Welcome to the "Deborah Knott" Mystery Page

The Deborah Knott mystery novels started with the first title in the series "Bootlegger's Daughter", a novel that won the Edgar, Agatha, Anthony and Macavity awards for 1992, for the author Margaret Maron.

The series has continued with;

• "Southern Discomfit",
• "Shooting At Loons"
• "Up Jumps the Devil"

• "Killer Market" and

• "Home Fires" published in December 1998

Rumours

I have heard rumours that Magaret Marons next novel will be out in March 2000. It's another Colleton Co. story, set against a terrible hurricane that hit the area a couple of years ago. It will complete Cyl DeGraffenreid's story and is called STORM TRACK.

Biography

To quote the Bio available for Margaret Maron, she grew up on a farm near Raleigh, North Carolina, but for many years lived in Brooklyn, New York, where she drew her inspiration for her Lieutenant Sigrid Harald mystery series. When she returned to her North Carolina roots with her artist husband, Joe, she began thinking about a series based on her own background and went on on to create the award winning Deborah Knott series. In 1993 Margaret Maron swept the top mystery awards for her Bestseller, Bootlegger's Daughter - the Edgar, Agatha, Anthony and Macavity Awards. Southern Discomfit was nominated for the Agatha Award for Best Novel. Shooting at Loons was also nominated for an Agatha and Anthony Award.

The Background

The main character of the novels is Debra Knott, daughter of Kezzie and Susan Knott of Cotton Grove, Colleton County, North Carolina. Born the only daughter and last child in a family of 11 brothers, since the death of her mother, she has lived with her Aunt Zell and Uncle Ash. In Bootlegger's Daughter we are introduced to the lawyer as she runs for office in Colleton County. Her sister-in-law Minnie has decided that she would make a fine judge and is determined to ensure that Deborah reaches the bench.

However it wouldn't be a mystery without a case to investigate and Deborah starts with an 18 year old murder. When the daughter of the victim comes to her and seeks her help Deborah can not say no.

And so begins then train of successful novels that continues today.

The books:

• Bootlegger's Daughter - ISBN 0-892-96445-6
  This first novel in Maron's Imperfect series, which won the Edgar Award for best mystery novel in 1993, introduces heroine Deborah Knott, an attorney and the daughter of an infamous North Carolina bootlegger. Known for her knowledge of the region's past and popular with the locals, Deb is asked by 18-year-old Gayle Whitehead to investigate the unsolved murder of her mother Janie, who died when Gayle was an infant. While visiting the owner of the property where Janie's body was found, Deb learns of Janie's more-than-promiscuous past. Piecing together lost clues and buried secrets Deb is introduced to Janie's darker side, but it's not until another murder occurs that she uncovers the truth.
  Currently out of print. Info re ISBN and availability noted from Amazon Online.
  
• Southern Discomfit - ISBN 0-446-40424-1
  With sass and wit, Deborah knott, formerly a defense attorney in North Carolina's Colleton County, is putting herself firmly on the seat of power - a district judgeship. She's also makin good on a campaign promise: helping to build houses for battered women. Here Deborah expects muscle aches , not the near-rape of a young women and the murder of her attacker. And Deborah certainly never expects that her hammer - complete with her fingerprints - will become a murder weapon. No one suspects the judge for a minute, but Deborah does have reason to believe that someone else in her sprawling, brawling family may have defended Southern womanhood all to well - and that the twisted trail of a killer may lead all the way home.
  Currently out of print. Info re ISBN from my own copy and availability noted from Amazon Online.
  
• Shooting At Loons - ISBN 0-446-40424
  Judge Deborah Knott is takin a working vacatin on North Carolina's lush Crystal Coast where a centuries-old way of life is as endangered as loons and sea turles. The frustration and fear the local fisherfolk feel toward the well-to-do week-end crowd and the developers is palpable, and on the bench and off, Deborah can't escape the soon-to-be bloody conflict. On a picture-perfect Sunday she goes looking fo clams- and finds the body of Andy Bynum, a peacemaker between the groups. Then the violence escalates, a lover from her past falls under suspicion, and Judge Knott is swept into a dangerous riptide of old grudges and new greed...one that could very well take her life.
  Currently in print. Info re ISBN from my own copy and availability noted from Amazon Online.
  
• Up Jumps the Devil - ISBN 0-446-60406-2
  One thing Deborah Knott knows for sure. Just when everything is going great - up jumps the devil. In this case he's Allen Stancil, a black sheep back in North Carolina after one of the Stancil clan - rednecks all and proud of it - gets shot to death. Then another Stancil murder makes Allen suspect number one and Deborah Knott one worried woman. She and Allen share an old secret. Now the only way she can keep it buried is to dig up the real killer, or her career -and maybe her life - is headed straight to hell...
  Currently in print. Info re ISBN from my own copy and availability noted from Amazon Online.
  
  
• Killer Market - Mysterious Press; ISBN: 0892966548; Hardcover
  Arriving in High Point, North Carolina to substitute for a vacationing colleague, Judge Deborah Knott cant find a place to stay. The International Home Furnishings Market has taken over the town. Finally, Deborah is taken in by an eccentric old woman named Mrs Jernigan, beginning a chilling misadventure. Suddenly the lady is gone leaving behind a dead man. Who is the mysterious Mrs. Jernigan and why is Deborah suspected of killing the furniture executive who specialized in making after-hours bedroom arrangements?
  
  
  
• Home Fires - Mysterious Press; ISBN: 0892966556; Hardcover
  North Carolina Judge Deborah Knott engages in her own investigation of an arsonists in the midst of campaigning for reelection in the sixth installment of this award-winning series. At a stop along her campaign trail, Judge Deborah Knott attends a community picnic at the Mt. Olive Church. When the historic building is destroyed by a fire shortly after the outing - and the charred skeleton of young man is found among the ashes - Knott begins her own investigation into the tragedy. Earlier national news reports of a fire at a local African-American church had already gained attention of Wallace Adderly, a Black Panther from the '70s. Knott and Adderly team up to discover if the blazes are merely coincidence, or the work of a racist arsonist. As the number of suspects rises, Deborah finds herself re-examining her own beliefs and values as she and Adderly race to prevent another devastating loss in the community.
  

Links

There are several links to Margaret Maron on the Time Warner publishing site. Try HERE . It's the usual bio with links to the books. There is also a 1998 Christmas note she wrote for the Judge HERE .

The Mystery Writers of America give these awards to honor the best in mystery fiction and nonfiction produced the previous year. The awards began in 1954 and are named in honor of Edgar Allan Poe. Top

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