Martha Grimes
http://www.marthagrimes.com/
"Although there were no murders and—alas!—no
Sheriff DeGheyn, Hotel Paradise is otherwise the
story of my 12-year-old life." Born in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania (where her father was the City Solicitor),
Martha Grimes spent every summer at her mother's hotel in
Western Maryland. Her favorite memories of that time are her
mother's cooking and her brother's theatrical productions in
the big garage behind the hotel to which she was rarely
admitted.
Grown-up, she now spends her time in Washington, D.C. with
many side-trips to England.
A long-time Anglophile, it was her first poem in Send
Bygraves that inspired her to turn from poetry to
mystery novels. Martha sent the novel "over the transom"
(sans agent) to several publishers. In 1979 an editor at
Little, Brown, Inc. found the book in the "slush pile"
(where unsolicited manuscripts are dumped for editorial
assistants to read) and offered to publish The Man with
a Load of Mischief with a first printing of 3,000
copies. The Man with a Load of Mischief was published
in 1981, and from there Martha Grimes has published a book
(sometimes two) every year for the past 25 years.
By her fourth and fifth books Martha received major review
attention that not only lauded her ability as an American to
write authentic British mysteries, but also to merge the
conceits of the British form with the tone and atmosphere of
the American. "Help the Poor Struggler is rather an
American novel, with brooding and cynical overtones of
Raymond Chandler" (Time magazine, 7/15/85). In 1987 The
Five Bells & Bladebone was her "breakthrough" book,
landing on the New York Times bestseller list. Her
next two books, The Old Silent and The Old
Contemptibles, were also New York Times
bestsellers in both hardcover and paperback. Of The Old
Contemptibles, The New York Times Book Review
said: "The author keeps us enthralled with the rich interior
and exterior lives of her characters in this emotionally
stormy family saga."
In 1992, with the publication of The End of the Pier,
Martha departed from her beloved cast of characters in the
Richard Jury series to write a contemporary novel based in
Western Maryland that combined a serial killer murder
mystery with a poignant story of the problems in a mother
and son relationship. The book established her as a writer
of merit outside of mystery fiction — "The End of
the Pier is two books in one: a juicy mystery novel and
an exploration of human behavior that few readers will
forget" (San Francisco Chronicle, 2/7/92). The second book
in the series — Hotel Paradise — was
published four years later and was praised by the critics as
"A place not unlike the novel itself: outside of time,
almost unbelievable, utterly engaging" (Washington Post,
5/26/97) and "Meandering and atmospheric, the novel reads
with the ease of daydream ... the author proves herself a
writer of delicate sensibility whose work is notable for its
delightfully quirky details, insightful perceptions into
human relationships and graceful prose (Los Angeles
Times, 5/26/96). ).
Cold Flat Junction (2001) and Belle Ruin
(2005) continues the adventures of twelve-year-old
detective, Emma Graham. "A tour de force-cobwebby mystery,"
according to Kirkus, "Cold Flat Junction melds
classic mystery with a coming-of-age story in which the
young protagonist must face the hard and often shocking
realities of adulthood as she uncovers good and evil in
their many guises and tries to set the past at rest"
(Baltimore Sun, 1/28/01). Grimes third book in the
series will be published March, 2001.
In 1993, with the release of The Horse You Came in
On, Martha brought Richard Jury and Melrose Plant to
America for the first time to the pub of that name in
Baltimore, Maryland. It was such a success and fan reaction
was so positive (the Mayor of Baltimore gave her the key to
the city and declared August 12, 1993 as "Martha Grimes
Day") she brought Richard Jury over again in Rainbow's
End to investigate a mystery that leads him to Sante Fe,
New Mexico.
In 1997, Martha returned Richard Jury and Melrose Plant to
England in The Case Has Altered. The New York
Times Book Review applauded the book's "enchanting
additions tot he Grimes gallery of eccentric characters,"
and it was named a New York Times Notable Book of the
Year.
The Stargazey, the fifteenth Richard Jury novel,
published on November 5, 1998, become an instant bestseller
and USA Today praised, "Like good British Tweed,
Martha Grimes' wintry new mystery envelops the reader in all
the comforts of a serviceable English whodunit."
The publication of Biting the Moon on April 15, 1999,
marked a departure for Grimes, the first book in a new
series of books focusing on the prevention of animal abuse
and featuring two teenage heroines. She donated two-thirds
of her royalties to animal abuse organizations across the
country, and said, "I do not believe that people are
indifferent to the welfare of animals, possibly, the exact
opposite is true - people are so affected by stories,
pictures, accounts of animal abuse that they simply do not
want to know."
With the publication of The Blue Last in September,
2001, Ms. Grimes found herself back on the New York
Times Bestseller list for the first time in a decade.
She received more fan mail than for any other book by
distraught fans worried about the "death" of Richard Jury.
Her following three Jury mysteries, The Grave Maurice
(2003), The Winds of Change (2004), The Old Wine
Shades (2006) and Dust (2007) were also New
York Times best sellers.
