Faith Martin is a pen name of English author Jacquie Walton,[1] [2] who is best known for her popular detective series, starring Detective Inspector (DI) Hillary Greene.[1] [3] She also writes under the pen names Maxine Barry and Joyce Cato.
Walton was born in Oxford.[2] She attended a secretarial college, and then worked as a secretary at Somerville College for six years. During this time she was supporting her parents, after they were injured in a motor vehicle accident. When they received compensation for their injuries, she was able to take leave from her job for a year, in order to write. She now lives in an Oxfordshire village.[4]
Walton began her career writing romance novels using the pen name Maxine Barry.[1] [5] [6] [7] Her first novel, Stolen Fire, set in Hawaii, was published in 1993.[5] She wrote thirteen other romance novels, which were published by the imprints Scarlet and Heartline.
Walton is best known for writing a series of detective novels under the pen name Faith Martin. They are set in Oxfordshire, with the lead character being CID DI Hillary Greene,[3] [8] who works out of Thames Valley Police headquarters in Kidlington and lives on a narrowboat.[1] Books 1 through 17 in this series have the word 'narrow' in the original title.
Whereas Inspector Morse spent his time solving the surprisingly large number of murder cases in the city of Oxford, DI Hillary Greene works in the towns and villages in the north of Oxfordshire, where there are also a large number of such cases.
The Hillary Greene books were fairly successful when they were first released. Then, in 2008, Blackstar Crime republished A Narrow Escape, which was very successful, and was followed by On the Straight and Narrow. Subsequently, Joffe Books republished the Hillary Greene "Narrow" series under new titles, which almost all contain the word 'murder'.
The following table shows the original titles and the new titles as well as newer books that did not contain the word "narrow" in the title:
| No. | First published | Original title | New title | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2004 | A Narrow Escape[9] | Murder on the Oxford Canal | |
| 2 | 2005 | On the Straight and Narrow | Murder at the University | |
| 3 | 2006 | Narrow is the Way | Murder of the Bride | |
| 4 | 2006 | By a Narrow Majority | Murder in the Village | |
| 5 | 2007 | Through a Narrow Door | Murder in the Family | |
| 6 | 2007 | With a Narrow Blade | Murder at Home | |
| 7 | 2008 | Beside a Narrow Stream | Murder in the Meadow | |
| 8 | 2008 | Down a Narrow Path | Murder in the Mansion | |
| 9 | 2009 | Across the Narrow Blue Line | Murder in the Garden | |
| 10 | 2010 | A Narrow Point of View | Murder by Fire | |
| 11 | 2011 | A Narrow Exit | Murder at Work | |
| 12 | 2012 | A Narrow Return | Murder Never Retires | |
| 13 | 2013 | A Narrow Margin of Error | Murder of a Lover | |
| 14 | 2013 | Walk a Narrow Mile | Murder Never Misses | |
| 15 | 2015 | A Narrow Victory | Murder at Midnight | |
| 16 | 2015 | The Work of a Narrow Mind | Murder in Mind | |
| 17 | 2016 | A Narrow Trajectory | Hillary's Final Case | |
| 18 | 2020 | Hillary's Back! | ||
| 19 | 2021 | Murder Now and Then | ||
| 20 | 2023 | Murder in the Parish | ||
| 21 | 2024 | Murder on the Train |
Under the pen name Joyce Cato, Walton also writes stand-alone detective novels[1] [10] and the Jenny Starling murder mysteries.[11]
Set in the city of Oxford, this series features Probationary WPC Trudy Loveday and coroner Clement Ryder.[3]