“Death in Blue Folders”
New York attorney Clayton Gladwell is found dead, his office looted, and Lieutenant Sigrid Harald takes on the investigation.
But from the first there are too many anomalies for the detective's liking: the blue folders which hold Gladwell's "personal" case files, and evidence that he mader blackmail a profitable side business.
Prying open the secrets of the dead man's clients is like lifting the lid off a star-studded Pandora's box.
There's millionaire financier Justin Trent, who has just recovered his kidnapped grandson; Elena Dorato, the most mysterious screen star of the ’40s and a suicide; Penelope Naughton, a reclusive, once wildly successful member of the Algonquin Round Table; and aging Helmut Dussel, a suddenly wealthy immigrant who seems too old and frail to take advantage of his windfall.
For endless, sticky midsummer hours Sigrid and her staff pursue an enigmatic trail that leads into blind alleys, confusing cover-ups, and false clues.
Then, as if that weren't enough, the homicide investigation suddenly heats up as a second and then a third victim fall to the faceless killer. And now it's a race against time to unravel the puzzling mystery and stop this maniac hell-bent on murder.
“Death’s Half Acre”
But from the first there are too many anomalies for the detective's liking: the blue folders which hold Gladwell's "personal" case files, and evidence that he mader blackmail a profitable side business.
Prying open the secrets of the dead man's clients is like lifting the lid off a star-studded Pandora's box.
There's millionaire financier Justin Trent, who has just recovered his kidnapped grandson; Elena Dorato, the most mysterious screen star of the ’40s and a suicide; Penelope Naughton, a reclusive, once wildly successful member of the Algonquin Round Table; and aging Helmut Dussel, a suddenly wealthy immigrant who seems too old and frail to take advantage of his windfall.
For endless, sticky midsummer hours Sigrid and her staff pursue an enigmatic trail that leads into blind alleys, confusing cover-ups, and false clues.
Then, as if that weren't enough, the homicide investigation suddenly heats up as a second and then a third victim fall to the faceless killer. And now it's a race against time to unravel the puzzling mystery and stop this maniac hell-bent on murder.
“Death’s Half Acre”
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My fifth look
into Maron's writings. She certainly has impressed me. |
The changing North Carolina landscape--and particularly the impact of rampant residential and commercial development on rural settings--has been a recurrent theme in Maron's Deborah Knott novels. In Death's Half Acre, she tackles that topic and the politics behind it head-on.
The murder of Candace Bradshaw, a hard-nosed businesswoman and new chair of the Board of Commissioners, has no lack of suspects, especially because she was poised to help vote down a recommendation to slow growth across Colleton County. Her family, her political rivals, and even the political bigwigs used her as a puppet--and all seem to have both motive and opportunity. But when Deborah discovers suggestions of Bradshaw's political malfeasance in the files of late newspaper editor Linsey Thomas, the net widens--suggesting that the hit-and-run that killed Thomas might not have been accidental and that present events might draw strongly from past wrongdoings.
Deborah finds the past casting a long shadow over her as well: Her name is in Thomas' files and in the dead woman's notes, along with references to a missing flash drive that could solve the case, but might also reveal details about Deborah's dubious path to her judgeship.
An equally compelling subplot involves real estate maneuverings by a local minister. When the grandson of one parishioner turns to Deborah's father Kezzie to help save the family farm from being turned over to the church, the old bootlegger proves he's still got some tricks up his sleeve.
"Three-day Town"This novel is the winner of the Agatha award for best novel.
After a year of marriage, Judge Deborah Knott and Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant are off to New York City for a long-delayed honeymoon.
January might not be the perfect time to take a bite of the Big Apple, but Dwight's sister-in-law has arranged for them to stay in her Upper West Side apartment for a week.
Deborah had been asked to deliver a package to Lieutenant Sigrid Harald of the NYPD from Sigrid's Colleton County grandmother. But when the homicide detective comes to pick it up, the package is missing and the building's super is found murdered.
Now despite their desire to enjoy a blissful winter getaway, Deborah and Dwight must team up with Lt. Harald to catch the killer before he strikes again.
“Winter’s Child”
It's one month after their wedding, and the future looks bright for Judge Deborah Knott and Sheriff Deputy Dwight Bryant— until a disturbing call from Dwight's 8-year-old son Cal calls him back to Virginia.
When he arrives, he is shocked to find that his ex-wife has left the boy alone for almost 24 hours. Worse, as Dwight tries to confront her, she takes the child and leaves town without a word.
As Dwight embarks on an all-points search, Deborah hurries to his side. But will they be able to work together to decipher the ex-wife's motives —and, more importantly, will they find young Cal before he comes to harm?
North Carolina judge Deborah Knott may be all business when it comes to court, but she's usually fun loving when she's around her energetic family and her friend turned fiancee Dwight Bryant.
The stress of her impending marriage has made her prickly and uneasy, though, so she jumps at the chance to sub for a judge in another part of the state.
After all, what better place to do serious thinking about her life than a gorgeous tourist town in the Blue Ridge Mountains?
Unfortunately, the town is abuzz with the recent murder of a local doctor, and the accused is a friend of Deborah's college-age twin nieces.
The twins are convinced their friend is innocent, and when another man is found dead, it begins to appear they are right. The mountain setting plays a huge role here, and Maron does a beautiful job with it, adding local color, as well as delightful regionalisms, to give her characters plenty of personality.
When it comes right down to it, however, it's the comfortable ordinariness of Maron's distinctively unheroic heroine that makes this entry in the long-running series so appealing
“Hard Row”
As Judge Deborah Knott presides over a case involving a barroom brawl, it becomes clear that deep resentments over race, class, and illegal immigration are simmering just below the surface in the countryside.
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Mutilated body parts have appeared along the back roads of Colleton County, and the search for the victim's identity and for that of his killer will lead Deborah and her new husband, Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant, into the desperate realm of undocumented farm workers exploited for cheap labor.
In the meantime, Deborah and Dwight continue to adjust to married life and to having Dwight's eight-year-old son, Cal, live with them full time.
When another body is found, these newlyweds will discover dark truths that threaten to permanently alter the serenity of their rural surroundings and their new life together.
In addition to a collection of short stories she's also the author of 16 mystery novels.
Her works have been translated into seven languages her “Bootlegger's Daughter,” a Washington Post Bestseller, won Edgar Anthony, Agatha, and Macavity awards.
She is a past president of Sisters in Crime and of the American Crime writers' league, and a director on the national board for Mystery Writers of America.
