Customer Reviews

DEATH'S HALF ACRE

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This isn't Maron's strongest book, but it's a solid entry in the series. The villain was more obvious than usual. It's not telegraphed, but it was my early pick. However, I don't read these books for puzzle solving. I read them for characters and the setting. Still, the procedures, politics and such make the books more about the characters learning who the murderer is than the reader finding it out with plenty of slices of life along the way.

First of all, I like Deborah and Dwight married. Deborah's quit going from man to man, bad choice to bad choice, to a good man. There's chemistry there which I enjoy. I like that they work in conjunction in solving the mystery and that multiple viewpoints are offered, beyond their two, too.

I also appreciate the Southern setting where there's an array of Southern characters, all true and faithful to their setting, but they never become caricatures. So many series, especially cozies, rely on caricature and stereotypes. Sometimes Maron's villains might lean towards that problem, but they still fail to fall into the mark. (I don't consider Maron a cozy writer, either, although she's clean and circumspect enough to fit in that market.)

The plot summary can be read on the cover or Amazon, but Maron always offers up food for thought, too. This time she explores an old-fashioned church congregation where women are subjugated as well as the building and population booms in once rural areas. Even when we don't like characters, we can find some sympathy with them, at least most of them. The possible villains in this one were played a little less sympathetic than usual for Maron. Still, there is respect and understanding of the culture and its occupants. Everyone feels real, many would make wonderful friends. And once a year, when I get to read a new Maron novel, they are. My only disappointment is that the book wasn't longer!

Once again, Margaret Maron writes a compelling mystery with all the right ingredients: a strong believable heroine, a suspenseful plot, a strong sense of place and even a few touches of humor. Luckily I set aside some time on a rainy weekend. It's not a book I can put down easily.

Fans of Deborah Knott will be relieved to find that Deborah's marriage has not weakened the series. We don't get drowned in domestic details but we see glimpses of Deborah enjoying the challenges and rewards of her new roles as wife, stepmother and dog owner. She's caught up in the dynamic economy of North Carolina and the plot details are firmly grounded in 21st century technology and culture.

The plot has been summarized elsewhere. I didn't feel the solution was given away (or else I'm particularly dense) but the ending was consistent, believable and totally satisfying.

As other reviewers noted, Maron has a gift for creating characters who are neither angels nor devils. We might raise an eyebrow at some actions of the "good guys" and it's hard not to be sorry for the villains as they're carted off to jail, served with lawsuits or (in one delightful subplot) simply outwitted by a cunning old-timer.

This series has become one of my favorites. I look forward to each volume and get withdrawal pangs when I finish and realize there's a long wait for the next.

Real estate is at the heart of this novel, the 14th in the Deborah Knott series. Like other places in the South, Margaret Maron's fictional Colleton County has enjoyed/suffered a real estate boom bringing new suburb into direct conflict with the old way of life in the rural South. Judge Deborah Knott sees these conflicts play out in her courtroom every working day.

Candace Bradshaw was trailer park trash but she married old money and has parlayed a cleaning service into wealth. Separated from her much older husband and former boss, she's been sleeping her way into political influence and a seat on the planning commission. No one quite believes it when she's found dead, an apparent suicide, but the note in her handwriting implies that she's been taking kickbacks from developers and everyone can believe that!

Deborah is also bothered over the death of the editor to the local paper. He was a victim of a hit-and-run accident months ago, and the police were unable to trace the car. Since then, the local paper has lost its investigative and muckraking edge. Deborah's also worried by her father's strange behavior. Where did he get the jewelry he was showing in the pawn shop?

The one weakness in this book is that we get less of Deborah's first-person narrative. This is because Maron is being fair to the reader, and telling us what Deborah doesn't know. Now what Deborah doesn't find out won't hurt her, but it makes the reader laugh out loud.

A likable, if not stellar, entry in Margaret Maron's Deborah Knott series. Definitely worth reading more for the atmosphere than for the predictable plot--the conflict between Colleton county natives and the ever-multiplying newcomers is intersting and colorful. But the poetic epigrams at the chapter heads were of irritatingly poor quality, Deborah's eternal imprudence at the climax of these stories continues to strain the reader's belief, and the tales of corruption just plod along. I hope the next Deborah Knott novel is back on track. If you haven't ready any as yet, consider the wonderful first of the series: "Bootlegger's Daughter."

Kindle readers: note that Kindle skips a short introductory portion, and goes directly to Chapter 1. The skipped part is important, so it's worth going back.

