Born in the North-East of England, Maria Malone worked in print journalism and television news and features. She has written TV companion books, ghosted celebrity autobiographies, and is a former Yorkshire Press Awards Journalist of the Year and Feature Writer of the Year.
Malone's new Wren & Wilson mystery is Killing in the Countryside (UK title: Poison and Peacocks in the Dales).
Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Malone's reply:
The Homemade God by Rachel JoyceVisit Maria Malone's website.
I’m in awe of Rachel Joyce, whose debut The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry remains a favourite, a book I often return to. Her latest, The Homemade God, is the story of a family, the messy, messed-up Kemps. Four siblings brought up by their hard-drinking, unreliable, father following the death of their mother. Vic is hapless when it comes to parenthood, but he can paint, knock out pictures in no time at all. His work is not especially original, and the art world is dismissive, but Vic’s paintings sell and money pours in, enough to buy a villa on Orta in the Italian Lakes, the scene of many good times for the family. Vic has a plan to do a final painting, his masterpiece, one that will bring the criticalacclaim he craves. By now in his seventies and lonely, he meets a much younger woman, Bella-Mae, goes to Orta and marries her. Soon after, he dies while swimming in the lake. His mistrustful children cannot accept their father has simply passed away and gather at the villa determined to wrest control of his estate from his new wife – and find the last painting, the one destined to change the art world’s perception of Vic.
Things do not go well.
The story is about relationships, misunderstandings, misjudgements – how easy it is to form beliefs that are far from the truth, to get things horribly wrong and cling to an utterly false belief with devastating consequences. The portrayal of the family’s disintegration, the vitriol that erupts, feels powerful and real. The book is shot through with wisdom and a reminder that the people closest to us are to be cherished, not cast out. For me, this is a plea for understanding, for seeing the other point of view, however unpalatable – before it’s too late. A standout quote is: ‘You think people will wait until you’re ready. You think they will act according to your time. But they do things their own way. Life does things its own way.’
Amen to that.
Writers Read: Maria Malone (August 2025).
--Marshal Zeringue
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