Picture of author.

Margaret Maron (1938–2021)

Author of Bootlegger's Daughter

58+ Works 11,453 Members 440 Reviews 35 Favorited

About the Author

Margaret Maron grew up in rural North Carolina. She attended college for two years before a summer job at the Pentagon led to marriage, a tour of duty in Italy, than several years in Brooklyn, New York before moving back to North Carolina. She is the author of the Sigrid Harald Mystery series, the show more Deborah Knott Mystery series, Bloody Kin, and Last Lessons of Summer. Bootlegger's Daughter won the Edgar, Agatha, Anthony and Macavity Awards for Best Mystery in 1992. "Up Jumps the Devil" won the 1996 "Best Novel" Agatha award. "High Country Fall" was nominated for an Agatha Award in 2004 and also picked up a Macavity nomination the following year. "Three-Day Town" won the 2011 Agatha Award for "Best Novel". "Long Upon the Land" won the Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel of 2015.Margaret is a founding member and past president of sisters in Crime and of the American Crime Writer's League; She is a director on the national board for Mystery Writers of America. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Includes the names: Margaret Maron, Margaret Maron

Image credit: Courtesy Margaret Maron

Series

Works by Margaret Maron

Bootlegger's Daughter (1992) 1,037 copies
Southern Discomfort (1993) 563 copies
Shooting at Loons (1994) 530 copies
Winter's Child (2006) 503 copies
Up Jumps the Devil (1996) 482 copies
Rituals of the Season (2005) 480 copies
High Country Fall (2004) 468 copies
Hard Row (2007) 466 copies
Uncommon Clay (2001) 457 copies
Killer Market (1997) 447 copies
Slow Dollar (2001) 440 copies
Death's Half Acre (2008) 435 copies
Storm Track (2000) 433 copies
Home Fires (1998) 406 copies
Sand Sharks (2009) 383 copies
Last Lessons of Summer (2004) 352 copies
Christmas Mourning (2010) 334 copies
Three-Day Town (2011) 319 copies
The Buzzard Table (2012) 292 copies
Fugitive Colors (1995) 266 copies
Long Upon the Land (2015) 244 copies
Designated Daughters (2014) 243 copies
Corpus Christmas (1989) 226 copies
The Right Jack (1987) 200 copies
Bloody Kin (1985) 179 copies
Baby Doll Games (1988) 163 copies
Death of a Butterfly (1984) 149 copies
Take Out (2017) 140 copies
Death in Blue Folders (1985) 136 copies
Past Imperfect (1991) 114 copies
Suitable for Hanging (2004) 43 copies
Deborah's Judgment (2012) 15 copies
Bewreathed (2012) 10 copies
With This Ring (2012) 9 copies
Growth Marks (2013) 3 copies
No title 1 copy
Christmas Mourning (1600) 1 copy
Io Saturnalia! (2007) 1 copy

Associated Works

The Clue in the Diary (1932) — Introduction, some editions — 2,804 copies
Three at Wolfe's Door (1960) — Introduction, some editions — 642 copies
A Study in Sherlock: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon (2011) — Contributor — 535 copies
The Family Vault (1979) — Introduction, some editions — 532 copies
Crimes by Moonlight: Mysteries from the Dark Side (2010) — Contributor — 323 copies
Tales of Terror (1986) — Contributor — 314 copies
A Woman's Eye (1991) — Contributor — 272 copies
Christmas Stalkings (1991) — Contributor — 198 copies
Hard-Boiled: An Anthology of American Crime Stories (1995) — Contributor — 183 copies
The Best American Mystery Stories 1998 (1998) — Contributor — 177 copies
Mystery Cats: Feline Felonies (1991) — Contributor — 131 copies
Cat Crimes II (1992) — Contributor — 119 copies
Sisters in Crime 2 (1990) — Contributor — 100 copies
The Best of Sisters in Crime (1997) — Contributor — 92 copies
Return to the Twilight Zone (1994) — Contributor — 65 copies
Mom, Apple Pie and Murder (2000) — Contributor — 60 copies
A Modern Treasury of Great Detective and Murder Mysteries (1994) — Contributor — 57 copies
Deadly Anniversaries (2020) — Contributor — 53 copies
Malice Domestic 10 (2001) — Contributor — 33 copies
Irreconcilable Differences (1999) — Contributor — 33 copies
Love and Death (2000) — Contributor — 31 copies
Murder, They Wrote II (1998) — Contributor — 30 copies
Very Merry Mysteries (3-in-1) (1999) — Contributor — 26 copies
Vengeance Is Hers (1997) — Contributor — 26 copies
Women of Mystery - Book 3 (1998) 24 copies
Partners in Crime (1994) — Contributor — 24 copies
Women Before the Bench (2001) — Contributor — 24 copies
Writes of Passage: Adventures on the Writer's Journey (2014) — Contributor — 17 copies
Alfred Hitchcock's Tales to Make Your Hair Stand on End (1981) — Contributor — 11 copies
Murder Under the Oaks: Bouchercon 2015 Anthology (2015) — Contributor — 10 copies
Crimes of Passion: Twenty-Three Tales of Love and Hate (1993) — Contributor — 8 copies
27 Views of Raleigh: The City of Oaks in Prose & Poetry (2013) — Contributor — 7 copies
First Cases [Unabridged Audiobook] (2002) — Contributor — 3 copies
Detecting Women: New American Short Stories (1998) — Contributor — 1 copy

