It's been more than three years since Martha Grimes dazzled critics with the New York Times bestselling mystery DUST. Now Scotland Yard Chief Superintendent Richard Jury is back in THE BLACK CAT (Viking Publishing, April 6, 2010; $25.95, 336 pp)
"Both [THE OLD WINE SHADES and DUST] are delightful, surprising, even magical ... witty novels that Grimes concocts. They truly are novel and, once come upon, they can become necessary."
Fortunately for her readers, Martha Grimes has a hard time letting go. “Everything seems to turn into a series with me even when I don’t mean it to,” said Grimes, a Capitol Hill resident who is best known for the 22 mystery novels she has written about Richard Jury, a Scotland Yard detective.
WASHINGTON - "I was fired from Knopf!" said the mystery writer Martha Grimes. "Sonny didn't want the next Jury book," she said, speaking of Sonny Mehta, editor in chief of Alfred A. Knopf, and Ms. Grimes's 18-book series about an urbane British detective, Richard Jury, all named after English pubs, like "The Blue Last" and "The Grave Maurice."
She’s written 30 novels and sold 5 million books worldwide. But few Washingtonians recognize Martha Grimes. And that’s okay with her.