Hard Row

July 9, 2007
Fans of Edgar-winner Maron’s reliably pleasing Deborah Knott series will be glad to see the North Carolina judge back on the bench in this intriguing 13th mystery (after 2006’s Winter’s Child
). Deborah has to decide a high-stakes divorce case with a no-show husband as well as preside over a growing caseload involving migrant workers pitted against locals. Meanwhile, body parts begin to appear in rural Colleton County that turn out to belong to Buck Harris, a farmer known for his exploitation of cheap immigrant labor who happens to be Deborah’s missing divorce plaintiff. When Knott’s new husband, sheriff’s deputy Dwight Bryant, investigates the immigrants living on the Harris farm, he uncovers a sequence of events that suggest something much more damaging than the sheer indifference the victim had shown to his workers. As Deborah adjusts to becoming the stepmother of Dwight’s motherless eight-year-old son, Cal, her large extended family debates the future of their own family farm. Readers will eagerly await further developments in the next book.

Starred review from July 1, 2007
In her latest outstanding Deborah Knott mystery, Maron tackles big issuestruck farming, undocumented migrant workers, and the prejudice faced by Latinos willing to work hard for a better lifewith insight and pathos. When a hand is found in a field in Colleton County, NC, the Sheriff's Department search for the rest of the corpse. As her husband investigates, Judge Knott hears cases involving assault, domestic violence, and property damage while trying to handle her new responsibilities as a stepmom. Maron has never written a bad book, and with the 13th in the series (after "Winter's Child"), she gives a clear picture of contemporary life in the rural South, tying it up in a neat mystery that keeps the reader guessing to the end. Highly recommended. Maron lives near Raleigh, NC.

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2007
North Carolina judge Deborah Knott is adjusting to her recent marriage to sheriffs department investigator Dwight Bryant and the addition to her household of a stepson, Cal, when human body parts begin appearing throughout the county. Bryant is charged with identifying the victim and finding his killer. Also, an elderly man has disappeared from a nursing home, and his daughter is frantic. Bryant, with Deborahs help, identifies the victim, a man who was not well liked in the community. While the search for the killer continues, Deborah deals with the challenges of learning to mother and discipline a stepson and to be part of a couple after years of living on her own. In this long-running series, now in its thirteenth installment, Maron continues to produce an effective mix of mystery and domestic drama, drawing on Deborahs large extended family (she is the youngest of 12 children and the only girl) for nicely individualizedsecondary characters. There is an established audience for this series, and they will welcome the latest.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)