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"There's nobody better."
"Every Margaret Maron is a celebration of something remarkable."
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Media & Selected Reviews for Margaret Maron
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Agent:
Publicist at Hachette/Grand Central (formerly Warner Book Group):
Overview:
Three-Day Town is Margaret Maron's 17th title to feature series character, Judge Deborah Knott, a district court judge in "Colleton County," North Carolina. Deborah is in her late 30s, the youngest child and only daughter of an elderly ex-bootlegger who also has 11 sons. As a district court judge, she ranges all over the state and her cases are set in such interesting places as Harkers Island down on the coast (Shooting at Loons), among the potters in central NC (Uncommon Clay), at the High Point furniture market (Killer Market), and in the Blue Ridge Mountains (High Country Fall). Sand Sharks takes place in Wrightsville Beach and adjacent Wilmington where Deborah attends the summer conference of the North Carolina district judges, where one less-than-honorable judge is found in the Cape Fear River.
Maron's first series was set against the New York art world with Lt. Sigrid Harald, NYPD as the main protagonist. Three-Day Town takes Deborah to NYC where the two women meet for the first time.
Maron says, "The mystery novel is the peg upon which I hang my love and concerns for North Carolina as the state transitions from agriculture to high tech, from a largely rural countryside to one increasingly under assault by housing developments and chain stores" and her books have looked at problems of race, migrant labor, politics, and unstructured growth.
Biography:
A native Tar Heel, she still lives on her family's century farm a few miles southeast of Raleigh, the setting for Bootlegger's Daughter, which is numbered among the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century as selected by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. In 2004, she received the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for best North Carolina novel of the year. In 2008, she was honored with the North Carolina Award for Literature. (The North Carolina Award is the state’s highest civilian honor.)
For more info, please see the longer bio below.
Selected Reviews:
About Margaret Maron
Born and bred in North Carolina where the piedmont meets the sandhills, I grew up on a modest two-mule tobacco farm that has been in the family for over a hundred years. Tobacco is no longer grown on the farm, but the memories linger — the singing, the laughter, the gossip that went on at the bench as those rank green leaves came from the field, the bliss of an icy cold drink bottle pressed to a hot sweaty face, getting up at dawn to help “take out” a barn, the sweet smell of soft golden leaves as they’re being readied for auction. Working in tobacco is one of those life experiences I’m glad to have had. I’m even gladder that it’s something I’ll never have to do again.
After high school came two years of college until a summer job at the Pentagon led to marriage, a tour of duty in Italy, then several years in my husband’s native Brooklyn. I had always loved writing and for the first few years, wrote nothing but short stories and very bad poetry. (The legendary Ruth Cavin of St. Martin’s Press once characterized my verses as “doggerel. But inspired doggerel.”)
Eventually, I backed into writing novels about NYPD Lt. Sigrid Harald, mysteries set against the New York City art world. But love of my native state and a desire to write out of current experiences led to the creation of District Court Judge Deborah Knott, the opinionated daughter of a crusty old ex-bootlegger and youngest sibling of eleven older brothers. (I was one of only three, so no, I’m not writing about my own family.)
We’ve been back on a corner of the family land for many years now. My city-born husband discovered he prefers goldfinches, rabbits, and the occasional quiet deer to yellow cabs, concrete, and a city that never sleeps. A son, a daughter-in-law, and two granddaughters are icing on our cake.
SELECTED OFFICES AND HONORS
Margaret loves to hear from her readers. Join her on Facebook or, if you'd like, you may send her an email message at:
MargaretMaron@nc.rr.com
Ordering signed books
Margaret Maron's books are available in bookstores, or they may be ordered online from most mystery bookstores, Barnes & Noble.com, or Amazon.com.
For signed and/or personalized books, email Margaret's local bookstore, Quail Ridge Books, in Raleigh, NC. Give them an email address or daytime phone number where you may be reached, and they will get back to you with rates. There is no extra charge for a signature or inscription. Just tell the clerk.
Audiocassette versions of several of the Deborah Knott books are available from RecordedBooks.com. Recorded Books has voiced all the Deborah Knott books.
Details on downloading books to your electronic reading device are still being worked out and will be posted when complete.
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© 2008 Margaret Maron
