Martha Grimes based Hotel Paradise, published in 1996, on the Mountain Lake Park Hotel, where she spent every summer while her mother June owned and operated it. Born in Pittsburgh, where her father was the city solicitor, Grimes drew on her own childhood there, especially memories of her mother’s cooking and her brother’s theatrical productions in the large garage behind the hotel. The book’s lead character, 12-year-old Emma Graham, represents Grimes herself at that age, and Emma’s story continues in Cold Flat Junction, Belle Ruin, and Fadeaway Girl, all set in fictionalized versions of Mountain Lake Park, Oakland, and the surrounding area. In the series, Mountain Lake Park becomes Sprit Lake, Oakland becomes La Porte, and The Republican becomes The Conservative, while the character Mr. Britten was drawn from Britten Leo Martin Sr., who operated Martin’s Store near the hotel. The Mountain Lake Park Hotel was built in 1882, doubled its capacity from 1890 to 1900, closed around 1960, and was razed in 1967. Grimes is best known for her Richard Jury series, which includes most of her novels and features a Scotland Yard detective, his friend Melrose Plant, and Plant’s American Aunt Agatha. She received the Nero Wolfe Award for best mystery of the year in 1983 for The Anodyne Necklace, and many of her books have appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers List. After earning bachelor and master degrees from the University of Maryland at College Park, she taught English at the University of Iowa, Frostburg State College, and Montgomery College in Tacoma Park, Maryland. Inspired by her poem “Send Bygraves” to turn from poetry to mystery fiction, she published her first novel, The Man with a Load of Mischief, in 1981. She later divided her time between the Washington, D.C., area and Santa Fe, New Mexico, and supported animal rights, at times donating up to 2/3 of her royalties to anti-animal abuse organizations.