Customer Reviews

Home Fires

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

 

 

Judge Deborah Knott is seeing her lover when she receives the call from her brother Andrew that her nephew A.K. is in trouble with the law for desecrating gravestones at a nearby cemetery. A.K. and two of his buddies spray painted racial slurs on the graves of African-Americans.

Shortly after the arrest, a black church is burned with the graffiti being identical to that of the cemetery. The police believe the three teens did the act. Deborah, who is running for reelection in Colleton County, North Carolina, begins her own investigation. However, two more churches are torched and two corpses are found. If Deborah does not uncover the culprit soon, a race war may engulf her beloved hometown.

Award winning Margaret Maron returns with her sixth Knott regional who-done-it. HOME FIRES is a brilliant, in-depth portrayal of the modern south with its pressing social issues. The characters are well defined and though the mystery is relatively simplistic, the novel is another winner. This series and Ms. Maron's Sigrid Harald tales are all worth reading as they demonstrate just why the author is a multi-award winner.

Harriet Klausner

The Deborah Knott series is low-key, and the endings are correspondingly not shell-shockers. But in every book, Maron adds a little more information about Deborah and her family members, coworkers, and friends. I especially enjoyed reading about Cyl Degraffenreid, a character about who Maron has written in the past, but never to this extent. I hope we see her more in future books--she's complex, and as a reserved,none-too-social African American attorney, a nice foil to Deborah's warm, open character.

The Walters, long time owners of the now finacially troubled mill, are looking for a buyer. The community splits over the sale of the mill to a big-city investors. What will happen to the millworker's jobs if the sale goes through? But what if it doesn't? And what about the recent rash of peculiar fires? Is there a shady conntection between the fires and the mill buyout, or is something else fueling these mysterious blazes? In "Home Fires", Margaret Maron again delivers a vividly realistic, enticingly suspensful mystery. A sure-fire way to please the mystery book lover on your holiday list!

Although I enjoyed the slice of Southern life that Maron serves up, I was disappointed that the "mystery" was so low-key. The story was almost totally devoid of tension and suspense. I haven't read any of the other books in this series, so I don't know if this is typical for this writer. Interesting characters were introduced but not developed enough. Her huge Southern extended family is interesting; but I wanted more!

This author writes like an angel.

The Deborah Knott series shows that mystery writing can be highly enjoyable and compelling without unnecessarily confusing plotting, gory crime scenes or characters that just take themselves too seriously. I would recommend this author and the Knott series to anyone looking for a good, cosy read.

Needless to say, I am going to snap up all other books written by this author as soon as I can get my hands on them.

Good reading!

While not a great mystery in general all of the Deborah Knott books are a good read. The books lead you through the daily life of a rural county judge, her huge family of brothers, in-laws, nieces & nephews; love life and a local mystery.
The books are interesting, colorful, descriptive and very readable. These are good books to curl up with when you do not want to tax your brain with a Clancy, Patterson or Berry. Probably best read from first book forward but not absolutely necessary.

It had been awhile since I'd read Maron; I'd forgotten how good she is and what strong, character-driven mysteries she writes. I love Deborah's relationship with her family and friends. Her observations on society and racism were insightful without being preachy. Deborah's inner self of The Preacher and the Pragmatist add humor and insight into the character. The story is engrossing and I was surprised by the killer. This was a wonderful, straight-through read and a classic example as to why Ms. Maron is an award-winning author.

Guess I am by my self but I did not care much for Home Fires. I have read five other books in this series and liked them all. I could just not get into Home Fires. Deborah's nephew, A.K., is caught turning over headstones in a cemetery, then a black church is torched and a body found in the ashes. Was A.K. involved is this too? It seems to me that a big part of the book was spent in talking about Deborah's family. I stayed so confused over whose child was whose and which brother was the 4th born or 2nd born or the third one up from her that I just never got into liking the book. Would recommend skipping this one if you are reading the series.

HOMES FIRES by Margaret Maron is another "mystery" in the Judge Deborah Knott series, but the frequently used racial theme is both flat and dull. Sorry, but I get a bit tired of reading almost with a few turns the same story told over and over by so many.
MS. Maron just happened to come in at the end of a long line of similar books and the mystery part seems like an added attraction without strong character development to move the story forward.
Maron is a renown southern cozy mystery author and reading all of her books does tell the extended story of one family.
Nash Black, author of TRAVELERS.

I READ ALOT OF BOOKS... THIS AUTHOR HAS TOO MANY NAMES AND PEOPLE IN THE FIRST 25 PAGES... TOO CONFUSING AS TO WHO IS RELATED TO WHO ...DOESNT FLOW WELL... TOO MUCH CONCENTRATION AND REREADING PREVIOUS PAGES TO FIGURE OUT ALL THE NAMES INVOLVED...I MAY TRY ONE MORE BOOK---USED FOR SURE... I TRIED GETTING INTO THIS BOOK 4 TIMES AND STILL HAVENT GOTTEN TO CHAPTER 6....SO IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR AN EASY READ FOR A LAZY WEEKEND THIS ISNT THE BOOK FOR YOU