It’s the birthday of best-selling mystery author Martha Grimes (b. 1931), known for putting the blood and sex into traditional British mysteries featuring “quaint villages with quirky murders and an urbane detective…” (Neely Tucker, “Martha Grimes named ‘Grand Master’ of mystery writers,” Washington Post, May 4, 2012). Her most famous series stars Richard Jury of Scotland Yard. But Grimes wasn’t published until she was 50 and wasn’t a best-seller until 56, and didn’t make serious money until 60.

Grimes was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but spent a lot of her childhood at the Mountain Lake Park Hotel in western Maryland where her mother was a part owner. Her father died when she was six and her mother moved them to the hotel, which eventually failed. Grimes got degrees from the University of Maryland and studied poetry at the University of Iowa’s writing program and then got married, had a son, and got divorced. After that her life was a struggle to raise her child alone while drinking too much vodka and working a job she despised: teaching English at a community college. (I taught ESL at a community college, and I’m not ashamed to say I had a few too many sodas in those days. *With* caffeine.)

Then in 1977, Grimes was inspired to write a mystery based on the name of an English pub she ran across in a book about pubs. She sent out her manuscript, The Man with a Load of Mischief, for four years with no agent before it was finally published in 1981. She’s now published a total of 24 Richard Jury mysteries, the latest of which is The Knowledge (April 3, 2018—hot off the press!). She’s written other mysteries and novels as well, including Foul Matter (2003), a devastating spoof of the cutthroat world of publishing, featuring evil authors, evil editors, and a couple of fairly literary hit men.

Grimes got help for her drinking problem, never remarried, and has sold more than 10 million books. She gets an advance of about one million dollars for every three Jury books.

Have a sober and splendid Wednesday and stay scrupulously honest to the data.