Rainbow's End; A Richard Jury Novel

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. [10], 383, [7] pages. Signed by author on half-title. Martha Grimes (born May 2, 1931) is an American writer of detective fiction. She is best known for a series featuring Richard Jury, a Scotland Yard inspector. Grimes earned her B.A. and M.A. at the University of Maryland. She has taught at the University of Iowa, Frostburg State University, and Montgomery College. Her tales fall into the mystery genre referred to as the "Literary Mystery", with the emphasis on well-written character-driven stories and less on violence. In 1983, Grimes received the Nero Wolfe Award for best mystery of the year for The Anodyne Necklace. In 2012 Grimes was named Grand Master by The Edgar Awards Mystery Writers of America. Grimes became known for her series of novels featuring Richard Jury, an inspector with Scotland Yard. Each of the Jury mysteries is named after a pub. Her Emma Graham quartet of novels beginning with Hotel Paradise is set in an atmospheric aging lake resort in western Maryland, and delves into mysteries of past secrets and human nature. The Andi Oliver set of two novels centers on a young drifter with amnesia, making her way in the northern U.S. midwest armed with a strong sense of right and wrong, and a great compassion. Derived from a Kirkus review: The first victim, American silversmith Angela Hope, is found at the bottom of a latrine at Salisbury's Old Sarum ruins. The second, Frances Hamilton, collapses at the Tate Gallery. And the third, Nell Hawes, dies during a visit to the tapestries she'd helped work on at Exeter Cathedral. All are apparently natural deaths -- but the common thread of Angela Hope's Santa Fe, New Mexico, address makes it obvious to Supt. Richard Jury that they're all murders. After the punishing pace of the opening movement, Jury's journey from Salisbury to Santa Fe -- where he'll meet a Hollywood agent, the standard run of New Age dreamers and retailers, and an altogether remarkable 13-year-old girl who's the best thing in the book. The mystery plot shimmers. Grimes seems a successor to Dorothy Sayers.