Deborah Knott Mysteries

With a steamy Southern plot and a sassy new heroine, this Edgar Award winning novel debuts an exceptional new series. Attorney Deborah Knott is North Carolina's answer to V.I. Warshawski, a legal sleuth with a knack for sniffing out the most baffling crimes. Deborah has just done the unthinkable-entered the heated race for judge of old-boy-ruled Colleton County. The only female candidate, she's busy reeling in voters and giving campaign speeches. There couldn't be a worse time for Gayle Whitehead to beg Deborah to investigate the 18-year-old, unsolved murder of Gayle's mother, Janie. Gayle wants the busy attorney to poke around for any new clues the police may have missed all these years. Unlikely, thinks Deborah; until she discovers that not all the details of Janie's case made it out of confidential police files. Filled with the patter of Southern voices and populated with a cast of colorful characters, Bootlegger's Daughter expertly unwinds a funny, cunningly-crafted tale of mystery and deceit in North Carolina's backwoods.

The governor of North Carolina has appointed Deborah to a judicial seat in the District Court Division. On her weekends, the fledgling judge has been helping an all-woman building crew complete a home for a needy single mother. Her attempts to gain positive P.R. go awry when her niece is found battered and half-naked in the partially completed home, with Deborah's own bloody hammer lying nearby.

From the pen of the Edgar Award-winning author of Bootlegger's Daughter and Southern Discomfort flows a tale of mystery, money, and murder on the Outer Banks. Populated with colorful, richly drawn characters, Margaret Maron's latest novel captures the flavor of life in rural North Carolina. Arriving in Carteret County to fill in for a sick colleague, Judge Deborah Knott finds herself in the thick of battles between sport and commercial fishermen and between old and new money. It is Deborah's bad fortune to discover the body of Andy Bynum, a retired waterman respected by all sides. With no obvious suspects in the murder, Deborah must find the killer in a place where people shoot at loons, sea turtles, and their neighbors. C.J. Critt's skillful narration brings Deborah Knott to life, as the judge-detective searches for the truth in her quiet but determined way. Shooting at Loons is Margaret Maron at her suspenseful best.

Best-selling author Margaret Maron's colorful Deborah Knott mysteries crackle with sassy Southern dialogue and rural wisdom. In Up Jumps the Devil, fast-moving progress is threatening to forever destroy the leisurely, heart-warming pace of Colleton County, North Carolina. District court judge Deborah Knott sees trouble brewing when plans for a new interstate highway start pushing up property values. As her own relatives battle lifelong neighbors over selling farmland or holding out, Deborah finds herself calming the combatants with down-home wit-and sometimes, judicial decisions. But when the squabbles escalate to murder, Deborah is forced to search for the killer uncomfortably close to home. Margaret Maron skillfully draws on her North Carolina roots to pen her well-crafted, suspenseful mysteries. Her creative talents have earned her the coveted Edgar, Agatha, Macavity, and Anthony Awards. Salt-of-the-earth characters, vivid with lilting, down-home humor and unwavering opinions, step from the pages when narrator C.J. Critt breathes life into them.

The Deborah Knott mysteries have won a devoted following, as well as Edgar, Agatha, Anthony and Macavity awards. Readers across the country love Judge Knott's new southern woman's sensibilities and the intelligence she uses to unravel the snarled cases that come her way. Killer Market takes the quintessential steel magnolia to the hub of North Carolina's massive furniture industry. Although she's there to sub for a fellow judge, Deborah soon gets caught up in the whirl of the International Home Furnishings Market and finds herself a suspect in a high-power murder case. The feisty judge must use her courtroom experience and intuitive skills to strip through layers of deception if she is to clear her own name. Margaret Maron draws from her own rural southern roots to craft her trademark authentic settings and characters. C.J. Critt, with her perfect comic timing and hint of a southern accent, brings out the full flavor of Maron's insider's North Carolina.

Home Fires tackles one of the contemporary South's most burning issues. When racial tension erupts in the sleepy community of Colleton County, North Carolina, Deborah is caught off guard. She is happily tending her own home fires: her simmering romance with Kidd Chapin, the house she's building on her family's land, and her campaign for reelection as district judge. But then the first black church is burned, and all of Deborah's alarms go off. Narrator C.J. Critt has received rave reviews for her performances of the Deborah Knott mysteries. Her perfect comic timing lets you fully enjoy the judge's down-home humor. Her authentic accents carry you deep into Deborah Knott's rural South to explore its rich history and current concerns.

Best-selling author Margaret Maron creates entertaining mysteries filled with warm southern charm, colorful down-home characters, and smoldering grudges. In Storm Track, swirling dark clouds of illicit affairs and brutal murder threaten Colleton County, North Carolina. No one worries much about the scantily clad woman found strangled in the Orchid Motel-she must be a tourist who brought along her own problems. But when the victim turns out to be the wife of one of Colleton County's up-and-coming lawyers, the news comes as a thunderclap. People begin looking suspiciously among themselves for the culprit, and Judge Deborah Knott learns her own handsome cousin possesses a mighty powerful motive. While Deborah searches for the vicious killer, a deadly hurricane rages up the Carolina coast, bringing destruction and its own kind of justice. Winner of the Edgar and Agatha Awards, Margaret Maron bases this series on her life in rural North Carolina. Narrator C.J. Critt's lilting performance captures both the crackling wit and the heightening suspense.

