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NORTH CAROLINA L I T E R A R Y RE V I E W
Winter 2022
THAT YE BE NOT JUDGED: A REMEMBRANCE OF MARGARET AND JOE MARON by D.G. Martin Judge Knott, that ye be not judged. No, it’s not just a typo in a Biblical quote; rather, it is meant to be an insider’s signal to the fans of the popular North Carolina author Margaret Maron. Maron died on February 23, 2021, following a stroke, leaving behind a group of admiring fellow authors, bookstore owners, and loyal readers. She was best known for her twenty-book mystery series featuring Judge Deborah Knott and Knott’s extended family in rural North Carolina. It all began thirty years ago with Bootlegger’s Daughter. Set in fictional Colleton County, it was obviously inspired by Johnston County, just east of Raleigh where Maron grew up. Maron’s work regularly dealt with art and artists, inspired by Joe Maron, her husband of sixty-one years, himself a talented artist and teacher. After a few years living in Brooklyn, where Joe grew up, Margaret brought him home where they settled on part of her family’s former tobacco farm. Joe died on June 20, 2021, just three months after his wife’s death. People sometimes ask me what is the best book to learn about North Carolina. If the questioners like murder mysteries, I tell them to try one of the books in Maron’s Judge Knott series. Knott is a smart country woman lawyer who became a state district court judge in a typical North Carolina rural community. Deborah Knott is smart and
Longtime host of North Carolina Bookwatch (1999– 2021) is just one of D.G. MARTIN's many careers.
good, but not perfect. She lives amongst a large farm family led by her father, Kezzie Knott, the former bootlegger, and his twelve children from two marriages, plus spouses and numerous grandchildren. Having a former bootlegger as Judge Knott’s daddy and a few other mischievous kinfolks whose lives sometimes intersect with the law adds spice to Maron’s stories. Knott’s many friends and work colleagues also enrich Maron’s books. Everybody in Colleton County seems to know everybody else. Rich and poor; black, white, and Hispanic; farmers and townspeople; old and young; good and bad. We meet them dealing with problems of the environment, migrant worker issues, hurricane damage, political shenanigans, real estate development, and other challenges in addition to the murder mysteries that move every book along. Maron used Judge Knott not only to solve crimes but also to make her readers aware of social issues and other local government challenges, always giving the viewpoints of society’s underdogs. At the same time she shared the rich, and not always pretty, family life in a North Carolina small town. Every now and then, Maron moved the action to other North Carolina scenes: the furniture market, the Seagrove pottery community, the mountains, and the coast. Along the way, Maron’s readers get a good look at our state and its people.
