Martha Grimes is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 of detective fiction

Detective fiction

Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...

.

She was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...

, to William Dermit Grimes, Pittsburgh's city solicitor, and to June Dunnington, who owned the Mountain Lake Hotel in Western Maryland

Western Maryland

Western Maryland is the portion of the U.S. state of Maryland that consists of Frederick, Washington, Allegany, and Garrett counties. The region is bounded by the Mason-Dixon line to the north, Preston County, West Virginia to the west, and the Potomac River to the south. There is dispute over the...

 where Martha and her brother spent much of their childhood. Grimes earned her B.A. and M.A. at the University of Maryland

University of Maryland, College Park

The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...

. She has taught at the University of Iowa

University of Iowa

The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...

, Frostburg State University

Frostburg State University

Frostburg State University is a four-year university located on a campus in Frostburg, Maryland, in Western Maryland, and is part of the University System of Maryland. FSU is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.-History:...

, and Montgomery College

Montgomery College

Montgomery College is a public, open access community college located in Montgomery County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C. in the United States. The college has three campuses, the largest of which is in Rockville; the other campuses are in Takoma Park/Silver Spring and Germantown...

.

Grimes is best known for her series of novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

s featuring Richard Jury

Richard Jury

Richard Jury is a fictional Scotland Yard detective who stars in a series of mystery novels written by Martha Grimes.Initially a chief inspector, later a superintendent, Jury is invariably assisted in his cases by Melrose Plant, a British aristocrat who has given up his titles, and his...

, an inspector with Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...

, and his friend Melrose Plant

Melrose Plant

Melrose Plant is a fictional character in Martha Grimes' series of Richard Jury mystery novels. Superintendent Richard Jury is a Scotland Yard detective who frequently calls on Plant to assist him, unofficially, in his cases....

, a British aristocrat

Aristocracy

Aristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...

 who has given up his titles. Each of the Jury mysteries is named after a pub

Public house

A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

. Her page-turning, character-driven tales fall into the mystery subdivision of "cozies." In 1983, Grimes received the Nero Wolfe 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

Mountain Lake Park, Maryland

Mountain Lake Park is a town in Garrett County, Maryland, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the town population was 2,248.-History:Mountain Lake Park Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983...

. One of the characters, Mr Britten, is drawn on Britten Leo Martin, Sr, who then ran Martin's Store which he owned with his father and brother. Martin's Store is accessible by a short walkway from the Mountain Lake Hotel, the site of the former Hotel, which was torn down in 1967.

She splits her time between homes in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, and Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...

.

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)
• Jerusalem Inn (Boston: Little, Brown, 1984)
• Help the Poor Struggler (Boston: Little, Brown, 1985)
• The 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)
• The Black Cat (New York: Viking Penguin, 2010)

Andi Olivier series

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

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

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

Emma Graham series

• Hotel Paradise (Knopf, 1996)
• Cold Flat Junction (2000)
• Belle Ruin (2005)
• Fadeaway Girl (2011)

Novels, Short Stories & Poetry

• Send Bygraves (Putnam, 1990)
• The Train Now Departing (New York: Viking, 2001)
• Foul Matter (New York: Viking Penguin, 2003)

External links

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