“Writing a mystery is more difficult
than other kinds of books because a mystery has a certain framework that must
be superimposed over the story.” – Martha Grimes
Grimes was born in Pittsburgh, PA,
on this date in 1931, a fact that sometimes shocks her readers – not that she
was born in Pittsburgh, but that she was born in America. That’s
because her best-known mysteries feature Scotland Yard detective Richard Jury
and many of her readers thought she was British. Her first novel – and also the first of 25 to
feature Jury – was 1981’s The Man With a Load of Mischief. Her
latest Jury book, The Old Success, came out in 2019.
Each of her “Jury” mysteries is
named after a pub. She didn’t intend to
have her hero do a story in the U.S., but when she saw a pub in Baltimore
called The Horse You Came In On, she couldn’t resist setting a book by
the same name in that location.
Named “Grand Master” by the Mystery
Writers of America, Grimes also has written a dozen other books, including
several set in Maryland where she grew up and where her mother ran a
hotel. Her “Emma Graham” series of
novels is set in a Maryland hotel similar to her mother’s.
“I don't think I could have just
kept writing the 'Richard Jury' books. It
wasn't that I was bored or dissatisfied. I just had to write something else,”
she said. “I just enjoy telling stories
and watching what these characters do.”
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