Rating: 
Summary: I think that it's time for a new series.
Review: I find myself tending to agree with the reviewers who had the feeling that _The Blue Last_ was two books melded together. The best bit about the Richard Jury novels has always been the combination of charming and affecting. Jury himself (in the best of the books) stands apart from the other zany folks, but not *so* far above. In _The Blue Last_, while Jury is actually getting more interesting (not a mean feat in his 17th novel) the Long Piddlingtons are dangerously close to charactature.Suggest that Grimes may take the feeling that she's getting with Jury and the plot in this novel and create a whole new character/series.
Rating: 
Summary: The Blue Last
Review: Martha Grimes is one of the best writers ever. I got hooked on my first book The Stargazey and I have since read eight other of her Richard Jury Mysteries. They put right there in the middle of Richard's friends. You tour wonderful English Pubs and experience entertaining conversations. In between books you'll wonder what your friends Richard, Melrose, Wiggins and Marshall are doing. Martha's books make you feel part of this world she has created. My suggestion is to read a few chapters, then enjoy a cup of tea, all on a cold rainy day. Read this book and make new friends, plus enjoy "trying" to solve the mystery before Scottland Yard's finest does.
Rating:
Summary: Psychopharmocology...the wave of the future (Bad Medicine)
Review: Surely it is time for Richard Jury to obtain professional help. Just how old is he, anyway? By my reckoning, if he was a child in the early 1940's and old enough for some fairly detailed memories he must by now be way past retirement age. His continued employment when his contemporaries are able to lead a more leisured life might explain his melancholia. I will pass over his attachment to Carole-Anne as merely a symptom of what is surely his approaching senility.
Rating: 
Summary: A Major Disappointment
Review: I have read all of Martha Grimes books, and will not be buying the next one. The plot wanders, the characters are one dimensional, the humour is missing, and I felt extremely angry at the ending because I felt cheated. I felt it was unfinished and was going to complain to the publisher. Perhaps this is a device of Martha Grimes to entice me to continue to buy her books. It is sad that she has to stoop to this, and her trick has had the opposite effect.
Don't buy it, or the next one. Buy P.D.James, Ruth Rendell , Anne Perry and Stephanie Barron instead for satisfaction.
Rating:
Summary: Not One Of Martha's Best
Review: I have to agree with the majority opinion that "The Blue Last" is not one of Martha Grimes' best Richard Jury novels. After a promising start, the story just meanders along, with a major side trip to Italy where Plant and Trueblood have gone to get a painting authenticated. Although Grimes tries hard to make this somehow relevant to the principal storyline of murder and deception dating back to the Blitz, it just never quite jells and seems extraneous. I also have to agree that the precocious children and sentient dogs are plot devices that Grimes is better off without. Grimes, over the years, has increasingly tried to turn Richard Jury into her version of Adam Dalgliesh. This trend is particularly evident in this book, where the humorous antics of her Long Piddletonians runs up against Jury's agonizing over his own past and his friend Haggerty's coping with terminal illness. It's as if she's written two books that don't meld very comfortably together. Grimes just doesn't have the psychological insight into character that P.D. James brings to her writing, so I hope that future Jury novels (assuming that she continues the series) will see a return to the somewhat more light-hearted approach that made these books fun to read.
Rating: 
Summary: a worthy additon to the series
Review: I've been reading the Richard Jury series since they first appeared in the mid-eighties. Some books may have been better than others but on the whole the 17 novels up to and including this one have always been entertaining and above the average mystery fare.
I strongly disagree with those readers who find this book full of errors and/or unnecessary sub-plots.
Concerning the timeline/age of characters: Just because a book was published in 2001 doesn't necessarily mean that the story takes place in 2001. I'm not aware that there are any references to the time. Has anyone ever done a timeline? Just by counting the Christmases it seems improbable that 18 years have passed in the novels just because they have passed out here in Real Life. It is very probable that much less time has passed in the novels.
Concerning the trip to Tuscany: I absolutely disagree that it was unnecessary and meaningless for the novel - quite the contrary. It mirrored the themes of the novel: the quest (or wild-goose chase?) for truth and the question if one NEEDS to know, the unreliablity of memories, the question of trust (foreshadowing the end, of course)...
Concerning the believability of the depiciton of GB, its inhabitants and customs: Not to start a discussion on the Real World and its representation in literature - the England of Martha Grimes never was and never will be reality: She plays with concepts and types. Otherwise the reader wouldn't perceive her novels as so essentially British. Real people (and countries for that matter) seldom are so clear cut.
