I think you’ll find this a rather strange suggestion when I introduce you to Martha Grimes but, perhaps even more so, when I tell you who introduced her to me. So, to begin with the latter part of that, I’ve already said in a post or two how much I like John Sandford and his detective character, Lucas Davenport. I’ve read all thirty-two books which Kindle has published in the series and I was very disappointed when I reached the last one. I think he is a really well-imagined detective and, for me, Sandford manages not just to get Lucas right but also to manage that with the other recurring characters and the plots. All in all, these books and Lucas himself are very much among my favourites. So, where does Martha Grimes fit into this?
Strangely, I came across her for the first time when I was reading a John Sandford book and he mentioned that Lucas was passing some time in a bookshop where he picked up a Martha Grimes book. I thought to myself ‘I wonder what Martha Grimes’s books are like’ and ‘if Lucas Davenport likes her, she must be good’! Of course, that means that I am now taking recommendations from fictitious characters!
So, I thought I would do some searching and find out a bit more about her and I was very surprised to find that she is a ninety-one year old American writer of detective fiction who, among other things has authored at least twenty-five books about an English detective called Richard Jury. That’s really why I suggested that you might be surprised that I’m recommending her as she doesn’t look, on the face of it, that she fits very well with many of the other authors I’ve recommended to you. However, I was curious about her and I searched further to find out what her first book in the series was and found it surprisingly difficult. I’m now on my sixth book and I think I have the order of publication but the first one I read was a more recent one because I just couldn’t locate the first one! It didn’t matter too much, though, as the one I read introduced me to the series and its characters, the principal ones being Jury himself and Melrose Plant, described by Wikipedia as an aristocrat turned amateur sleuth who assist Jury in his cases. I have to say I liked Plant quite a lot and I thought Jury was a pretty interesting character as well. Difficult to tell how old they are, not least because a lot of characters don’t seem to age as quickly as us but I would place them both at around forty and both are single.
The books are fine and worth reading in my view but, having read five and moved on to the sixth, I must admit that I have begun to get a little tired of them and I’m taking a break in the middle of the sixth. Not a great recommendation, I think, but perhaps an indication that Lucas Davenport’s taste may not be identical to my own. The characters are fine and recurring so you get to know them and the plots are interesting enough, if a little formulaic, as is so often the case in detective fiction. However, what really intrigues and impresses me is that a ninety-one year old American woman has managed to write twenty-five books over a forty year period about an English detective which are all set in England. Her knowledge of the locale in which the books are set is impressive but there is no indication of how she acquired it and her ‘English’ style although she must have spent time in England and carried out an enormous amount of research.
Quirkily, the titles of her Jury books are all the names of pubs and, if you’re going to give her a try (and I would recommend that you do despite my enthusiasm waning a little), I would suggest you try the first one which is titled ‘The Man with a Load of Mischief’ (yes, it’s the name of a pub!). I enjoyed it and it’s a good introduction to the characters. One thing I would say is that I got all of mine on the Kindle and I don’t know how readily available they will be in bookshops. At the same time, yhough, my recollection is that they’re pretty cheap to buy through Amazon.
As a final thought, I’m a bit surprised that Lucas Davenport likes her as her books are not especially violent and, if you’ve tried the Davenport series you’ll know that it is quite the opposite!