Bootlegger's Daughter

Rating:
Summary: A good start to a promising series.
Review: Margaret Maron is a witty and humorous writer and has done a great job with this first book in the Deborah Knott series. In this the first book we find out that Deborah is the youngest child, and only girl, in a very large family. Many mentions are made of her numerous brothers (but it isn't until the fourth book in the series that we actually find out how many brothers she has). Deborah currently resides with her Aunt Zel and Uncle Ash. She is asked to solve an 18-year-old murder by the murdered woman's daughter (who was just an infant at the time of the murder). Digging into this leads to two more murders in an attempt to cover up the original. The only downside can be trying to keep track of family members and whose kids are whose, etc. (if those types of details matter to you). Definitely a book worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable -- but not exceptional -- mystery
Review: Margaret Maron's 1992 mystery Bootlegger's Daughter introduces an intelligent and clever sleuth: country lawyer Debrorah Knott. This novel, while starting slowly, becomes a fine "who-done-it" involving the investigation of an eighteen-year-old murder, which someone apparently will go to any lengths (even more murder) to keep secret. Maron does what a writer of her genre should do -- keeps the plot moving, both surprising and satisfying the reader at the end with the inexorability of her final solution. Maron's prose is not great, but it is not awful and cliche-ridden either. The phrase from the Uniform Commercial Code -- "of fair average quality that would pass without exception in the trade" -- comes to mind. Fortunately, her plot and characters are well above average, making this an enjoyable read

Rating:
Summary: No wonder this one swept the awards.
Review: Maron transports you to small-town North Carolina and introduces you around to some of the best developed characters in mystery fiction. Deborah Knott is definitely a good one to know, and it is interesting to watch her as she handles her personal and internal conflicts with style and wit.

In this beginning of the Deborah Knott series, a local teen seeks answers about her mother's death years ago, and Deborah has to delve into history that some locals would much prefer remain buried. It makes for an intriguing puzzle, and Maron places the clues fairly. Maron also treats the reader to an examination of small-town dynamics that affect not only Knott's political race to become a judge, but could put a new face on her personal and family relationships as well.

Rating:
Summary: No wonder this one swept the awards.
Review: Maron transports you to small-town North Carolina and introduces you around to some of the best developed characters in mystery fiction. Deborah Knott is definitely a good one to know, and it is interesting to watch her as she handles her personal and internal conflicts with style and wit.

In this beginning of the Deborah Knott series, a local teen seeks answers about her mother's death years ago, and Deborah has to delve into history that some locals would much prefer remain buried. It makes for an intriguing puzzle, and Maron places the clues fairly. Maron also treats the reader to an examination of small-town dynamics that affect not only Knott's political race to become a judge, but could put a new face on her personal and family relationships as well.

Rating:
Summary: Solid book, but lacking zest
Review: The character introduced here, Judge Deborah Knott, has been justifiably lauded for being one of the best-developed characters in this kind of mystery fiction. She has a real career, a complicated relationship with the notion of ethics, and a background that makes her both flawed and interesting. I will certainly be interested to read further in this series on the basis of her character alone.

This said, I was a little surprised that given how many awards this book won (the Edgar, Agatha, Anthony and Macavity awards) how slight the plot itself seemed. Perhaps my taste just runs more to the complicated and noir, but I would have been interested to see the same character in a situation a tiny bit more complex-- or perhaps with the complexities a bit better developed.

Rating:
Summary: Mrs. Mystery
Review: This is a Deborah Knott mystery, set in the Raleigh-Durham area of NOrth Carolina. Deborah Knott is running for judgeship in Colleton County. She is also solving the mystery of a 20 year old murder of a family member at the same time. During the course of the story she must cope with the usual dirty tricks of a political campaign as well as the uncooperativeness and danger of finding the murderer.

Bootlegger's Daughter will appeal to those readers that like real life locales with a cozy Southern setting. This is despite dealing with issues such as homosexuality, race and politics. There is little gratuitous violence or sex.

The issue that I took with this novel is that it took to the middle of the book to get to the mystery proper. The plot seemed to noodle along. There was not so much as a hint dropped or earnest sleuthing until the middle. It seemed too caught up in local color.

In the novel's favor once the plot started to move it was interesting and finally the hints were dropped. The myriad suspects were not let off the hook until the last chapter or until they were eliminated(i.e. killed off). This kept me up reading the book to the finish.

The book has 3 and 1/2 stars.

Rating:
Summary: A slow starting mystery
Review: This is a Deborah Knott mystery, set in the Raleigh-Durham area of NOrth Carolina. Deborah Knott is running for judgeship in Colleton County. She is also solving the mystery of a 20 year old murder of a family member at the same time. During the course of the story she must cope with the usual dirty tricks of a political campaign as well as the uncooperativeness and danger of finding the murderer.

Bootlegger's Daughter will appeal to those readers that like real life locales with a cozy Southern setting. This is despite dealing with issues such as homosexuality, race and politics. There is little gratuitous violence or sex.

The issue that I took with this novel is that it took to the middle of the book to get to the mystery proper. The plot seemed to noodle along. There was not so much as a hint dropped or earnest sleuthing until the middle. It seemed too caught up in local color.

In the novel's favor once the plot started to move it was interesting and finally the hints were dropped. The myriad suspects were not let off the hook until the last chapter or until they were eliminated(i.e. killed off). This kept me up reading the book to the finish.

The book has 3 and 1/2 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Read this one!
Review: This is a great book. The author won numerous prizes for this book and I can see why. For Deborah Knott there is a decades old mystery to solve, an election campaign to fight, and a huge family of brothers to love and support. Read this one - the plot and "whodunnit" is not as important as the characters you will read about on the way.