to write One Life to Live from 2003 to 2004. While writing One Life to Live, Malone wrote a novel called The Killing Club, which was tied into the show. For months, viewers watched character Marcie Walsh (Kathy Brier) write the book. The book was published in February 2005 with the authors listed as Marcie Walsh and Michael Malone. To explain this, Marcie said she took the book to "Professor Malone" at Llanview University, who helped her re-write it. After Malone's departure from the show, Dena Higley continued this storyline, as a copycat killer murdered characters on the show exactly as had occurred in the book. In its first week of publication The Killing Club went to No. 16 on The New York Times Best Seller list for Hardback Fiction. It later rose to No. 11. Personal life Malone was married to Maureen Quilligan, a professor of English at Duke University, for 47 years until his death. They met while he was studying at Harvard. Together, they had one child (Maggie). They resided in Hillsborough, North Carolina, from 2000, while maintaining a second home in Connecticut. Malone was a board member and a supporter of the Burwell School Historic Site. Malone died on August 19, 2022, at his home in Clinton, Connecticut. He was 79, and suffered from pancreatic cancer for over a decade prior to his death. Writing credits Another World Head writer: April 1997 – December 1997 (hired by Charlotte Savitz) One Life to Live Head writer: 1991–1996 (hired by Linda Gottlieb); September 2004 – November 24, 2004 Co-head writer: March 10, 2003 – September 2004 (with Josh Griffith) Story Consultant: February 3, 2003 – March 7, 2003 (hired by Brian Frons) 13 Bourbon Street TV pilot (co-written with Josh Griffith & produced by Linda Gottlieb) Publications Books (1975) Painting the Roses Red. New York: Random House. (1976) The Delectable Mountains: Or, Entertaining Strangers. Sourcebooks Landmark, . (1980) Dingley Falls. Sourcebooks Landmark, . (1983) Handling Sin. Sourcebooks Landmark, . (1983) Uncivil Seasons. Sourcebooks Landmark, . (1989) Time's Witness. Sourcebooks Landmark, . (1991) Foolscap: Or, the Stages of Love. Sourcebooks Landmark, . (2001) First Lady. Sourcebooks Landmark, . (2002) Red Clay, Blue Cadillac: Stories of Twelve Southern Women. Sourcebooks Landmark, . (2002) The Last Noel. Sourcebooks Landmark, . (2005) The Killing Club. Hyperion, . (co-credited with Marcie Walsh, based on a story by Josh Griffith) (2009) "The Four Corners