Margaret Maron, winner of the Edgar, Anthony, Agatha and Macavity Awards, has reached renowned success with the Deborah Knott Mystery series. Uncommon Clay delves into the intriguing world of the Nordans, a deep-rooted family of talented yet cursed North Carolina potters. Judge Knott is filling in for another judge who suffered a mild stroke. When she decrees that the divorcing Nordan couple split their valuable earthenware collection, the husband winds up dead--in his own kiln! Many people have motives and the clay wheel swirls with suspects. C.J. Critt's narration heightens the suspense in this family's story of long-time grudges, murder, unbearable pain, and loss. This exciting novel is as rich as the red clay pottery of North Carolina.

Best-selling author Margaret Maron is a winner of the Edgar, Anthony, Agatha, Macavity, and American Mystery Awards. Her captivating mysteries feature quick-witted Deborah Knott, a lawyer, district judge, and devout North Carolinian. At the annual Harvest Festival carnival, while everyone else is playing games and having fun, someone commits murder. As Deborah investigates, she must struggle to win a carny's confidence while a dark web of dangerous secrets begins to unravel.

Publishers Weekly declares that the "leaves of autumn are in full splendor, and so is Maron's talent in her 10th Deborah Knott adventure." Judge Knott is finally ready to marry her long-time friend Deputy Sheriff Dwight Bryant and settle down-or is she? She jumps at a chance to fill in for a judge in the high country of North Carolina. But ugly murder haunts the beauty of the Smoky Mountains.

Best-selling author Margaret Maron shows the form that has won her the Edgar and Agatha Awards, among many others, in this riveting mystery. Judge Deborah Knott and Deputy Sheriff Dwight Bryant are due to marry in a week. But all plans are put on hold when an assistant district attorney is killed, and the clues compel Judge Knott to investigate an earlier double murder that may be connected.

Edgar Award-winning and New York Times best-selling author Margaret Maron has earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly for this small town saga starring Judge Deborah Knott and her new husband Dwight Bryant, chief deputy of Colleton County, NC. When local handyman J.D. Rouse is found dead in his pickup truck with a bullet in his head, the mayhem-and the body count-grows. But Dwight launches his own investigation after his son and ex-wife turn up missing from their home in Virginia.

When a local farmer-known for his severe treatment of migrant workers-turns up savagely murdered, Judge Deborah and her new Deputy Sheriff husband soon wade into a quagmire of exploitation. But as murders mushroom, the two uncover secrets that threaten both their community and their new life together.

Margaret Maron's Judge Deborah Knott mysteries set in rural North Carolina are cherished by discerning readers who value authentic characters and intriguing plots. As housing sprawl creeps across the land, farmers are feeling the pinch. County commissioners have been making lucrative land deals in secret, and now murder brings Deborah and Sheriff Bryant into the middle of a major dispute.

Margaret Maron continues her best-selling Deborah Knott series with Sand Sharks. Judge Deborah's hopes for relaxation at a seaside judicial conference are dashed when she stumbles upon the murdered body of a colleague. And when more judges turn up dead, Deborah fears she could be next.

Margaret Maron's best-selling Deborah Knott mystery series won instant acclaim upon its debut in 1993. In this 16th entry in the series, the judge is faced with a horrifying holiday murder case. After a beautiful young cheerleader is found dead in a car wreck, Judge Knott's husband Deputy Dwight Bryant discovers evidence that the death was anything but an accident. Now Knott and Bryant are on a desperate search for a killer before he or she strikes again.

Judge Deborah Knott and Sheriff 's Deputy Dwight Bryant are on a train to New York, finally on a honeymoon after a year of marriage. January in New York might not be the perfect time to visit, but they'll take it. The trip is a Christmas present from Dwight's sister-in-law, who arranged for them to stay in an Upper West Side apartment for one week. While in New York, Deborah has been asked to deliver a package to Lt. Sigrid Harald of the NYPD. Sigrid offers to swing by the apartment to pick up the box, but when they reach the apartment, they discover that it is missing and the doorman has been murdered. Despite their best efforts to enjoy a blissful getaway, Deborah and Dwight soon find that they've teamed up with Sigrid and her team to catch the killer before he strikes again.

Margaret Maron's mysteries starring Judge Deborah Knott have built a loyal following since debuting with the Edgar Award-winning The Bootlegger's Daughter. The series' 18th entry finds Deborah and her husband, Deputy Sheriff Bryant, teaming up with Lt. Sigrid Herald to track down a killer on the loose in their small North Carolina town. But as the hunt for the culprit gets more intense, they uncover long-hidden secrets that cast their investigation in a whole new light.

When Judge Deborah Knott is summoned to her ailing Aunt Rachel's bedside, she assumes the worst. Thankfully when she arrives at the hospice center she learns that Rachel hasn't passed; in fact, the dying woman is awake. Surrounded by her children, her extended family, and what seems like half of Colleton County, a semi-conscious Rachel breaks weeks of pained silence with snippets of stories as randomly pieced together as a well-worn patchwork quilt. But the Knott family's joy quickly gives way to shock: less than an hour later, Aunt Rachel is found dead in her bed, smothered with a pillow. Who would kill a woman on her deathbed? Was it an act of mercy, or murder? As Deborah and her husband, Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant, investigate they cross paths with an unlikely set of suspects: Rachel's longtime minister; her neighbor, the respected local doctor; the friendly single father who often sought her advice; and perhaps the most puzzling party of all, the Designated Daughters, a support group for caregivers that Rachel's own daughter belongs to. Soon Deborah and Dwight realize that the key to solving this case is hidden in Rachel's mysterious final words. Her mixed-up memories harbored a dark secret-a secret that someone close to them is determined to bury forever.