'Watching your characters in action'

 

“Writing a mystery is more difficultthan other kinds of books because a mystery has a certain framework that mustbe 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 shewas born in Pittsburgh, but that she was born in America.  That’sbecause her best-known mysteries feature Scotland Yard detective Richard Juryand many of her readers thought she was British.  Her first novel – and also the first of 25 tofeature Jury – was 1981’s The Man With a Load of Mischief.   Herlatest Jury book, The Old Success, came out in 2019.

 

Each of her “Jury” mysteries isnamed after a pub.  She didn’t intend tohave her hero do a story in the U.S., but when she saw a pub in Baltimorecalled The Horse You Came In On, she couldn’t resist setting a book bythe same name in that location.  

 

Named “Grand Master” by the MysteryWriters of America, Grimes also has written a dozen other books, includingseveral set in Maryland where she grew up and where her mother ran ahotel.  Her “Emma Graham” series ofnovels is set in a Maryland hotel similar to her mother’s. 

 

“I don't think I could have justkept writing the 'Richard Jury' books.  Itwasn't that I was bored or dissatisfied. I just had to write something else,”she said.  “I just enjoy telling storiesand watching what these characters do.”