AGAIN, MRS. MARON DOES A GREAT JOB OF KEEPING YOUR INTEREST THROUGH OUT THE BOOK. SHE MAKES YOU FEEL THAT YOU KNOW THE CHARACTERS AND ARE A FRIEND AND NEIGHBOR FOR A SHORT TIME. ENJOY

"And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter." -- Isaiah 59:14

Death's Half Acre is as much social satire as it is a murder mystery, and the social satire is better written than the mystery. If you can forget about the mystery, you'll probably like the book better than I did. I thought that the mystery was a bit too easy to solve and much of the plot development was too predictable.

But there are plenty of scenes to entertain you, beginning with a most unexpected one in church. As usual, the good ole boys don't have much trouble dealing with the newcomers. Deborah also holds her own in some Solomon-like justice for those in her court. Deborah's father is at his secretive best . . . in dealing with what needs to be resolved.

The book is steeped in charm and nostalgia for an earlier, simpler South. If you yearn for those days in North Carolina, Death's Half Acre will be like a vacation into your past.

Being from North Carolina, I always enjoy the Deborah Knott mysteries. Ms. Maron is so descriptive in her accounts of places and events that it is a joy to read. Her stories keep me reading. I look forward to her next book.

Margaret Maron's latest novel is the best one, yet! Death's Half Acre has it all: tantalizing politics, family secrets (that you never knew) and a revealing plot starring the old bootlegger, her aged father. You won't be able to put the book down, once you begin. The ending is the best! Never before has Maron's book stumped me this well. Highly recommended for Maron's faithful followers, and a great first read if you are a newcommer to this author's award-winning novels.

I recently discovered Margaret Maron's charming Judge Deborah Knott mystery series. Before you get misled by the whole "judge" thing, let me assure you that these tales aren't loaded with technical legal jargon you're going to have to be up to speed on. Rather, if you're not from the rural areas, you're gonna have to learn ruralisms and add a bit of redneck to your diet.

Maron has carved out a space of her own with her Knott stories, and I look forward to each new novel every year. Deborah Knott has an extended, and complicated, family, and I've adopted them as my own. Sitting down with these books is almost like going back home to attend a family reunion. There's business, of course, but there's also a lot of gossip about what's going on in the family and in the town.

This time around, the ecology of the town and the outlying lands take up a lot of Deborah's - and the reader's - attention. This is an issue I've been taking into consideration myself, especially since my hometown is starting to insist on bursting at the seams. I love the fact that every restaurant I used to drive to is now practically in my back yard, but traffic and population density have gotten to be problems. And a lot of the trees are gone. I miss the trees.

The murder in DEATH'S HALF ACRE takes a while to get discovered, even though it takes place in the opening pages. Maron introduces the other issues and the mystery almost sits on a back burner too long. Once Candace Bradshaw's secret dealings start to slide out into public view, it doesn't take long before another murder becomes necessary.

I like Maron's characters a lot. Not just the family, though they're a hoot, but also the various bit players. Candace Bradshaw reminds me of some of the hard-nosed women and girls I grew up around. Small towns are going to make those women as a byproduct every time because it's easy to get ostracized in a small town.

The pacing was good, and I liked the subplot where Deborah's daddy had to deal with the local reverend who was taking advantage of his flock. Maron ties together a television show and that plot very well, and I saw what was coming just ahead of the reveal, which is the best place to do that.

However, I was disappointed in how little Deborah was in the book at first. She was definitely in at the end, with her life on the line, but through the meat of the book she was conspicuously missing in action. I read these books to hear her "talk" to me, to nudge me and make me think, and to let me know that we have a lot of the same outlooks and values. Hopefully Deborah will be back on stage more in the next novel.

If you haven't discovered this wonderful series, you can pretty much jump in with any of them. Maron lays out the family and the background pretty quickly, then you're usually in the middle of the plot. These mysteries are great for the beach and for quiet, rainy days.

Pivotal characters in this fourteenth book of the series are Candace Bradshaw, the beautiful but insecure chairman of the Colleton County board of commissioners; Kezzie Knott, Deborah's aging but wiley father; and Faison McKinney, a demanding and underhanded preacher. These people and other characters in the book are involved in land schemes, illicit sex, and even murder. As usual author Margaret Maron spins the plots and characters in a way which keeps the reader interested from cover to cover.

My favorite moments in the series are when Judge Deborah Knott is with her husband, Dwight, and stepson, Cal, or they are with her large, extended family. You gotta love a woman who has 11 older brothers and who overcomes having a bootlegging father to become a judge, devoted to upholding the law. Deborah and the series seem to have adjusted to her as a married woman and the books have returned to being as entertaining as the first ones of the series.