Hard Row

Hard Row Deborah Knott Mystery [13] Margaret Maron Grand Central Publishing (2008) Tags: Cozy Mystery, Contemporary

Cozy Mysteryttt Contemporaryttt

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 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. (Aug.)

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North Carolina judge Deborah Knott is adjusting to her recent marriage to sheriff's 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 Deborah's 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 Deborah's large extended family (she is the youngest of 12 children and the only girl) for nicely individualized secondary characters. There is an established audience for this series, and they will welcome the latest. O'Brien, Sue