Death's Half Acre (Deborah Knott Series #14)

O. K., nothing exceptional

Not quite up to previous books in the series. She still has a nice, easyt flowing style of writing. Does not preclude me from buying further books of hers.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

What about the hog farms?

There are about 75 characters in this book. I could not remember their names, nor did I wish to, and certainly could not remember the color of each's hair as it was described. This is called "padding."

Colleton County is a fictional name for Johnston County NC where Maron lives. The #1 industry in Johnston County is hog farming. In NC there are 3 hogs for each person, and they all live in Johnston County. The hog farms are destroying the land and the ground water. Johnston County is not the bucolic setting Maron descibes. When driving through Johnston County on Interstate 40, one is forced to close the car's vent because the smell is so bad. If one drives along the smaller highways of Johnston County, one sees barbeque, gun shop, barbeque, gun shop. This is not sweet, wholesome countryside Maron likes to convince us exists. Maron always has a personal soap box. In this book she takes on the developers. Ask yourself this question: what would you rather have in your backyard, a new house or a hog farm?

A secondary issue for me is the way she portrays the speech of the country folk. I have lived in NC for 40 years, have known many fine country folk (they have lovely manners) but have NEVER heard even the most rural, under-educated, persons speak in the backward way Maron depicts. This is put on, an effort to convince the rest of the nation that North Carolinians are charming hicks. Maron lives about 30 minutes drive from the Research Triangle, Duke University, Chapel Hill, an area that accounts for more highly education professionals than almost anywhere in the U.S.

Maron needs to get off her soap box and inject some reality into her fiction!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great Book

I have always liked Margaret Maron's books, this is one of her best. Great read, only problem was it was too short.

Deborah Knott Series

This is a very easy read and enjoyable series. The main person is Deborah Knott and her extended family. It is a mystery series which takes place in North Carolina. I enjoy this series and would recommend it if you like mysteries.

The characters make the book¿

This is the first Deborah Knott Mystery that I¿ve read. The foundation of this book is the changing rural environment. What was once a picturesque North Carolina countryside has become subdivisions. In the midst of change comes discontent, greed, and corruption. The best part of this book are the characters. They come to life on the page. While I certainly did not like all of them, I did feel as though I knew them. Read and recommend.

Ms. Maron proves once again that she is the best at the mystery genre!

Dwight Bryant and Judge Deborah Knott are still learning how to live as a newly married couple and as full-time parents to Dwight¿s son Cal. What they don¿t expect is yet another murder that hits too close to home and draws Deborah in once again to the middle of all the action but in a way you would never expect or anticipate. When a business woman is found dead under mysterious conditions Dwight is called out with his homicide team to investigate while Deborah is doing some investigating of her own. Not the murder, per se but along with her brother Will she is going through articles by a deceased newspaperman that has him speculating and drawing conclusions that there was a connections between Deborah¿s father Kezzie Knott and his old nemesis G. Hooks Talbert. There is mystery surrounding how Talbert was able to convince a conservative Republican governor to appoint a yellow dog Democratic woman to the bench that more than one person questioned. This was more than this newspaperman could stand and prior to his death he was drawing too many arrows that pointed to Mr. Kezzie pulling something that was not quite on the up and up. Deborah knows how everything had come down and what involvement her father Mr. Kezzie had in the events. She also knows that her last wish is for anyone to discover that perhaps the appointment may have been just a shade to the left of upstanding. When another murder occurs and things really heat up for Dwight as he tries to figure out why anyone would kill what appears to be an innocent teenager and the daughter of the first victim. Too many coincidences and bad leads are pulling him in every direction but the correct one ¿ or so it seems. Deborah is not only dealing with her own mystery but also what is going on with her father and his sudden desire to ¿get right with the lord¿. Is a fast talking preacher swindling Mr. Kezzie out of his land that he holds so dear or could it be something else again that he is up to since his favorite past time is playing his cards close to his vest and keeping his children in the dark about his personal affairs! This latest book in the series is again what makes the mystery genre so great and Ms. Maron such an amazing writer. There is a detailed and carefully laid out plot with enough characters to keep the story fresh and the reader entertained. With all of Ms. Maron¿s books you never know until the final chapter how this will all resolve itself and when you are done with the final page you start all over again ¿ it is that good! Every book in this series is great but this one in particular highlighted the depth of both Deborah and Dwight as not only professionals in their chosen fields but also as a couple trying to figure out how to live together and be parents to a small boy who misses his mother. The other factor as always is the large family that is always drawn into the story and plot as well and showcases how diverse each member of a family is no matter what the size and having Will be center stage is always a plus since he never fails to pull a fast one somewhere down the line.

Great regional mystery

In North Carolina, rural Colleton County commissioner Candace ¿don¿t call me Candy¿ Bradshaw commits suicide stunning everyone. Sheriff¿s Deputy Dwight Bryant investigates to insure that Candace did kill herself even with the note she left behind claiming bad deeds, the woman seemed to have everything going. He soon begins to uncover why as greed, official corruption, and homicide seem to have tentacles throughout the county kickbacks to award construction of housing and malls is prevalent.----------- Bryant¿s wife Judge Deborah Knott is working mostly on small-claims suits that include many small farmers being squeezed off the land in a big government eminent domain grab. She worries these cases are going to cost her future in local politics even more than her reprobate father Kezzie, a infamous bootlegging con man who swears he is retired, but she assumes he is cooling his heels setting up his next sting.----------- The key to this cozy and the entire Knott series is how realistic the Carolina blue cast feels. Readers will enjoy this fine entry as Dwight struggles with a case that looks like suicide yet has some doubts while his wife worries about the impact of whatever her father¿s next travesty will be while also getting involved in the Bradshaw death. Readers will enjoy the deep look at development on the rural locals of Colleton County as fraud and bribery are the American way.----- Harriet Klausner

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