The Retirement of Carolyn Marino

In this week’s Publishers Weekly, James Grippando pays tribute to his longtime editor at HarperCollins:

“I’ve been orphaned,” I said to myself as I hung up the

telephone. I had published one novel, and my editor had called to tell

me that he was leaving HarperCollins. An hour later, the phone rang

again. It was my agent, Artie Pine. “You’re going to get a call from

Carolyn Marino. She’s a big fan of yours. You’re gonna like her.” That

fan was my new editor. Over the next 12 years, Carolyn would guide me

through 14 novels of suspense. The most recent is Last Call. The title now seems prophetic.

   

Amid

all the big news at HarperCollins this month, something happened on a

less public level: the announced retirement of an outstanding editor.

Carolyn Marino had served the company brilliantly for 18 years. More

importantly—at least from my perspective—she groomed her stable of

authors the way editors supposedly don’t anymore. Many she discovered

as newbies. Others were household names. All are better writers today,

thanks to Carolyn.

In fact, it could be argued that Carolyn Marino WAS crime fiction over at HarperCollins, considering that author stable has included Lawrence Block, Lisa Scottoline, Diane Mott Davidson, Elizabeth George, Mary Kay Andrews, Tasha Alexander, Michele Martinez, Sujata Massey, Charles Todd, John Searles, Claire Matturro, William Lashner, and many more over the years. Whatever the case, she’s going to be missed a great deal.