Killer Market: a Deborah Knott mystery (Deborah Knott Mysteries) - Softcover

Margaret Maron

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0997457562 ISBN 13: 9780997457568

Publisher: Oconee Spirit Press LLC, 2017

Synopsis

Since the first Deborah Knott mystery, Bootlegger's Daughter, swept the top mystery awards in 1993, the feisty judge has proven herself an investigator ranking with today's best--dedicated to justice, driven by private demons, and prone to decide with her heart. From the first, Deborah Knott's co-star has been an insider's North Carolina from the back woods to the Crystal Coast. Now in the series' fifth book, author Margaret Maron slightly alters the landscape, giving Deborah a chance to investigate the interior geography of human folly in an exquisite plot created with polish and élan...

Arriving in High Point, North Carolina, to substitute for a vacationing colleague, Judge Deborah Knott finds there is no room at the inn, the Radisson, or anywhere else. The International Home Furnishings Market, with the largest assortment of furniture and home decorations in the world, has taken over the town and left the judge hanging. All Deborah wants is a bed for the night, not thousands of living room suites and dining room ensembles. And the last thing she needs is murder.

A chilling misadventure begins when Deborah, hunting high and lowboy for lodging, is befriended by an eccentric old lady calling herself Mrs. Jernigan. Deborah follows the chiffon-clad Good Samaritan through rooms of French provincial and high-tech modern when the lady suddenly vanishes, leaving a sexy hunk of manhood dead and motionless on a pricey piece of "motion" furniture.

Who is the mysterious Mrs. Jernigan and why is Deborah herself suspected of killing a furniture executive who specialized in making after-hours bedroom arrangements and cutthroat deals? To clear her name, Deborah has to table all other plans and investigate. But the knotty heart of this case is a secret well hidden behind a wall of silence about a woman's past. It will take all Deborah's courtroom experience and intuitive skills to strip through layers of deception to solve a whodunit that is strictly top-shelf.

About this title

From the Publisher:

For genteel pleasures of a teatime whodunit, I recommended Margaret Maron's wellmannered Southern mysteries. The stories are served with a buttery regional flavor and Deborah Knott, a North Carolina district court judge, presides over them like a proper hostess dispensing good judgment in child-custody case of two drunken hunters who have shot up a discarded truck tire, thinking they had bagged an alligator. And she tempers it all with kindness. "I am always drawn to faces that seem to look on human folly with compassion and amusement," she says in KILLER MARKET.

Making the country circuit, the judge pays a court call on High Point, a Piedmont mill town whose population doubles when 70,000 visitors converge for a week of serious trading at the International Home Furnishings Market. Unable to find a hotel room, Deborah attaches herself to local friends, has an Alice-in-Wonderland encounter with a dotty furniture designer and discovers the expiring body of an industry executive swinging on a piece of "motion" furniture. Maron makes a full inside sweep of this vast trade show, but the real attraction is her polished style, high-gloss combination of original observations and clever turns of phrase.

About the Author:

MARGARET MARON grew up on a farm near Raleigh, North Carolina, but for many years lived in Brooklyn, New York. When she returned to her North Carolina roots with her artist-husband, Joe, she began a series based on her own background. The first book, Bootlegger's Daughter, became a Washington Post best-seller that swept the major mystery awards for its year and is among the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century as selected by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. Later Deborah Knott novels Up Jumps the Devil, Storm Track, and Three-Day Town each won the Agatha Award for Best Novel. In 2008, Maron received the North Carolina Award for Literature, the state's highest civilian honor. And in 2013, The Mystery Writers of America celebrated Maron's contributions to the mystery genre by naming her a Grand Master-an honor first bestowed on Agatha Christie. In 2016, she was inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame. To find out more about the author, you can visit MargaretMaron.com. Ebooks are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oconee Spirit Press LLC
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0997457562
• ISBN 13: 9780997457568
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192