Designated Daughters

Starred review from June 9, 2014
In MWA Grand Master Maron’s outstanding 19th mystery featuring judge Deborah Knott of North Carolina’s Colleton County (after 2012’s The Buzzard Table), Deborah’s elderly aunt, Rachel Morton, lies near death in a hospice. Rachel attracts a crowd of friends and relatives as she talks of “babies, fires, and unpaid debts, of someone who beat his wife and of cowbirds and vegetables and broken jars.” A distraction allows a killer enough time to slip into Rachel’s room and smother her with a pillow, thus ending her ramblings, which apparently concealed deadly secrets. Unraveling those secrets—some 60 years old—is a slow, difficult process with lots of suspects among friends and family. Maron achieves a delicate balance as she explores differences between mistakes, sins, and crimes, and shows that justice is not always arrived at by conventional means. Humor (e.g., Deborah outfoxes an unscrupulous auctioneer) and social issues (e.g., the difficult role of caregivers to the elderly) add to the warmth of a large family with all its foibles, squabbles, and quirks. Five-city author tour. Agent: Vicky Bijur, Vicky Bijur Literary.

September 1, 2014
The unlikely murder of an elderly relative sends a judge and her husband scurrying to investigate family history in order to find out who stands to gain from an old woman's death. When her cousin Sally Crenshaw shows up in her courtroom unexpectedly, Judge Deborah Knott assumes that her father's sister Rachel has finally passed. Just the opposite is true. Aunt Rachel seems to be back from the brink and has been telling tales of times past. The extended family gathers around to listen and spend time with her, though they leave her to rest when she drifts off to sleep. Given her sudden, miraculous recovery, the family is shocked when they learn that Aunt Rachel died just 40 minutes after they left her to sleep. They're even more shocked when it appears that she's been murdered. Who would kill a woman already so close to death? Suspecting that there must have been some secrets in the stories Aunt Rachel was sharing, Deborah encourages her husband, Dwight, a police officer, to investigate. She senses that the murder may have something to do with the death of Jacob, Aunt Rachel's beloved brother, who drowned in his 16th summer. Now Dwight has to go through Aunt Rachel's reminiscences to determine a motive for murder-and it turns out there's more than one secret she spilled that some wish would've stayed hidden.Though Maron (The Buzzard Table, 2012, etc.) unearths more of Deborah's family history for long-term fans, the main story is often burdened by too many characters and their tangential relationships.

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Starred review from August 1, 2014

When Judge Deborah Knott gets a call from the convalescent home about her Aunt Rachel, she expects to hear the worst. She arrives to find her aunt awake and telling stories from her past, including some that are new to Deborah. Yet within hours Rachel is dead, and it is obvious that she was murdered. While Deborah and her husband, sheriff's deputy Dwight Bryant, investigate, her family becomes embroiled in a dispute with a dirty antiques dealer. Alternating viewpoints between Deborah and Dwight, Maron weaves family threads together with current events that leave the reader wanting to know more about the Knott family tree. VERDICT The author's 19th series outing (after The Buzzard Table) offers loyal fans a fresh look at her expansive family and community. Readers will savor the slow-paced Southern culture and layered story. Maron was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 2013. [See Prepub Alert, 2/10/14.]

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2014

In her 19th mystery, Judge Deborah Knott investigates the smothering of her dying Aunt Rachel in hospice and eventually encounters a group of caregivers called Designated Daughters.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2014

When Judge Deborah Knott gets a call from the convalescent home about her Aunt Rachel, she expects to hear the worst. She arrives to find her aunt awake and telling stories from her past, including some that are new to Deborah. Yet within hours Rachel is dead, and it is obvious that she was murdered. While Deborah and her husband, sheriff's deputy Dwight Bryant, investigate, her family becomes embroiled in a dispute with a dirty antiques dealer. Alternating viewpoints between Deborah and Dwight, Maron weaves family threads together with current events that leave the reader wanting to know more about the Knott family tree. VERDICT The author's 19th series outing (after The Buzzard Table) offers loyal fans a fresh look at her expansive family and community. Readers will savor the slow-paced Southern culture and layered story. Maron was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 2013. [See Prepub Alert, 2/10/14.]

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.