Concerning the end: The end might be not as nicely wrapped up as the average mystery reader would want it to be but then, what is? If you discuss matters of truth and trust often there are no easy answers to be had. In any case it had me running to my computer to check if there will be a next Jury novel (which might or might not provide some further information on some of the characters in "The Blue Last"). All in all I consider "The Blue Last" a worthy additon to a consistently good series. In my opinion, it would even have been a satisfactory end. But things being as they are I confess I very much prefer to being able to look forward to reading "The Grave Maurice" (and hopefully many more Richard Jury mysteries).
Rating:
Summary: A very bad book
Review: This was my first Martha Grimes book and will be my last. Other readers have mentioned the timeline problems (though in my version the cousin's 18 month old baby is referred to as her niece's child, so someone must have finally corrected that! nevertheless, the illegitimate daughter must be at least 60, yet appears to have young children), the loose ends, the pointless subplots, the poor character development, the contrived events, and the truly awful ending. What annoys me most is the stilted, wooden characterization of British society - it's supposed to be contemporary, but the people all behave like characters out of either Dickens or Agatha Christie. Honestly, people in England really don't behave like this, calling everyone Miss or Mr So and so, and drinking tea on the stroke of 4, and having their sausages delivered by the friendly local butcher! Especially not in central London! It's the worst sort of lazy American stereotyping, and odd because clearly Martha Grimes knows London very well. To give her her due, she's quite good on most linguistic and geographical details, but slips once in a while - English people don't say "candy", and cell phones are "mobiles". And by the way, there are, believe or not, many alternatives to Oxford university - England has dozens of universities and all kinds of scholarships and student loan schemes for students whose parents cannot afford university fees - for a policeman to be so fixated on Oxford is very unrealistic - it's a modern state for heaven's sake! As for Benny and his mother - please - how unbelievable can you get! Benny's mother walked straight out of a Dickens novel. Martha - it's 2002! Sorry, this was a waste of time and money.
Rating:
Summary: Hardly seems written by Ms Grimes
Review: I'm a big fan of Martha Grimes' novels, and was taken aback by the Blue Last. There are numerous breaks in character from what we've seen demonstrated in earlier books, and the language doesn't seem in tune with earlier books either. Jury "sniggering" (p118) and "grinning" (p212)? Jury actually physically threatening a witness (p308)? Jury summoning up a panel of past writers (Jonson, Webster, etc.) for guidance? Bizarre, and since we've seen him under stress before, breaks like these at all levels of his personality can simply not be explained as a new facet of his character. And one of Jury's strong points as a cop has always been his ability to "get into phase" with the people he interacts with, his delicate intuition about feelings & emotions. There is nothing of that here; it seems to have deserted him.
There are other problems. The usual slightly dreamy mood, rooted in both Jury's & Melrose's attachment to the past, tries to assert itself, but keeps jarring loose. There are discrepancies from past novels (for example, in "Jerusalem Inn", Jury dislikes Brendan; here, he thinks Brendan is "a nice bloke"). And much as I enjoy the side stories, there is no reason to visit Italy with Melrose & Trueblood; it feels like filler, written to meet a certain word limit. I started dogearing the book just to keep track of all the odd language & actions (which aren't restricted to Jury; everyone seems off kilter). Overall, the book felt as if it was written by someone who'd studied Grimes' style, but was unable to pull off an imitation.
Like others, I was also extremely irritated at the ending; like others, I will read the next book. However, I'll be borrowing it from the Library to make sure that it's something worthy of the Martha Grimes we've grown to love.
Rating:
Summary: Grimes is tripping over her own facts
Review: I've read all of Martha Grimes's Richard Jury mysteries. This was the worst. Forced storyline, wornout characterizations. Worst, the author is beginning to lose sight of facts. She states that Jury's cousin, with whom he spent part of his childhood, is in her early sixties, now, WITH AN EIGHTEEN MONTH OLD BABY!! A biological wonder. Grimes is losing track of time and details that she established in earlier stories. Jury should be retirement age; let him go.
Rating:
Summary: Very good!
Review: I'm surprised at some of the other reviewers' opinions. It held my attention very well all the way to the end -- in fact, at 2 am I was thinking "just one more chapter." The only problem I had was with the end. But I won't spoil that for anyone. Thanks, Ms. Grimes. I'm looking for to the next one!
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