"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."
"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, 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'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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"Ever since Bootlegger's Daughter stormed the mystery awards in 1993, Margaret Maron's Deborah Knott novels have won a dedicated following. Readers love her wise and witty heroine, intriguing plots, and charming southern country settings. Home Fires offers all this and more, as it 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."
"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."
"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."
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