Death's Half Acre (Deborah Knott Series #14)

Associated Press Staff

[Margaret Maron] skillfully portrays the growing tension between family farmers and suburbanites....As always Maron weaves in a couple of subplots that keep things interesting and allow her to touch on a range of social issues.

USA Today

HARD ROW is laced with strong and timely political statements about undocumented workers....Readers will be satisfied with the newest entry in this reliable series.

Publishers Weekly

Agatha-winner Maron's outstanding 14th novel to feature Judge Deborah Knott (after 2007's Hard Row) charts the social changes in rural Colleton County, N.C., as housing developments and shopping malls squeeze out small farmers. The apparent suicide of a greedy county commissioner sets Knott's husband, sheriff's deputy Dwight Bryant, on a case that uncovers corruption and murder. Though busy settling small-claims disputes and participating in family gatherings, Knott herself gets involved in the case because of implications for her own future in local politics. She's also worried about the activities of her father, who's retired as a bootlegger but is still an unrepentant flim-flam man. Maron observes the levelheaded Knott, her large extended family, neighbors and the whole community with cool but genuine sympathy; even criminals remain believably human. Those looking for a mellow, down-home mystery will be well rewarded. (Aug.)

Kirkus Reviews

Family matters prompt Deborah Knott to sidestep the law. Candace Bradshaw, a Colleton County commissioner who may have been taking kickbacks, has tied a plastic bag over her head and left a suicide note implying that she used her position to enrich herself and her business, Bradshaw Management, a janitorial supply outfit that staffed most of the area's cleaning needs. Her ex and her daughter don't believe it, though, and forensics prove them right. The motive for her murder may hinge on what's in her computer files, but the flash drive that will open them is missing. Judge Deborah Knott is as anxious as anyone to find it because there's every indication the files will pinpoint what crusading newspaper editor Linsey Thomas, a hit-and-run victim, had uncovered, including a past alliance between Deborah's daddy, bootlegger Kezzie and mover and shaker G. Hooks Talbert. Oddly, old Kezzie and Talbert, who have avoided each other for years, have seemed oddly chummy lately. Even odder, Kezzie is palling around with hell-and-damnation preacher Faison McKinney. So when Deborah does happen upon that flash drive, instead of handing it over to her husband, Deputy Sheriff Dwight Bryant, she pockets it, an unwise move that almost results in her incineration. Not the sturdiest of Maron's plots (Hard Row, 2007, etc.), but Kezzie devotees will find much to admire as he out-scams a scammer.