Martha Grimes

Martha Grimes (born May 2, 1931) is an American author of detective fiction.

She was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to D.W., a city solicitor, and to June, who owned the Mountain Lake Hotel in Western Maryland where Martha and her brother spent much of their childhood. Grimes earned her B.A. and M.A. at the University of Maryland. She has taught at the University of Iowa, Frostburg State University, and Montgomery College.

Grimes is best known for her series of novels featuring Richard Jury, an inspector with Scotland Yard, and his friend Melrose Plant, a British aristocrat who has given up his titles. Each of the Jury mysteries is named after a pub. Her page-turning, character-driven tales fall into the mystery subdivision of "cozies." In 1983, Grimes received the Nero Award for best mystery of the year for The Anodyne Necklace.

The background to Hotel Paradise is drawn on the experiences she enjoyed spending summers at her mother's hotel in Mountain Lake Park, Maryland. One of the characters, Mr Britain, is drawn on Britten Leo Martin, Sr, who then ran Marti's Store which he owned with his father and brother. Martin's Store is accessible by a short walkway from Mountain Lake, the site of the former Hotel, which was torn down in 1967.

She splits her time between homes in Washington, D.C., and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Works

Richard Jury series

• The Man With a Load of Mischief (Boston: Little, Brown, 1981)
• The Old Fox Deceiv'd (Boston: Little, Brown, 1982)
• The Anodyne Necklace (Boston: Little, Brown, 1983)
• The Dirty Duck (Boston: Little, Brown, 1984)
• The Jerusalem Inn (Boston: Little, Brown, 1984)
• Help the Poor Struggler (Boston: Little, Brown, 1985)
• Deer Leap (Boston: Little, Brown, 1985)
• I Am the Only Running Footman (Boston: Little, Brown, 1986)
• The Five Bells and Bladebone (Boston: Little, Brown, 1987)
• The Old Silent (Boston: Little, Brown, 1989)
• The Old Contemptibles (Boston: Little, Brown, 1991)
• The Horse You Came In On (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993)
• Rainbow's End (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995)
• The Case Has Altered (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997)
• The Stargazey (New York: Holt, 1998)
• The Lamorna Wink (New York: Viking, 1999)
• The Blue Last (New York: Viking, 2001)
• The Grave Maurice (New York: Viking Penguin, 2002)
• The Winds of Change (New York: Viking Penguin, 2004)
• The Old Wine Shades (New York: Viking Penguin, 2006)
• Dust (New York: Viking Penguin, 2007)

Andi Olivier series

• Biting the Moon (New York: Holt, 1999)
• Dakota (New York: Viking Adult, 2008)

Emma Graham series

• Hotel Paradise (Knopf, 1996)
• Cold Flat Junction (2000)
• Belle Ruin (2005)

featuring Maud Chadwick (who is also a character in the Emma Graham Series)

• The End of the Pier (Ballantine Books, 1993)

References

Source: Contemporary Authors Online, Thomson Gale, 2006.

External links

• Martha Grimes' official Web site
• Ryan, Ellen. "Martha Grimes: Woman of Mystery", Washingtonian, August 1, 2008.

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