Books like The Old Contemptibles by Martha Grimes

In an elite New England college, a charismatic classics professor lures a group of eccentric students into obsessive study, leading them from intellectual curiosity to corruption, betrayal, and ultimately murder.

A pioneering English detective story in which a priceless diamond, once stolen from a Hindu idol and presented to a young woman on her eighteenth birthday, disappears again, sparking intrigue and danger.

A charming and clever women detective, Precious Ramotswe, solves mysteries in Botswana's small town of Midsomin, South Africa, from 1986 to 1997, facing dangers and love in the process. The novel is beloved by readers worldwide for its clever dialogue and characters who are as flawed as the rest of us. The book is a bestseller and has been translated into 45 languages, including Polish, German, and Japanese, among others. It was also voted one of the International Books of the Year and the Millennium by the Times Literary Supplement.

Four retirees in a quiet village form the Thursday Murder Club, solving crimes in their Jigsaw Room. When a developer is found dead, their keen sleuthing leads them into their first live investigation.

Inspector Adam Dalgliesh must uncover the killer of a clever, ambitious young woman whose life ended in murder.

When a coastal dog retrieves a bone that turns out to be human, Isa Wilde’s idyllic village of Salten is thrust into terror as her childhood friends uncover a dark secret, unraveling their shared past.

Martha Grimes returns to England with detective Richard Jury in a fresh mystery that features her regular cast of charming suspects and a clever twist of police procedure.

In "A Taste for Death", Scotland Yard commander Adam Dalgliesh investigates a double murder at St. Matthew's Church, where an upper‑crust minister is slain beside a derelict, unraveling motives tied to a diary, a violet‑eyed widow and a web of deceit.

London cab‑driver Robbie Parsons becomes embroiled in a high‑speed chase when a gun‑pointing criminal hijacks his taxi, leading Detective Superintendent Richard Jury on a globe‑spanning hunt that whisks him from Nairobi to Reno, Nevada and back to London’s subterranean cab network.

Martha Grimes tackles the ruthless world of publishing with sharp wit and a touch of crime, turning the literary marketplace into a satirical thriller.

Detective Richard Jury and his partner Melrose Plant investigate the murder of Simon Lean, leading them to the Five Bells and Bladebone pub in London, where a mysterious dead patron, Sadie, once may have held clues.

Superintendent Richard Jury investigates a London mugging and a murder in the quiet town of Littlebourne, leading him to the local pub, the Anodyne Necklace, and its colorful residents.

This omnibus contains three books from Martha Grimes' acclaimed Inspector Richard Jury series. The book descriptions below are from marthagrimes.com. NOTE: For some reason--possibly due to the publication dates of different editions--the books appear in this omnibus in reverse order. If you want to read in series order, proceed as follows: Book 6: ***Help the Poor Struggler*** on or around page 447 Book 7: ***The Deer Leap*** on or around page 210 Book 8: ***I Am the Only Running Footman*** on or around page 4. ***I Am the Only Running Footman*** *(Series book 8 / 1986 / Begins on page 4)* In a rainy ditch in a Devon wood, a hitchhiker is found dead. Almost a year later, on another rainy night, another murder; this time, however, the victim is found just outside a pub called I Am the Only Running Footman, near Berkeley Square in London’s fashionable Mayfair District. Devon policeman Brian Macalvie is convinced that the two murders are connected. And thus, in his eighth case, Richard Jury is drawn into the so-called Porphyria killings. A particularly elusive pair of murders. From the streets of London to the village of Somers Abbas, Jury and Macalvie are joined by the stolid if hypochondriac Sergeant Wiggins and the reluctant Melrose Plant. They meet in another pub, the Mortal Man, and, amidst the clatter and cry of the Warboys family, they ponder a labyrinthine set of clues. ***The Deer Leap*** *(Series book 7 / 1st edition January 1, 1985 / ~ page 210)* In her latest Richard Jury adventure, Martha Grimes takes us to Ashdown Dean, a little English village where animals are dying in a series of seemingly innocuous accidents. While the puzzling deaths of village pets may raise some idle gossip over a pint or two at the Deer Leap, the village pub, this hardly seems a case for Superintendent Jury of Scotland yard. Nor does it seem much of a challenge for the combined deductive powers of Jury and Melrose, the affable former Earl of Caverness. It is his mystery writing-writing, amethyst-eyed friend, Polly Praed, who drags Plant and Jury to Ashdown Dean. The impatient Polly, having yanked open a call box in the pouring rain, is ill prepared for what lands at her feet. The now-deadly case is cause for calling in Scotland Yard. ***Help the Poor Struggler*** *(Series book 6 / 1st edition January 1, 1985 / ~ page 447)* Around bleak Dartmoor, where the Hound of the Baskervilles once bayed, three children have been brutally murdered. Now Richard Jury of Scotland Yard joins forces with a hot-tempered local constable named Brian Macalvie to track down the killer. The trail begins at a desolate pub, Help the Poor Struggler. It leads straight to the estate of Lady Jessica, a ten-year-old orphaned heiress who lives with her mysterious uncle and ever-changing series of governesses. And as suspense spreads across the forbidding landscape, an old injustice returns to haunt Macalvie…with clues that link a murder in the distant past with a killing yet to come.

Detective Richard Jury tackles his most sinister case yet when a deceased London girl’s body unwinds a long‑cold Launceston disappearance, forcing him to confront a mystery that has plagued police for years.

Senior police officer Richard Jury investigates a long‑forgotten murder of Tess, a wife whose death was ruled an accidental fall, possibly linked to a fatal incident at a children’s party and a recent tower collapse near his bars.

Martha Grimes’ detective novel follows Detective Brian Macalvie and Officer Richard Jury, alongside Sergeant Wiggins and Melrose Plant, as they unravel the chilling Porphyria killings in rural England.

In rural Ashdown Dean, Superintendent Richard Jury, assisted by the aristocratic Melrose Plant, investigates a spate of animal and human accidents that threaten the village's peace.