Southern Discomfort: A Deborah Knott Mystery [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Margaret Maron (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2000

A Mystery Guild Alternate Selection

"Excellent . . . a thriller that simply oozes southern charm and atmosphere." - Booklist

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 making good on a campaign promise: helping to build houses for battered women. Here Deborah expects muscle aches, not the near-rape of a young woman and the murder of her attacker. And she certainly never expects that her hammer - complete with her fingerprints - will be the murder weapon . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

New lady judge Deborah Knott ( Bootlegger's Daughter ) threads her way through the intricacies of district court in a small North Carolina town where familial connections abound. Murder rears its ugly head only after shared family stories and relationships establish a stylistic context. Employing her intimate knowledge of the place, Knott discovers who assaulted her teenage niece and killed a randy building inspector inside an unfinished WomenAid house. Cleverly told, with a homey atmosphere, this is ripe for a sequel.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 358 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press (April 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786223308
• ISBN-13: 978-0786223305
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,248,862 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

MARGARET MARON is the author of twenty-seven novels and two collections of short stories. Winner of several major American awards for mysteries (Edgar, Agatha, Anthony, Macavity), her works are on the reading lists of various courses in contemporary Southern literature and have been translated into 15 languages. She has served as president of Sisters in Crime, the American Crime Writers League, and Mystery Writers of America. Visit her at www.MargaretMaron.com.

A native Tar Heel, she still lives on her family's century farm a few miles southeast of Raleigh, the setting for Bootlegger's Daughter, which is numbered among the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century as selected by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. In 2004, she received the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for best North Carolina novel of the year; and in 2008, the North Carolina Award for Literature, the state's highest civilian honor. Her mystery novels feature District Court Judge Deborah Knott and are the pegs upon which she hangs her love and concern for the state.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars awesome settings and dialogue, a little light on mystery, May 27, 2002

By 

Gerald M. Bull "Jerry Bull" (Fairview, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Southern Discomfort (Deborah Knott Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

If you've read Ms. Maron's 8-book Sigrid Harald series, you might well wonder if this is indeed the same author who has now given us (a coincidence?) 8 more in the Judge Deborah Knott collection. Sigrid is a straight-laced NYC detective whose psyche just starts to unfold by the end of the set. The stories focus on the crime (usually a murder in chapter one) and the police procedures involved in catching the crook. Little is done to reveal the characters, provide setting changes, etc., a technique we've referred to before as "minimalist".

Enter Ms. Knott -- in Southern Discomfort, the second book of the set, it's a third of the book before anything really wrong happens. Even then, the crime and the perpetrator are uncovered almost more through circumstance than direct intent. Rather, we have a rich fabric of family relationships, single woman issues, feminist issues, mild religious and race issues, interwoven with light suspense over what happened and "whodunit". Along the way, we get a sampling of the court cases Knott is hearing as the newest District Court Judge. Here again, much is revealed of her character and philosophy through what she says and thinks while handling her judgments and sentencings. Moreover, many of Maron's readers report finding her descriptions of rural North Carolina as outright travelogues, superior to books written with that intent.

We've always thought Maron to be a talented and gifted writer, and her hand is revealed to a tee so far in these two books about Knott. For our taste, a little more plot complexity (actually, maybe intensity is a better word) and a little less "down home" chit chat amongst the family would move these right up to the 5-star class! Meanwhile, we're on to #3...

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ANOTHER GOOD ONE BY MARGATET MARON!!!!, March 5, 2001

By 

Mac Blair "Mac Blair" (Huntingdon, TN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Southern Discomfort (Deborah Knott Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the second book in the Deborah Knott Series. In this one Deborah is sworn in as Judge. She is asked to help in building a house for battered women. It is being build by all women workers. Later she finds her niece in the house, beaten up and maybe a rape attempt. The young man who did this is found dead at the scene. Deborah has picked up the hammer used in the killing and therefore could be a suspect. As the story unwinds, her brother is in hopital from arsenic poisoning and the young man who was killed also had arsenic in his blood. The ending is a surprise but very good. I could see the town and the people in my mind as the story progressed. As very good book with what I would call a light mystery. If you want horror and gore, try Patricia Cornwell or John Sandford. I can relate to the family ties that are in the book. Just all around very good.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Southern family life provides a backdrop for murder., March 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Southern Discomfort (Deborah Knott Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

The changing North Carolina landscape provides a setting for murder in Margaret Maron's Judge Deborah Knott series. Southern Discomfort brings Deborah back for her second appearance after being introduced in Bootlegger's Daughter where she balances roles as lawyer/daughter/sister/aunt/ and now judge as she struggles to address issues like overdevelopment in her much loved home. Backyard barbecues, church, home, and family--the backbone of Southern culture--provide the backdrop for another haunting tale. As Bootlegger's Daughter closes Deborah has become a district judge and in Southern Discomfort she is delivering on a commitment to provide housing for battered women. After her niece is assaulted at a building site her attacker is murdered, and Deborah finds herself investigating murder in the family when her niece becomes the murder suspect. Maron's plot device of "prgamatist" v. "preacher," her personal chatterbox, is delightful as she struggles to explore both sides of issues, an important characteristic for a judge. When Maron began the Deborah Knott series after a long career with Sigrid Harald in New York, she emerged from a good writer to a great one, as demonstrated in Agatha, Anthony, and Edgar awards for Bootlegger's Daughter. Maron has borrowed from her Southern roots to create a strong woman of the South in a giant of a mystery. The mystery as morality play, the struggle between good and evil, is nowhere better played than in America's genteel South.