The Five Bells and Bladebone

The Five Bells and Bladebone – Martha Grimes

publ - 1987

(My Blurb) This is a story of a man being murdered and stuffed into an antique desk in the English countryside. A Scotland Yard Inspector – Richard Jury - is present, by chance, when the body was discovered at an antique store. Back in London, a woman is killed next to the river. The Inspector knows the murders are connected in some way. He just has to figure out how.

(My thoughts) I really didn’t like this book. I usually like books set in England but not this one. It was set in modern times but the feel was a “Jolly Old England” kind of book. A reader from England - or someone extremely familiar with the country -  would enjoy it more, possibly. The writer used a style of writing I don’t care for. She wrote a little bit about one story line, started another, and still another one. The reader is left holding all those threads of stories and trying to figure out how they all fit together. The main character didn’t have a lot of details to me. He just wandered in and out of scenes asking questions. Maybe he is better defined in other books that I haven’t read yet. This was my first book by this writer. I was also left with lots of questions after the book was finished -not something good for a mystery story. 

I’d give it a – 4