Faith Martin

Faith Martin is a pen name of English author Jacquie Walton,^[1][2][3] who is best known for her popular detective series, starring Detective Inspector (DI) Hillary Greene.^[2][4] She also writes under the pen names Maxine Barry and Joyce Cato. She is one of the most-read authors of the decade on Kindle Unlimited in the UK.^[5]

Life

Walton was born in Oxford.^[3][6] She attended a secretarial college,^[7] and then worked as a secretary at Somerville College for six years.^[7] During this time she was supporting her parents, after they were injured in a motor vehicle accident.^[7] When they received compensation for their injuries, she was able to take leave from her job for a year, in order to write.^[7] She now lives in an Oxfordshire village.^[8]

Writing

Maxine Barry romances

Walton began her career writing romance novels using the pen name Maxine Barry.^{[1][2][9][10][11]} Her first novel, Stolen Fire, set in Hawaii, was published in 1993.^[7][9] She wrote thirteen other romance novels, which were published by the imprints Scarlet and Heartline.^[7]

Faith Martin: DI Hillary Greene Series

Walton is best known^{[by whom?]} 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,^[4][12] who works out of Thames Valley Police headquarters in Kidlington and lives on a narrowboat.^[2] Books 1 through 17 in this series have the word 'narrow' in the original title.

Whereas Inspector Morse spent his time solving the surprisingly^{[clarification needed]} 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.^{[clarification needed]}

The Hillary Greene books were fairly^{[clarification needed]} successful when they were first released. Then, in 2008, Blackstar Crime republished A Narrow Escape, which was very successful,^{[peacock prose]} 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'.^[13]

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[7]	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

Joyce Cato: non-series and Jenny Starling series

Under the pen name Joyce Cato, Walton also writes standalone detective novels^[2][6] and the Jenny Starling murder mysteries.^[1]

Ryder and Loveday series

Set in the city of Oxford, this series features Probationary WPC Trudy Loveday and coroner Clement Ryder.^[4]