The Old Contemptibles Author:Martha Grimes While the former Earl of Caverness, Melrose Plant, and his antiques-dealer friend Marshall Trueblood are in Venice hatching plots to get Vivan Rivington away from sunny Italy, it's a very rainy day in London's Camden Passage. Here, Scotland Yard Superintendent Richard Jury meets a pretty widow named Jane Holdsworth and is drawn into a love affa... more »ir both passionate and troubled, for the lady appears to be concealing something-something about her past, something about her dead husband's family, something that ultimately puts Jury in harm's way. He finds himself, unaccountably, a suspect in a murder investigation. Unable to leave London, but knowing that the Holdsworths are searching for someone to overhaul the library of Tarn House, Jury sends Plant to the Lake District to pose as an eccentric librarian. In the "agoraphobic's paradise" of lakes and mountains, Melrose Plant loves his job: whether he's sitting in the scruffy Old Contemptibles pub; or being spied on by the little girl Millie; or conferring in a tree house with sixteen year old Alex. His catalogue cards contain less data on Wordsworth, Caleridge, and Southey than they do on tantalizing questions about the Holdsworths: What happened to Crabbe Holdworths first wife? What happened to his son, Graham? What happened to the cook, Annie? ...And what might happen to the two children, favorites of rich old Adam Holdsworth, who prefers the ambience of a swank retirement home, Castle Howe, where he and the elegant Lady Cray can drive the staff crazy? Jury and Sergeant Wiggins fianlly join Melrose Plant at the Old Contemptibles, where the arrive at a solution that Jury detests, for no matter what he does, innocence will suffer.« less