I enjoyed reading "Dust" and loved Ms. Grimes writing and was looking forward to giving my copy to a friend who loves mysteries . . . UNTIL the end!!! When I pick up a mystery I am sort of entering into a contract with the author - and that is that the mystery will be solved and that I will "get it." Certainly with all the James references the reader had to expect some James involvement with the plot. But to have such an ambiguous ending (actually a non-ending) was a big disappointment. Fooey. I'm, like others of you said, glad I wasn't the only one. I just finished the book a few minutes ago and came straight to the computer to ask, "Huh? What was that all about?"

Odd that the first thing I did is just what karenbw did, go to the internet to see if answers are there and I just missed them. Feel much better to know I am not alone.

I just finished listening to the audio version of DUST. I went back and replayed the last CD because I thought I missed something. Like most of the posts that I have read... I am glad I was not the only one who was disappointed by the ending of the book.

And here I thought my mind had finally turned to mush from all my trashy summer reading! Good to know there are others in the same boat. I just finished listening to this on my iPod and ran right in and to do this search. Does the story pick up again in the next novel? I guess we'll have to read it to see...

I was looking for the solution to the sub-plot in Dust and was surprised to learn others had the same problem.

I've looked back, re-read passages and have settled on Rose as the likliest person who pushed the children off the raft. Self-described 'during the war I was a helion - no care or conscience for other people'; she wasn't treated for her bi-polar disorder until in her twenties. Her daughter Mary drowned in a boat accident when she was not much over 30 and Mrs. Jessop, the cook, described Rose as 'the worst of them' and of the boat accident and Mary drowning she says 'what goes around comes round, is what I say'.

Now the question I have, is why would Rose have been on the ship, was she traveling with her parents? - Will that do?

Dust was a real disappointment. Can't believe I paid for that book. I don't know if Grimes was being lazy,"cleverly" experimental, show-offy(with the overdone discussions of James' works), or gimmicky, but the ending was weak. Don't leave me guessing; this is not a H. James work; it's supposed to be a mystery,so don't manipulate me in that way. After reading Dust, I immediately picked up P.D. James' Shroud for a Nightingale, finished it in 2 days, and then read Elizabeth George's In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner. I needed some classic and satisfying representations of the genre. It's on to Christie or Rendell.

I'm sure I'm being dim here, but I've read The Old Silent twice now, and have not figured out this: why did Nell Healey shoot Roger Healey? I get that her aunt and her father (?) kidnapped Billy and killed him; but I cannot find why Roger was killed by Nell. Anyone?

I listened to the audio book and may have missed this, but why didn't the autopsy show that Maples didn't eat the meal? Isn't examination of stomach contents a standard part of an autopsy? They would have had to trace wound tracks etc to estimate the height of the killer.

Rose is a grandmother. If anyone was on a boat it would have been Mary (Rose's daughter and Billy's real mom). It doesn't sound like Mary was the type to push kids off a boat, but perhaps. Do you suppose Mary was killed in a boating accident as revenge for Mary pushing the kids off the boat during the war? But how does Mrs. Jessup know her sisters were pushed off the lifeboat anyway? I thought Wiggins said there were no survivors?

Wow, looks like this author leaves more questions than she answers in her books. Are they all like this?

By the way, there is a Martha Grimes Facebook page - maybe some answers there?