Authors Bill and Sharon Hopkins are 'The Deadly Duo' of Marble Hill, Mo.

Bill and Sharon Hopkins of Marble Hill, Mo., are a happily married couple with busy careers and a variety of interests and pastimes. But a passion they both share is a love of writing murder mysteries.

"Bill has always been a writer and has written short stories, horror and science fiction," says Sharon. "But he wanted to try writing a mystery novel. I decided that I wanted to try doing that as well."

While they write separate novels, living with another murder mystery writer has proved invaluable.

"It's great," says Sharon. "We are each other's best first readers and we help each other through the process. He's my best critic, and vice versa."

Bill agrees: "We are each other's built-in editors, and we are completely honest with each other. That's the only way to do it. Otherwise, you are just wasting your time."

Sharon says both she and Bill have vivid imaginations -- a good source of ideas for their novels.

"We both say 'what if' a lot. In my first book, I wrote about what [could happen] if a terrorist cell came to Southeast Missouri. What would they terrorize? What would be of interest and value to them?" says Sharon. "We also get some of our ideas from just watching the news."

Along with writing, the couple enjoys traveling together, and the two pastimes sometimes go hand in hand.

"We travel a lot and sometimes outline books along the way," says Bill. "We actually outlined Sharon's last book on a recent trip to North Carolina."

Sharon began writing murder mysteries in 2010 and was first published in 2011.

"My first book was called 'Killer Watt,' which came out in 2011," says Sharon. "My second book, 'Killer Find,' which came out in 2012, won first place in the Missouri Writer's Guild's Show Me Best Book Award."

Sharon went on to publish a third novel, "Killer Trust," in 2013, and she has a fourth novel of the series in the works.

Bill, who has been a writer his entire life, published "Courting Murder" in 2012. "River Mourn" came out in 2013, and he has a third novel written which is scheduled to come out next spring or summer.

Bill, a lifelong writer, says, "I can remember writing before I even started school. The first book I wrote was about Robin Hood."

Both Bill and Sharon enjoy reading the same types of books that they write.

"We both read lots of mysteries," says Sharon. "As a kid, I grew up reading Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys mysteries."

Local flavor can be found in all the novels that the Hopkins write.

"While the principal characters in my books stay the same, the peripheral characters are different," says Sharon. "Bill's main character in his books is a judge who's sort of 'heard it all' and who secretly desires to be in law enforcement. All of the books we both write feature local [settings] from the Southeast Missouri area."

The Hopkins both still work full time. Sharon, 66, is a branch manager for Enterprise Bank Home Loan in Cape Girardeau, and Bill, 67, is a practicing attorney and former judge for the 32nd Judicial Circuit Court, where he served the counties of Cape Girardeau, Bollinger and Perry for 20 years. They are both members of the SEMO Writer's Guild.

"I would encourage any writer of any age to join that group," says Sharon. "We meet once a month on the last Saturday of each month at the Cape Public Library. It is a very supportive group [for writers.]"

Besides writing, the Hopkins, who have been married for 23 years, have other interests as well.

"Bill is a wonderful photographer," says Sharon. "I enjoy painting and my son and I restore muscle cars."

While Bill was born and raised in Marble Hill, Sharon was born in Canada and lived there for her first 30 years. Sharon has one grown son, and Bill has three grown children as well as several grandchildren.

Both Bill and Sharon's books are available at The Painted Wren Art Gallery and Hastings Entertainment in Cape Girardeau, and online at Barnes & Noble Booksellers and Amazon.com.