ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Wednesday, September 18, 2002
Grimes says she's never bored with her famous sleuth
This story was published in Everyday Magazine on Wednesday, September 18,
2002.
By Christian C. Rix
Special To The Post Dispatch
At the end of her 16th mystery novel featuring the exploits of
Superintendent Richard Jury, Martha Grimes left her hero full of lead and
her fans worried that she was ending the series with a grim fate for her
intrepid sleuth. But now Jury is back in a 17th novel released last month,
"The Grave Maurice."
In a Post-Dispatch interview, Grimes remarked on the angst among Jury fans:
"Readers have become concerned that I was stopping the series at the end of
the last book, 'The Blue Last,' in which Jury is lying there with 3 gunshot
wounds. So the answer to the question 'Was I killing him off?' or 'Am I
bored?' the answer is definitely no. I have never been bored with the
characters. I very often get bored with the writing, but the characters,
never."
As with so many famous detectives, Jury is based in England. Though a
Maryland native, Grimes found it quite natural to develop a mystery series
set in Britain. The stories "are set there simply because I've been to
England, and when I started writing the series, I almost automatically set
it in England because I always liked to read British mysteries. It was later
pointed out to me that I certainly had my nerve doing this. It didn't strike
me at all as an odd thing to do."
But not everything is simple even for a famous mystery writer. Grimes
recounts with humor her "run in" with Scotland Yard.
"After two or three books, I naively wrote to Scotland Yard because I wanted
to see the inside.
"The person who wrote back said, 'Unlike the FBI, Scotland Yard does not
give tours,' and I thought, 'You don't have to be that snippy about it.'
(The note) went on to say, 'Why don't you set your mysteries in America
where you know something about your local police department?' (It had) a
sort of 'How dare you?' attitude."
Editors can also be the natural enemies of writers, and even successful
authors have gripes. In the introduction to "The Grave Maurice" a horse is
said to finish with a lead of 17 furlongs - unlikely given that a typical
thoroughbred course is 12 furlongs (1.5 miles) or less. This one got by the
copy editors.
Grimes is committed to the cause of humane treatment of animals, and this
plays a part in "The Grave Maurice" as a Premarin farm is central to the
plot. Do Jury fans have to worry about the continuation of the series?
Grimes observes that her forays into books not in the mystery genre tend to
worry Jury fans.
"I have written about five other books (on different subjects). It is
writing these other books that really makes readers anxious that I must be
thinking of (ending the series). E-mails start, 'Well, I can understand that
you might be bored.' If I were bored I would stop."
