The Jerusalem Inn is the fifth in the Richard Jury/Melrose Plant series, and it was more of the same as the earlier books. Jury meets Helen Minton at the beginning of the book, and after a brief tea, he makes dinner plans with her. Since it’s only a few days till Christmas, they both see this opportunity as a way to have some holiday cheer. Unfortunately, when Jury goes to meet her, he finds the local police in residence. Helen is dead, assumed to be dead due to natural causes. Jury is suspicious, and rightfully so, when it turns out the Helen was poisoned. As Jury tries to find out why someone would want to kill Helen, he learns more about her life with her cousin, and that Helen may have had a child with her cousin. Tracking down the cousin, artist, Edward Parmenger, Jury travels to a snowbound mansion where Plant, his annoying in-law, Agatha, and Vivian Rivington are gathered to celebrate Christmas with the Seainghams, Parmenger, and other assorted characters. As Jury arrives, one of the guests turns up murdered.
Although it took a while for me to read the book, it wasn’t because the book was bad or boring. The story was pretty much the same as the others in the series. I think that I am getting a bit tired of the fact that Jury seems to be relegated to a lonely life without love. Yeah, I get it that he is incredibly handsome. Why can’t he find love in his life? It’s the same with Melrose Plant. There are precocious children in this one, as with the others. This time, it’s little Chrissie in Jerusalem Inn. She says something that makes Jury realize the answer to the mystery. Then there’s Tommy, the young Marquis. He’s 16 and a champion snooker play. Now you might think from some of the comments that I didn’t like the book, but I did like it. And I was not able to guess the murderer. I guess that I should have, but it was a surprise to me. I’ll read more of the series. I just hope that Jury and Plant find some love and happiness in life.
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