The Knowledge: A Richard Jury Mystery

As the New York Times–bestselling series continues, a double murder in front of an exclusive club takes a London detective on a wild ride.

Robbie Parsons is one of London’s finest, a black cab driver who knows every street, every theater, every landmark in the city by heart. In his backseat is a man with a gun in his hand—a man who brazenly committed a crime in front of the Artemis Club, a rarefied art gallery-cum-casino, then jumped in and ordered Parsons to drive. As the criminal eventually escapes to Nairobi, Detective Superintendent Richard Jury comes across the case in the Saturday paper.

Two days previously, Jury had met and instantly connected with one of the victims of the crime, a professor of astrophysics at Columbia and an expert gambler. Feeling personally affronted, Jury soon enlists Melrose Plant, Marshall Trueblood, and his whole gang of merry characters to contend with a case that takes unexpected turns into Tanzanian gem mines, a closed casino in Reno, Nevada, and a pub that only London’s black cabbies, those who have “the knowledge,” can find. The Knowledge is prime fare from “one of the most fascinating mystery writers today” (Houston Chronicle).

“Grimes’ twenty-fourth mystery starring Richard Jury gets off to a breakneck start. . . . Besides the fast action, it’s fascinating to see how Robbie uses a London’s cabdriver’s deep familiarity with the streets to keep himself alive. . . . Jury’s devoted readership will find much to enjoy.” —Booklist

“Solid. . . . Readers will appreciate the elements that have made this a long-running bestselling series, notably a complicated case and distinctive characters.” —Publishers Weekly

“Martha Grimes’ Richard Jury returns in a new mystery that is every bit as clever and suspenseful as her others. The plot is intriguing and unusual, featuring the usual cast of characters Grimes fans have come to know and love, as well as a set of streetwise, worldly children that could have come straight out of a Dickens novel.” —Patricia Uttaro, Rochester Public Library

Editorial Reviews

Review

Advance praise for The Knowledge:

“Martha Grimes delivers an outstanding police procedural…Readers will find it hard to put the book down; all will be drawn in from the first sentence. This may be Martha Grimes’ finest Richard Jury mystery to date.” ―Bookreporter

“Jury’s investigation centers on gem smuggling, tax dodging, and greed. The real mystery is how to find a cab drivers’ pub, the Knowledge, so secret that even Scotland Yard can’t force its patrons to reveal its location . . . Readers will appreciate the elements that have made this a long-running bestselling series, notably a complicated case and distinctive characters.”―Publishers Weekly

“Grimes’ twenty-fourth mystery starring Richard Jury gets off to a breakneck start . . . Jury’s devoted readership will find much to enjoy.”―Booklist

Praise for Martha Grimes and the Richard Jury mystery series:

“Delightful, surprising, even magical. They begin as police procedurals―someone is murdered, Jury investigates―but Grimes’s love of the offbeat, the whimsical and the absurd makes them utterly unlike anyone else’s detective novels . . . Although Grimes is American she has a wicked eye for English eccentricity . . . Original, civilized and witty novels that . . . truly are novel and, once come upon, they can become necessary.”―Washington Post, on Dust

“Delicious . . . A prime example of Grimes’ skill at balancing the serious with the lighthearted . . . Jury and his posse are terrific companions . . . Delightful.”―Seattle Times, on Vertigo 42

“Intricate and entertaining . . . A delicious puzzle.”―Boston Globe, on The Horse You Came In On

“Wondrously eccentric characters . . . The details are divine.”―New York Times Book Review, on The Stargazey

“Swift and satisfying . . . grafts the old-fashioned ‘Golden Age’ amateur-detective story to the contemporary police procedural . . . real charm.”―Wall Street Journal, on The Lamorna Wink

“The literary equivalent of a box of Godiva truffles . . . Wonderful.”―Los Angeles Times, on The Stargazey

“Witty, atmospheric mysteries . . . Simply heaven.”―Denver Post, on The Stargazey

“Read any one [of her novels] and you’ll want to read them all.”―Chicago Tribune

“Grimes is not the next Dorothy Sayers, not the next Agatha Christie. She is better than both.”―Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Grimes is superlative at describing the physical world . . . And, when Grimes takes us into interiors, whether it’s a posh country home or a down-at-the-heels flat, she is like Dickens in linking human character to habitat . . . A stellar series.”―Kirkus Reviews, on Vertigo 42

About the Author

Steve West is an award-winning actor from London who began his career in theatre before beginning to work in television and film. Now, he works regularly as a voice actor for films, video games, animation, and audiobooks, of which he has recorded over 170 titles. A SOVAS Award winner and a multiple Earphones Award winner, he has received many accolades including being nominated for multiple Audies and being named an Audiofile and Romantic Times Best Romance Narrator of the Year.

Martha Grimes is the bestselling author of more than thirty books, twenty-four of them featuring Richard Jury. The recipient of the 2012 Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award, she lives in Bethesda, Maryland.