The Old Fox Deceived

She came out of the fog, her face painted half-white, half-black, walking down Grape Lane.

Published in 1982

Instead of giving an overview of the plot of each book, I've decided to do some detecting myself.

Our main character, Chief Inspector Richard Jury, and his untitled side kick Melrose Plant by all description are intelligent, handsome men in their 40s.....they are sensitive, Jury holds down a good job while Plant is rich, they are imminently eligible and yet they aren't married.

In this book we find out that when Jury was just 7, his Mother was killed in the last blitz of London, and his Father had died at Dunkirk. As an orphan, he was handed around within the family until 14 when he "lit out on his own".

And Plant admits to himself.....

"He kept his own home as it had been when his parents were alive He had only added a few pieces; he had removed none. to him the past was perfect as it stood, preserved beneath the glass bell of Ardry End.

It was another reason he had never married; no matter how much she would have insisted on keeping him and the house intact, eventually she'd have had to start moving the furniture around."

One who grew up alone, still scared of being abandoned; the other afraid of breaking the spell of his perfect childhood and the task of living up to the perfect married of is parents.

With no kids of their own, they seem to attract independent, confident, self-reliant children -- in this book it's Bertie Makepiece, with his side kick Arnold, the dog.

I've been reading a lot -- so I'm behind on my Grimes reporting....and the vest is coming along too.

Enjoy the day!