Martha Grimes

Western Maryland

By John Harrington

I. Biography

Martha Grimes wrote a book called Hotel Paradise.  Hotel Paradise is like the story of her 12-year old life.  Martha was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where her father was the city solicitor; Martha Grimes spent every summer at her mother's hotel in Western Maryland.  Some of her favorite memories are her mother's cooking and her brother's play production in the garage behind the hotel where she was rarely admitted.

Grimes now spends her time in Washington, D.C. and Sante Fe, New Mexico, with many trips on the side to England.

It was her first poem in Send Bygraves that inspired her to start writing mystery novels instead of poetry.  Grimes sent the novel "over the transom " to several publishers.  In 1979, an editor at Little Brown Inc. found the book where unsolicited manuscripts are put for the editorial assistants to read and offered to publish The Man with a Load of Mischief.  A first print of 3,000 copies, The Man with a Load of Mischief was published in 1981, and from there Grimes has published a book every year, sometimes even twice year, for the last sixteen years.

By the time she got her fourth and fifth books Grimes received major review attention that not only showed her ability as an American to write authentic British mysteries but also to combine the concept of the British form with the tone and atmosphere of the American.  Help the Poor Struggler is an American novel.  In 1987, the five bells and bladebone was her "breakthrough" book, getting on the New York bestseller list.  Grimes' two books after that The Old Silent and The Old Contemptibles , also got on the New York bestsellers list.

In 1992, with the release of The End of the Pier, Grimes departed from her 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 outside of mystery fiction.  The End of the Pier is two books in one.  The second book in the series, Hotel Paradise, was published four years later and was praised by the critics.  "It's a place unlike the novel itself: outside of time, almost unbelievable, utterly engaging."   "Meandering and atmospheric, the novel reads with the ease of a daydream … the author proves herself as a writer of delicate sensibility whose work is notable for its delightful quirky details, insightful perceptions into human relationships and graceful prose."

In 1993, with the release of The Horse You Came in On, Martha brought Richard Jury and Melrose Place 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 21, 1993 as "Martha Grimes Day"). Grimes brought Richard Jury over again in Rainbow's End to investigate a mystery that leads him to Sante Fe, New Mexico.

Grimes  is looking forward to the publication in1998 of a new series of contemporary novels focused on animal welfare. Most of the author royalties for this series will go to animal charities that she supported for years.

Grimes has one son, a public relations executive in New York City. Her brother William Grimes owns and operates an antique store, Briars Antiques, in Olney, Maryland and is active in regional theatre in suburban Maryland.  She is the owner of one black cat named "Blackie" and attributes this highly original name to her being a writer.

II.  Sources

The mysterious Home Page = A guide to mysteries and crime fiction on the Internet

• Clulass Home Page = mystery lover's notebook
• MysteryNet.com = the online mystery Network
• A&E Mysteries = the internet extension of the cable T.V. network
• The Zero = the official internet home of Andrew Vachss
• Mysteries from the Yard = the internet resource
• American Crime Writers league

This essay was submitted by a student of Joe Taylor, a teacher at Perryville High School in Maryland.