O'Brien, Martin

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O'Brien, Martin

PERSONAL: Son of a naval officer and a headmistress; married; children: two daughters. Education: Attended Hertford College, Oxford.

ADDRESSES: Home—England. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Publicity Department, St. Martin's Press, 175 5th Ave., New York, NY 10010.

CAREER: During early career, worked as a copy sub-editor; became travel editor for Vogue (magazine); travel and lifestyle writer for periodicals in the United States; screenplay writer and founder of a film production company.

WRITINGS:

All the Girls (travel), St. Martin's Press/Marek (New York, NY), 1982.

Jacquot and the Waterman (mystery novel), Headline Book Publishing (London, England), 2005, Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Minotaur (New York, NY), 2006.

Also author of screenplays.

SIDELIGHTS: Martin O'Brien began his career as a travel and lifestyle journalist, but he has more recently quit journalism to pursue writing mystery novels. His first book, All the Girls, is actually a quirky travel book about how O'Brien traveled the world and reported on various brothels. Over twenty years later, however, he went in an entirely different direction to complete his first mystery in a planned series, Jacquot and the Waterman. The main character is Chief Inspector Daniel Jacquot, a Marseilles police officer whose anguish over his recent breakup with his girlfriend, Boni, is now compounded by a disturbing case. A murderer known as the Waterman is drugging, raping, and drowning young women. The sensational case is making headlines in all the papers, and politicians are pressuring Jacquot's boss, who, in turn, puts the pressure on Jacquot to solve the case quickly.

Reviewers of Jacquot and the Waterman found much to praise in this police procedural, though some felt the ending is a bit flawed. Writing in Booklist, for example, Bill Ott reported that the novel has a "distinctly unsatisfying ending—almost as if O'Brien grew weary of the plot and decided to stop." A Publishers Weekly contributor similarly felt that the "biggest letdown" is "the identity of the Waterman," though as a whole the critic called the novel "an impressive debut." In her Best Reviews assessment, Harriet Klausner asserted that Jacquot and the Waterman "is a terrific French procedural starring a wonderful protagonist," while a Kirkus Reviews critic praised the "first-rate series hero."