshire police haven't requested Scotland Yard's help, so Jury, unofficially allying himself with the enigmatic local chief inspector, persuades Melrose to investigate by visiting the Owens as an antiques appraiser. Jury's breakthrough in identifying the real murderer follows a chat with a signature Grimes character‘a knowing, elfin child named Zel whose companion is a nondescript dog. In a comic subplot, Melrose's litigious aunt sues a used furniture dealer, claiming she was injured tripping on an antique bedpan in front of the shop and then attacked by the shopowner's terrier. The title‘as always, the name of a pub‘holds the clue. After Jury's last two disappointing appearances, both set in America, Grimes brings him triumphantly back where he belongs. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

Grimes' latest is a brilliant police procedural, a stately and dignified saraband of a mystery in which diligence, dignity, and deliberation win out over showier, slicker police tactics. Grimes' mismatched duo, Scotland Yard CID Inspector Richard Jury and aristocrat Melrose Plant, star in this provocative story. Two murders have taken place in the bleak Lincolnshire fens: two weeks after glamorous actress Verna Dunn was found shot to death, plain kitchen-maid Dorcas Reese turned up, garroted and strangled. The local police have already identified the prime suspect, Jury's longtime friend, Jenny Kennington. Although the motive is murky, Jenny certainly had means and opportunity, and before long, she's arrested for both murders. Jury is understandably upset, and he and Plant determine to prove Jenny's innocence despite the steadily mounting evidence against her. Slow, careful, thorough investigation, a keen understanding of human nature, and a soupcon of finely honed intuition lead Jury and Plant to the real--and shocking--killer. For readers looking for slam-bang action, high tension, and graphic murder scenes, Grimes' latest may not be the mystery of choice. But for those who appreciate masterful writing, skillful plotting, shrewd characterizations, subtle humor, and an illuminating look at what makes us humans tick, this outstanding story from one of today's most talented writers is just the ticket. --Emily Melton

Kirkus Book Review

``The worst things happened to Jury's women,'' muses his friend Melrose Plant all too accurately. The victim this time is Supt. Richard Jury's former lover Lady Jennifer Kennington, suspected first of shooting actress Verna Dunn, then two weeks later strangling Dorcas Reese, homely kitchen girl at Fengate, the residence of Verna's ex-husband Max Owen. Jury's first idea- -prying Plant loose from his litigious aunt's nuisance suit against inoffensive secondhand-shopkeeper Ada Crisp to send him undercover to Lincolnshire as the antiques appraiser who'll help evaluate Max's treasures--yields lots of data about Max, his understanding wife Grace, his sculptor nephew Jack Price, and their neighbors Major Linus Parker and Peter Emery, his blind groundskeeper. But despite the data, there are precious few conclusions. And when Jury confronts Jenny directly, she simply admits an undeniable motive for killing Verna and expands on the lies she's already told the police. So it's on to the courtroom, where procedural fireworks await. As always with Grimes (Hotel Paradise, 1996, etc.), the pace is leisurely, at times maddeningly so; yet the endless repetitions of the case's central questions--what was Dorcas so sorry she'd listened to and done? why did she tell her trusted intimates she was pregnant when she wasn't? why were the two murders committed with different weapons?--actually deepen their mystery instead of dispelling it. Even the farcical subplot--that nuisance lawsuit back home- -adds its counterweight to the Fen Country gloom to produce Grimes's best book in years.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Martha Grimes was born on May 2, 1931 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She received a B.A. and an M.A. from the University of Maryland.

The idea for Martha Grimes' first British detective novel, The Man with a Load of Mischief (1981), was inspired by the name of a British pub she noticed while leafing through a travel book. A longtime Anglophile, she has continued to use a British pub as both the title and part of the setting in each subsequent novel in the series which features Scotland Yard Detective Richard Jury, his assistant, Melrose Plant, and Plant's interfering Aunt Agatha. The Anodyne Necklace (1983) won her the Nero Wolfe Award. Her other works include The Stargazey, The Case Has Been Altered, The End of the Pier, Biting the Moon, and Dust. Her title, Vertigo 42, made The New York Times Best Seller List in 2014.

(Bowker Author Biography)