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Publication Order of Sigrid Harald Books
Publication Order of Judge Deborah Knott Books
Publication Order of Deborah Knott Short Stories Books
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
Publication Order of Short Story Collections
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Margaret Maron was an award winning American author who writes mystery novels. Margaret passed away in February 2021. She is famous for writing the mystery series’ The Sigrid Harald Series and The Deborah Knott Series. Margaret has also written a few nonfiction books. She was born and brought up in North Carolina. Her family used to have a tobacco farm that has been in their family for many generations probably for over 100 years. Although tobacco was no longer grown on the farm, Margaret used to play in the fields as a kid often singing, dancing and gossiping. She still remembers her lifetime experience of playing around the tobacco fields. After graduating from college, Margaret did a summer job at the Pentagon and got married to Joe Maron. She has changed a couple of locations, first she stayed in Italy for several years on the tour of duty and then in Brooklyn, her husband’s native place. Margaret was very fond of writing. She used to write short stories at the beginning and several poetry. She herself describes her poetry to be pretty bad. Slowly and steadily, Margaret found her actual topic of interest and that was mystery genre, on which she wrote a number articles.
Margaret began her writing career with the novels on the NYPD Lt. Sigrid Harald. The novels were set in the art world of the New York City. Living in New York let her experience the vibrant and ever-changing ambiance of the city. She started writing another novel series based on the life of District judge Deborah Knott in The Judge Deborah Knott series, after moving back to North Carolina. Margaret has seen a pretty satisfied career as a writer and still enjoys writing on a few occasions. She lives in North Carolina along with her husband. Her son and daughter-in-law also live with her along with her granddaughters on their ancestral farmland. The novels written by her are very successful and have been translated into a number of regional languages. The contemporary Southern literature contains many of Margaret Maron’s writings listed in the courses. Various awarding bodies have awarded Margaret with prestigious awards for her sincere work in literature. She first got recognition with the novel Corpus Christmas which got nominated for the Agatha Award in 1989 and the Anthony Award in 1990 in the Best Novel category. Margaret’s first short story to win an award was Deborah’s Judgement. It got critical acclaim and won the Agatha Award in 1991, also getting nominated for the Macavity and Anthony Awards in the Best Short-story category in the following year.
The novel Bootlegger’s Daughter won the Edgar Award, the Anthony Award, the Agatha award and the Macvity Award. Her short story ‘That Married Dear Old Dad’ and the novel Southern Discomfort were nominated in respective categories in the year 1993. Southern Discomfort was once again nominated in 1994 for the Anthony Award. Several other awards followed in the following years. Margaret’s latest novel to win an award was the Three-Day Town which won the Agatha Award in the year 2011. She was also awarded the honorary doctorate by the University of North Carolina in May, 2010. Apart from writing novels, Margaret Maron has also performed some professional activities for the betterment of the aspiring writers. She is the past president of the Sisters in Crime and the American Crime Writers’ League. Maron is also the founding member of these associations. She has served as the director on the national board of Mystery Writers of America. Margaret also participated in the Great Manhattan Mystery Conclave as a keynote speaker in the year 2004.
The first novel series written by Margaret Maron was ‘The Sigrid Harald series’. This novel series was published from 1981 to 1995 and comprises of 8 interesting novels. The series is set in the background of the New York City. The first book of the series was titled ‘One Coffee With’ which was published by Raven House in 1981. The novel got republished as an eBook edition in 2011 by Maron & Company. The novel gives the introduction of the main protagonist Lt. Sigrid Harald who is a homicide detective working for the NYPD. Lt. Sigrid goes on to investigate the murders of the deputy chairman of the Art Department of Vanderlyn College. The case is a little tough to crack as everyone in the department had the motive and the opportunity to kill the deputy chairman by poisoning his morning coffee. Lt. Sigrid Harald will need to keep her cool and find the killer before he kills someone else. The intelligence and determination of Lt. Harald is pretty famous for solving such cases and she does not disappoint with this one either. The novel was appreciated by many and the portrayal of Lt. Sigrid Harald was praised by many publishing magazines. The second novel of The Sigrid Harald series was titled ‘Death of a Butterfly’ and was published in the year 1984 by Crime Club. The novel was also republished as an eBook by Maron & Company in the year 2011. ‘Death of a Butterfly’ continues to depict the mysterious life of Lt. Sigrid Harald who has made murder as her business.
When Julie Redmond, a beautiful, demanding and self-centered woman was murdered, Lt. Harald made sure that all the suspects were right in front of her eyes. She does feel tragic about the murder of Julie Redmond, rather she feels excited to catch the murderer. Lt. Harald is interested in studying the life of Julie Remonfd and finds out that there are many who would benefit from her death. Many of the suspects had the motive of killing Julie because of the fact that she was a demanding woman. Lt. Harald encounters the neighbors of Julie, who have provided love and affection for Julie’s son Timmy after her death. Timmy did not receive the much required love from her mother. And then there was Mickey Novak, Julie’s criminal brother. Mickey was left on his own by Julie and she would not pay any attention towards him, being her sister. Over the course of time, Lt. Harald becomes successful in untangling the web of blackmail and murder of Julie Redmond, with the help of a 15 year old sleuth. She catches the mastermind behind the murder and also recovers half a million dollars’ worth of precious stolen gems. The ingenious plot of the novel along with its crisp dialogue and engaging characters was highly appreciated by a number of publishing magazines. The pleasant police procedural combined with the traditional mystery keeps the readers interested till the very end. Banking on the success these novels, Margaret Maron went on to complete a set of eight novels in the Lt. Sigrid Harald series. She also wrote other successful novels and short stories over the span of her successful career as an author.
Book Series In Order » Authors » Margaret Maron
