Michael Malone (1) (1942–2022)
Author of Handling Sin
About the Author
Image credit: via Goodreads
Series
Works by Michael Malone
Associated Works
Growing Up in the South: An Anthology of Modern Southern Literature (1991) — Contributor — 147 copies, 1 review
Major Problems in the History of the American West: Documents and Essays (1989) — Contributor — 63 copies
A Confederacy of Crime: New Stories of Southern-Style Mystery (2001) — Contributor — 38 copies, 1 review
The Best of the Best American Mystery Stories: The First Ten Years (2014) — Contributor — 31 copies, 1 review
The Best American Mystery Stories 2002 [Audio Book, abridged] (2002) — Contributor — 3 copies, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Malone, Michael Christopher
- Birthdate
- 1942-11-01
- Date of death
- 2022-08-19
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Durham, North Carolina, USA
- Place of death
- Clinton, Connecticut, USA
- Cause of death
- pancreatic cancer
- Places of residence
- Hillsborough, North Carolina, USA
- Education
- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (Bx & Mx)
Harvard University (doctoral studies in English) - Occupations
- author
television writer
university teacher - Relationships
- Quilligan, Maureen (widow)
- Short biography
- Michael Malone
Michael Malone, the novelist, TV writer and Edgar and Emmy winner, died on Friday, August 19, of pancreatic cancer. He was 79 or 80--his date of birth was unclear.
Many of his novels and short stories were set in South, particularly in North Carolina, where he was born and grew up. "Red Clay" won the 1997 Edgar for best short story. Malone was working on the fourth book in his Justin & Cuddy series when he died.
Besides being involved in theater and teaching at several universities, Malone wrote for several soap operas, most notably as head writer for One Life to Live from 1991 to 1996. (He won a Writers Guild award and an Emmy in 1994, and was nominated for Emmys in other years.) One of his novels, The Killing Club, was "written" by a character on the show, then published under her and Malone's name.
Most of his books were published by Sourcebooks Landmark. Sourcebooks publisher and CEO Dominique Raccah said in part, "He is the New York Times bestselling novelist of First Lady and Four Corners of the Sky, among many other beautiful books. He was an extraordinary Southern novelist, award winning mystery writer and celebrated television writer. Personally, of course, he was the first established novelist to believe in Sourcebooks and to allow us to publish him, changing our future forever. He was a warm, kind and generous (and very funny) human being, and well loved in our community. There's so much that one could write about his very big life. We will all miss him."
As his obituary noted, "At the end of First Lady, Malone wrote about the difference between rock stars and saints: stars 'draw all the light to them, but throw it off too, like real stars.... It's different with saints. If stars are the light, then saints are the people the light shines through, and illuminates what they love so that we all can see its beauty.' Although many people thought he was a saint when he helped them to see their own dreams, Malone didn't think so. Instead he hoped to become an angel, as in the plot of some of his favorite movies. He is doubtless an angel now, and like his namesake, one with a truly magnificent wingspan."
Members
Reviews
Novels set at Christmas are often sweet, the equivalent of Hallmark movies. This isn't always a bad thing (a much loved member of my own family adores these movies) but sometimes you crave a little more substance in your stories. Michael Malone's The Last Noel has that substance mixed with some lovely heartwarming moments and some tear jerking moments as well.
Noni Tilden, the wealthy, white daughter of a banking family in a small Southern town was born on Christmas Eve. Kaye King, the poor, black grandson of the Tilden's long-time maid, Aunt Ma, was born early the next morning on Christmas Day. In 1963, the Christmas when Noni and Kaye are seven, Kaye climbs through her window in the middle of the night and urges her to come outside to play in the snow with him on the sled that's waiting for her under the Christmas tree. And so begins a life-long relationship which sees Noni and Kaye's lives intertwine in ways both expected and unexpected.
The story of Noni and Kaye spans forty years, twelve Christmases, and an immeasurable distance of the heart. Despite their clear differences, their initial bonding over the snow and the sled binds them together no matter all of the changes in their lives and in the world as a whole. Once close, their lives will diverge as Noni marries and sacrifices her earlier dreams and as Kaye joins the Black Power Movement before going on to become a respected doctor. The story is both epic, touching national, historical, and political events of note, and personal, showing the effect of those events on individual people and families, in its scope. Checking in on the dramas, joys, and tragedies of family life on occasional Christmases over the years, the story of Noni and Kaye's interconnectedness and their deep abiding love for each other, by turns innocent, troubled, remote, supportive, heartbreaking, and heart warming all, is a fitting tale for the holidays. The South of the story is a mild evocation, a fairly genteel South, and its ills are acknowledged and confronted but mostly easily addressed. But the framework of reality is there nonetheless. Not your usual holiday read, this is a good one for readers interested in a seasonally appropriate story that isn't sentimental and over the top twee. Well written and epic in scope, this is Noni and Kaye's story but also a tale of the US writ small.… (more)
Noni Tilden, the wealthy, white daughter of a banking family in a small Southern town was born on Christmas Eve. Kaye King, the poor, black grandson of the Tilden's long-time maid, Aunt Ma, was born early the next morning on Christmas Day. In 1963, the Christmas when Noni and Kaye are seven, Kaye climbs through her window in the middle of the night and urges her to come outside to play in the snow with him on the sled that's waiting for her under the Christmas tree. And so begins a life-long relationship which sees Noni and Kaye's lives intertwine in ways both expected and unexpected.
The story of Noni and Kaye spans forty years, twelve Christmases, and an immeasurable distance of the heart. Despite their clear differences, their initial bonding over the snow and the sled binds them together no matter all of the changes in their lives and in the world as a whole. Once close, their lives will diverge as Noni marries and sacrifices her earlier dreams and as Kaye joins the Black Power Movement before going on to become a respected doctor. The story is both epic, touching national, historical, and political events of note, and personal, showing the effect of those events on individual people and families, in its scope. Checking in on the dramas, joys, and tragedies of family life on occasional Christmases over the years, the story of Noni and Kaye's interconnectedness and their deep abiding love for each other, by turns innocent, troubled, remote, supportive, heartbreaking, and heart warming all, is a fitting tale for the holidays. The South of the story is a mild evocation, a fairly genteel South, and its ills are acknowledged and confronted but mostly easily addressed. But the framework of reality is there nonetheless. Not your usual holiday read, this is a good one for readers interested in a seasonally appropriate story that isn't sentimental and over the top twee. Well written and epic in scope, this is Noni and Kaye's story but also a tale of the US writ small.… (more)
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- Rating
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I've found that many times in books when a character is a big music star, things somehow ring false; maybe the character doesn't fit in, or the tie to the rest of the characters doesn't work, or the portrayal of huge fame is off. In this case, one of the characters is an Irish singer who is very huge, and is in Hillston for a concert. Erratic, she's known for missing some shows. Her involvement with the book's main character is maybe a bit unbelievable, but the rest of her portray is good. I like this bit: "she offered the most intimate privacy while at the same time promising, through every gliding catch, every strange modulation o fkey, such large and intense feeling that the sound of her voice was ike a great drum beating out not just her own heart's pulse but everyone else's too."… (more)