Christmas Mourning

September 27, 2010
The death of Mallory Johnson, a popular high school cheerleader, in a suspicious car crash propels Edgar-winner Maron's satisfying 16th Deborah Knott mystery (after 2009's Sand Sharks). While Deborah, a Colleton County, N.C., judge, and her huge clan are preparing for a big North Carolina Christmas, her husband, chief deputy Dwight Bryant, looks into the shooting of two trailer-park brothers. Deborah's countless nieces and nephews pop up frequently, and Deborah, with her realistic and appealing combination of common sense and a sharp ear, pulls clues from the kids' random comments. Mallory's less popular half-brother, her slighted best friend, and all the boys she toyed with are all possible bad guys, though how the one-car accident was orchestrated is a mystery in itself. As usual, interludes with relatives overshadow the investigating, but of course the warm and authentic family relationships are the heart of this evergreen series.

October 1, 2010

The even darker aftermath to the accident that claims the life of a Colleton County teen.

Mallory Johnson, homecoming queen, honor student, irresistible flirt and drug- and alcohol-free paragon, crashes her car and dies. Then her secrets begin to come out. The autopsy finds a drug in her system. When Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant begins investigating, he learns that the much-beloved Mallory had a few detractors, including her half brother Charlie and all the girls in town whose boyfriends she dallied with. And then the no-account Wentworth brothers, Jason and Matt, are gunned down at their trailer. Are the deaths connected? Mallory's poor mom, who lost her first husband to a fall while he was fixing the roof, is devastated, but Malcolm, her second husband, is truly overcome: His "princess" is gone. Meanwhile, Christmas, a mere two days away, will bring the one-year anniversary of Dwight's marriage to Judge Deborah Knott. But their celebration will have to wait till Mallory's last cell message is studied, a cheerleader's mea culpa is scrutinized and Charlie is tracked down at his birth father's house. The resolution adds one more fatality to the mix and upgrades an accident to murder.

Maron (Sand Sharks, 2009, etc.) makes you yearn to belong to an extended family, bake Christmas cookies with the Knott nieces and nephews and climb into Dwight's arms. She plots like a modern-day Christie, but the North Carolina charm is all her own.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

October 1, 2010

As Christmas approaches, series regular North Carolina judge Deborah Knott (Sand Sharks) investigates a car crash that killed a popular young woman, racing against the clock to solve what might not have been an accident. A solid choice for Maron's many fans. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 7/10.]

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2010
As Christmas and their first anniversary approach, District Judge Deborah Knott and chief sheriffs deputy Major Dwight Bryant deal with three deaths in their Colleton County, North Carolina, community. First Mallory Johnson, the golden girl of her senior high-school class, dies after crashing her car on the way home from a party, just two months after two students died and another was crippled, also in a car crash. Days later, the two teenage, neer-do-well Wentworth brothers are found shot to death. The community is especially shaken by Mallorys death, since the homecoming queen and cheerleader was known not to drink or do drugs (although neither was she Little Miss Perfect), but Dwight is diverted from that investigation by the murders. As Deborah and Dwight gather and share information from family and friends about both cases, they find connections to a decades-old death. Yet Deborah carries on her holiday routines, even having a breakthrough with a previously chilly sister-in-law. Marons trademark warm humor and Deborahs and Dwights loving kinfolk leaven the tragedy to make this sixteenth in the series another winning entry and a fine holiday mystery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)