BLACK CAT BY MARTHA GRIMES
JUNE 2012
Awards:
Nero Wolfe Award for best mystery of the year, the Wolfe Pack, 1983, for The Anodyne Necklace.
Personal Information:
Born 1931, in Pittsburgh, PA; daughter of D.W. (an attorney) and June (a hotel owner) Grimes; divorced; children: Kent Van Holland. Education: University of Maryland, B.A., M.A. Memberships: Authors Guild, Authors League of America. Addresses: Home: Silver Spring, MD; Santa Fe, NM; and Sarasota, FL. Office: Department of English, Montgomery College, Takoma and Fenton St., Takoma Park, MD 20012. E-mail: grimesinfo@plesser.com.
Career Information:
Educator and writer. University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, former English instructor; Frostburg State College, Frostburg, MD, former assistant professor of English; Montgomery College, Takoma Park, MD, professor of English, 1970
THE BLACK CAT
When the body of a beautiful and mysterious woman is found outside The Black Cat, a Buckinghamshire pub, Superintendent Richard Jury of New Scotland Yard is immediately drawn to the case. Some people don't want Jury snooping around the area, however, including the Thames Valley police, who cannot figure out why Jury is encroaching on their jurisdiction. Soon more about the woman is revealed: She is a librarian who secretly moonlights as a call girl, and the only witness to her demise is the eponymous black cat who resides at the pub. As more call girls go missing, Jury must use his signature detective instincts to solve the case. The Black Cat is the 22nd installment in the Richard Jury mystery series by Martha Grimes
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RICHARD JURY SERIES
Grimes's idea for her first novel was sparked by a British pub name, and she has continued in many subsequent novel to use a British pub as both the title and part of the setting. In addition to bearing the name of a pub, most of Grimes's novels feature as their main characters Richard Jury, a handsome, dedicated, sensitive, and urbane Scotland Yard detective; Jury's aristocratic, agreeable, yet dilettantish assistant, Melrose Plant, whom critics have considered to be a literary descendant of Dorothy Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey; and Plant's obnoxious, snobby, interfering, American-born Aunt Agatha
The Man with a Load of Mischief, 1981.
The Old Fox Deceiv'd, 1982.
The Anodyne Necklace, 1983.
The Dirty Duck, 1984.
The Jerusalem Inn, 1984.
Help the Poor Struggler, 1985.
The Deer Leap, 1985.
I Am the Only Running Footman, 1986.
The Five Bells and Bladebone, 1987.
The Old Silent, 1989.
The Old Contemptibles, 1991.
The Horse You Came in On, 1993.
Rainbow's End, Knopf, 1995.
The Case Has Altered, 1997.
The Stargazey, 1998.
The Lamorna Wink, 1999.
The Blue Last, Viking, 2001.
The Grave Maurice, 2002.
The Winds of Change, 2004.
The Old Wine Shades, 2006.
Dust, 2007.
The Black Cat, 2010
The Washington Post
May 4th, 2012
Thirty-something years ago, Martha Grimes was a single mom with a drinking problem.
She bought vodka – Smirnoff, Stolichnaya — in half-gallon jugs. She taught English 101 at Montgomery College in Takoma Park, a job she couldn’t stand. She argued so vehemently with post office clerks about mailing rates for her manuscripts — she wanted the cheaper book rate — that her son, embarrassed, preferred to wait in the car.
She was in her late 40s. She had never published anything.
Ten days ago, the 81-year-old crime-writing doyenne accepted the Mystery Writers of America’s highest award, the Grand Master, joining legendary honorees such as Agatha Christie, John le Carre and Elmore Leonard. She has sold some 10 million copies of her books in the United States alone. Her catalogue lists 31 titles. She has been published in 17 countries. She’s big in Germany.
Mystery Writers of America Announces Martha Grimes as 2012 Grand Master
Plus Ellery Queen and Raven Awards
November 21, 2011 – New York, NY – Martha Grimes has been chosen as this year’s Grand Master by
Mystery Writers of America (MWA). MWA's Grand Master Award represents the pinnacle of achievement
in mystery writing and was established to acknowledge important contributions to this genre, as well as a
body of work that is both significant and of consistent high quality. Ms. Grimes will be presented with her
award at The Edgar Awards Banquet, which will be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City on
Thursday, April 26, 2012. When told of being named Grand Master, Grimes said, “I was, for once,
speechless. Thank you very much for making me a Grand Master.”
– New York, NY – Martha Grimes has been chosen as this year’s Grand Master by
Mystery Writers of America (MWA). MWA's Grand Master Award represents the pinnacle of achievement
in mystery writing and was established to acknowledge important contributions to this genre, as well as a
body of work that is both significant and of consistent high quality. Ms. Grimes will be presented with her
award at The Edgar Awards Banquet, which will be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City on
Thursday, April 26, 2012. When told of being named Grand Master, Grimes said, “I was, for once,
speechless. Thank you very much for making me a Grand Master.”
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