Tagged

American (54) American South (63) anthology (342) children's (55) Christmas (65) cozy (49) cozy mystery (50) crime (154) crime fiction (121) Deborah Knott (482) Deborah Knott series (66) detective (79) ebook (102) fiction (1,520) judge (87) Judges (87) Kindle (59) library (44) margaret maron (96) murder (66) mysteries (74) mystery (3,749) Nancy Drew (257) NC (49) Nero Wolfe (94) New York (63) New York City (42) North Carolina (563) novel (49) own (74) police procedural (60) read (236) series (219) Sherlock Holmes (62) short stories (428) Sigrid Harald (142) southern (60) to-read (570) unread (70) young adult (45)

Common Knowledge

Other names
Brown, Margaret Elizabeth (birth name)
Birthdate
1938-08-28
Date of death
2021-02-23
Gender
female
Nationality
USA (birth)
Birthplace
Greensboro, North Carolina, USA
Place of death
Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Cause of death
stroke-related illness
Places of residence
Johnston County, North Carolina, USA
Italy
Brooklyn, New York, USA
Pleasant Grove Township, North Carolina, USA
Education
Cleveland High School
Occupations
short-story writer
novelist
secretary
Organizations
Mystery Writers of America
American Crime Writers League
Sisters in Crime
Awards and honors
Mystery Writers of America Grand Master
Short biography
Margaret Maron (née Brown; August 25, 1938 – February 23, 2021) was an American writer, the author of award-winning mystery novels.

Members

Discussions

R.I.P. Margaret Maron in Crime, Thriller & Mystery (March 2021)

Reviews

An excellent murder mystery, even though the first corpse doesn’t show up until about page 120 or so.
After that. Lost time is made up for and there is a respectable count by the end of the book. The slices of southern small town life are enjoyable, though the author’s fixation on what her protagonist and every other woman in the book weighs and how they look in their clothes is a bit off putting.plot nice and taut though, characters developed enough and everything falls into place easily .
Warning for those who find sexual violence and or child abuse upsetting…the contents are hard to take
… (more)
 
Flagged
cspiwak | 25 other reviews | Mar 6, 2024 |
I almost put this one away, several times. The judge isn't really the judge; she just builds houses as a charity and gets followed by bad guys. It seemed to me like Opie, Goober and Gomer were alive and well, not to mention the Asian yard man who devours dogs. Where's the mystery? I don't think that I will bother with the rest of this series.
 
Flagged
buffalogr | 25 other reviews | Mar 6, 2024 |
Another installment of the Judge Deborah Knott series. I really enjoy spending time with her and her North Carolina family. We almost never see her in Court...but there's lots of local color, family drama and whodunit excitement. In this one, there's a monster hurricane coming in, and several local men are on the suspect list when a run-around wife turns up dead in a motel room. It's bubble gum, but it won't rot your teeth or your brain.
Reviewed in 2014
 
Flagged
laytonwoman3rd | 14 other reviews | Jan 15, 2024 |
After beautiful young cheerleader dies in a car crash that was not an accident, Judge Deborah Knott and sheriff's deputy Dwight Bryant must uncover what really happened before more death further clouds the Christmas season in North Carolina's Colleton County.

Deborah informally gathers information from friends and family about circumstances surrounding the cheerleader’s death while her husband does a formal investigation. There’s a small town feel to the story. There’s a good mix of warm Christmas moments with Deborah’s big extended family. The ending is a bit implausible but it was still an easy story to read.… (more)
½
 
Flagged
gaylebutz | 14 other reviews | Nov 24, 2023 |

Lists

Awards

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Statistics

Works
58
Also by
52
Members
11,453
Popularity
#2,052
Rating
½ 3.7
Reviews
440
ISBNs
386
Languages
4
Favorited
35

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