Category: Mystery
Publisher: Penguin Group
ISBN-13: 9780451411617
Series: Richard Jury, #5
Pub. Date: November 2004, Reprint
Date Read: November 2008
"A meeting in a graveyard. That was how it would always come back to him, and without any sense of irony at all -- that a meeting in a graveyard did not foreshadow the permanence he was after."
It's Christmastime in Newcastle but rather than being in a festive mood, Scotland Yard Superintendent Richard Jury is a bit more pensive and somber. He doesn't look forward to the holiday but a chance meeting with an attractive woman in a snow-covered graveyard makes him think there may be something to look forward to after all, but a cruel trick of fate ensures that next time Jury meets Helen she will be dead.
Despite this not being his local territory, Jury will insinuate himself in the investigation. Helen had mentioned something about a heart condition but he has a feeling it was more than that. The connection he felt when he met Helen makes him feel a sense of obligation to finding out the truth.
Meanwhile, Melrose Plant, Jury's friend and unofficial assistant, is planning his escape for Christmas to a house party to which a select few artists and society members have been invited. What he didn't count on was that his busybody Aunt Agatha managed to get invited to the party as well. As luck would have it, the party is snowbound and now Melrose is stuck with these people. So when he's invited to go to the Jerusalem Pub for a game of snooker he accepts. Melrose thinks at least this might liven up his holiday but on the return to the mansion he stumbles on the corpse of one of the party members. Not exactly the action he was hoping for.
And, now the stories of these two seemingly unrelated deaths will come together. Jury will find himself heading out to the Jerusalem Inn to follow up on Helen's trail and will also help investigate the death at the mansion. With Melrose's assistance they are sure to figure out how everyone is connected.
While the story does start on a more melancholy note, as is usual with this series there is a lot of gentle humor and a diverse and entertaining cast of characters to keep the plot moving and to keep a reader hooked on the series.