North Carolina Authors

Dr. Betty Middleton

June 20, 2008

We are blessed with a bounty of authors that either are from, or write about, North Carolina. Rowan County's own Kurt Corriher and John Hart are among that list. If you have not read their novels, why not add them to your list of books to read for the summer?

Mignon Ballard, who now lives with her husband in Fort Mill, SC, has written the Augusta Goodnight angel mystery series. The Angel and the Jabberwocky Murders is the newest in the series with Hark! The Herald Angel Screamed coming out in November.

Jerry Bledsoe, who grew up in Thomasville, NC, has been a newspaper journalist in Kannapolis, Greensboro, Charlotte, Louisville and with Esquire Magazine. His best selling true-crime books are about events that enveloped North Carolina families and communities. Some of his books, including The Angel Doll, Before He Wakes, Bitter Blood, and Blood Games, have been made into movies.

Joan Melicott, currently living in Barnardsville, NC, is known for her Ladies of Covington series. This eight volume series, beginning with The Ladies of Covington Send Their Love, follows the joy and tragedy in the lives of three older women from Covington, NC.

Michael Malone, from Durham, NC, has composed plays, screenplays, non-fiction, and was an Emmy Award winner as head writer of the ABC-TV soap opera, One Life to Live. Among the many genres he has conquered, his mysteries have received the most acclaim. Uncivilized Seasons, Times Witness, and First Lady, all take place in fictional Hillston, NC. Two police officers, Lieutenant Savile (black sheep of the town's founding family and head of the homicide division) and Chief Mangum (Vietnam vet), are charged with the duties of investigating a murder in Uncivilized Seasons, and pursuing the possibility of a serial killer in First Lady.