In 2003, Grimes rocked the publishing world with her send up
of the publishing world in her hilarious Foul Matter,
which poked fun at editors, agents, and writers alike.
Martha Grimes has one son, a public relations executive in
Washington, DC, her daughter-in-law, and two grandsons.
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Books
The Black Cat
(A Richard Jury Mystery)
February 1, 2011
Richard Jury is still dealing with the guilt of the accident
that sent Lu Aquilar into a coma. But then he gets assigned
the case of a beautiful woman who was murdered Read more...
Dakota
February 3, 2009
There is "suspense on every page" (Cleveland Plain
Dealer) in this follow-up to Biting the
Moon— now available in paperback.
In Martha Grimes's acclaimed novel Biting the Moon,
amnesiac drifter Andi Oliver sought the Read more...
Dust
(A Richard Jury Mystery)
December 4, 2007
Richard Jury returns to the back streets and back rooms
of London in The New York Times bestselling series.
When an old friend pulls Richard Jury into the investigation
of a wealthy bachelor's Read more...
The Man With a Load of Mischief
(A Richard Jury Novel #1)
August 28, 2007
Introducing Scotland Yard's Richard Jury in Martha
Grimes' intriguing first novel
At the Man with a Load of Mischief, they found the dead body
stuck in a keg of beer. At the Jack Read more...
The Old Wine Shades
(A Richard Jury Novel #20)
March 6, 2007
"The dog came back."
"This is a joke, right?"
"No, it isn't. . . . So do you want to hear the rest of it?"
Dumbly, Jury nodded.
The rest of it is told Read more...
Belle Ruin
September 5, 2006
Highlighting Martha Grimes's extraordinary range and
depth, Belle Ruin is a fitting follow-up to the
acclaimed Hotel Paradise and Cold Flat
Junction that will continue to enchant readers who
avidly follow the adventures of Read more...
The Old Silent
(A Richard Jury Novel #10)
August 1, 2006
Scotland Yard's Richard Jury goes out on a limb to help a
murder suspect—a woman whose silence protects her, but
hides the truth....
Feeling burned out, Jury takes an unplanned stopover in
Yorkshire and Read more...
The Old Contemptibles
(A Richard Jury Novel)
April 4, 2006
Matters of the heart draw Scotland Yard's Richard Jury
into the middle of a murder investigation—this time, as
a suspect...
The rainy day on which they meet sets the tone for Jury's
romance with Read more...
The Winds of Change
(A Richard Jury Mystery)
November 1, 2005
First Time in Paperback
Declan Scott stood inside the room looking at Jury as if he
were one more disappointment in a long list of them.
Police, private investigators—all had failed to Read more...
The Deer Leap
(A Richard Jury Novel)
June 1, 2005
Polly Praed's visit to Ashdown Dean lands her in the
local police station—being questioned about a corpse that
fell out of a phone booth at her feet. Now Polly's calling Read more...
Help The Poor Struggler
February 1, 2005
The forbidding landscape of Dartmoor seems the perfect
setting for murder. But even the hardy locals are shocked
by the killings of three children. Jury joins forces with
Brian Macalvie, Read more...
Jerusalem Inn
November 4, 2004
"Grimes is not the next Dorothy Sayers, not the next
Agatha Christie. She is better than both."—The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
Bad tidings come to Scotland Yard's Richard Jury and
sidekick Melrose Plant...
The Read more...
Foul Matter
September 1, 2004
Author Paul Giverney is between publishers. Despite
stratospheric sales of his books and frenzied competition
to sign him up, he lives modestly in New York's East
Village and nurses a Read more...
The Winds of Change
August 19, 2004
As he leans over the body of an unidentified five-year-old
girl shot in the back on a shabby London street,
Superintendent Richard Jury knows he'll be facing one of
the Read more...
The Dirty Duck
(A Richard Jury Novel)
June 1, 2004
Superintendent Richard Jury has been wrong before. But
when stating that "nothing ever happens in Stratford," he
never imagined just how wrong he could be. Besides the
stage murders committed Read more...
The Anodyne Necklace
(A Richard Jury Novel)
January 6, 2004
A spinster whose passion was bird-watching, a dotty peer
who pinched pennies, and a baffling murder made the tiny
village of Littlebourne a most extraordinary place. And a
severed finger Read more...
The Grave Maurice
("A Richard Jury Novel")
September 2, 2003
In a pub called the Grave Maurice, Melrose Plant overhears
the intriguing story of fifteen-year-old Nell Ryder,
granddaughter of the owner of Ryder Stud Farm in
Cambridgeshire, the heart of Read more...
The Old Fox Deceiv'd
June 1, 2003
Stacked against the cliffs on the shore of the North Sea
and nearly hidden by fog, the town of Rackmoor seems a
fitting place for murder. But the stabbing death Read more...
The Grave Maurice
(A Richard Jury Mystery)
August 26, 2002
"Chew on this," says Melrose Plant to Richard Jury, who's in
the hospital being driven crazy by Hannibal, a nurse who
likes to speculate on his chances for survival. Jury could
use a Read more...
The Blue Last
September 10, 2001
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