THE DEER LEAP

Seventh of the stories involving Superintendent Richard Jury, his fine-tuned perceptions ever more sensitive, his sometime aide, ex-aristocrat Melrose Plant, and his cold-plagued Sergeant Wiggins (Jerusalem Inn, etc.). It's through Plant that Jury now finds himself in the tiny village of Ashdown Dean, where a series of odd animal deaths have been followed by those of aged postmistress Una Quick and the pub-owner's strident wife Sally Macbride. Jury quickly realizes that the puzzle's key lies with teenaged, taciturn Carrie Fleet, an amnesiac for five years, brought to the village from London by florid, hard-drinking Baroness Regina de la Notre, whose cool secretary Gillian Kendall seems to return Jury's interest. In London, using a tiny clue and his gorgeous upstairs neighbor, topless dancer Carole-Anne Palutski, Jury tracks down Carrie's past, but it's in Ashdown Dean that the tragic showdown comes. Though sometimes verging on the precious, Grimes' style is full of grace, wit and verve, aided by a host of memorable characters. Solid work from one of the best in the genre.