Home Fires

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.

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!

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!

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