Foul Matter Books in Order

The Foul Matter books let Martha Grimes turn her eye on the New York publishing world and ask what would happen if its worst impulses were carried to a comic extreme. Instead of country houses and cozy inns, the action plays out in offices, restaurants, and hotel bars full of editors, agents, and writers watching their careers rise or fall.

In Foul Matter, a hot suspense novelist named Paul Giverney agrees to sign with a large house only if it finds a way to drop a quieter, critically praised author who is taking up marketing attention. The publisher’s ambitious executives decide that canceling a contract is too hard and quietly hire two hitmen, Candy and Karl, to remove the problem altogether. What they do not count on is that the hired killers like books, have quirks of conscience, and decide to get to know their target before anyone gets hurt.

The sequel, The Way of All Fish, brings Candy and Karl back when a blocked novelist, Cindy Sella, is sued by her fired agent, L. Bass Hess, who wants a cut of money he never earned. Instead of killing Hess, the pair cook up an elaborate plan with a shifting crew of allies, including editors, a publishing magnate, a Vegas magician, and an alligator wrangler, to pry him away from Cindy’s life by driving him slowly, safely around the bend.

Both books are capers more than whodunits. The pleasure lies in listening to people in the trade argue about advances, publicity, and taste while mayhem threatens offstage. Grimes uses her long experience as a working novelist to fill out the small moments, from contract meetings to book parties, and lets the criminals be some of the more decent people in the room.

Readers do not need to know anything about publishing to enjoy the ride, but starting with Foul Matter makes it easier to appreciate the running jokes and returning characters when they resurface in The Way of All Fish.