A 1001 Midnights Review: MARTHA GRIMES – The Man with a Load of Mischief.

A 1001 MIDNIGHTS Review by Ellen Nehr MARTHA GRIMES – The Man with a Load of Mischief. Richard Jury #1. Little, Brown, hardcover, 1981. Dell, paperback, 1990. Many other later reprint editions. An English village called Long Piddleton, an earl who prefers to be called Mr. Plant, his slightly dolly aunt (an American by birth who hasn’t assimilated the British point of view even after thirty years), assorted villagers, pubs with ancient names and modem nicknames, and Inspector Richard Jury of Scotland Yard — all of these combine with an admixture of gruesome murders and eccentric antics in The Man with a load of Mischief . Jury, along with his hypochondriac sergeant, arrives to investigate two unidentified murdered men whose bodies were found on consecutive nights at different Long Pid pubs. Melrose Plant, who teaches a course a year in French romantic poetry and who has given up his title, assists Jury in the investigation, but is impeded by his aunt (who has countered Plant’s…