Publisher/Format:Grand Central Publishing (2010), Hardcover, 304 pages
Characters: Deborah Knott, Dwight Bryant and a zillion kissing cousins
Subject: teenage drivers, drugs, booze, homicide
Setting: fictional - Colleton County North Carolina
Series: Deborah Knott Mysteries
Genre: law enforcement/crime solving
Source: review copy from Hachette Book Group
This one arrived just before Christmas, and since it belongs to one of my favorite series, it had the word Christmas in the title, and I had recently finished another Deborah Knott book, I dove right in. Like the previous ones in the series, the reader is immediately returned to a family of convoluted and epic proportions. Maron's inclusion of a family tree in the beginning of the volume is an enormous help in getting each character in place quickly.
After a popular cheerleader is killed while driving home one evening, controversy swirls when her father refuses to believe the coroner's report showing alcohol in her system. Shortly after this accident, two young men who had frequent flyer status with the local law enforcement establishment are found murdered. Is there a connection between these two happenings? Deborah and her husband Dwight (the local sheriff) sacrifice a planned for romantic evening celebrating their first wedding anniversary to investigate leads about what really happened.
It's a well written, well plotted, enjoyable read. While it is set during the Christmas time period, it is not necessarily a holiday story and can be enjoyed at any time of the year. I'm looking forward to reading the others of the series I haven't yet gotten to. Stay tuned in 2011.
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gosh, any book that needs a family tree scares me a wee bit.
ReplyDeletebut for this series I might be willing to take the chance.