Home Fires - (Deborah Knott Mystery) by Margaret Maron (Hardcover)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>While campaigning, judge and occasional sleuth Deborah Knott joins forces with ex-Black Panther Wallace Adderly to discover who is responsible for the fiery destruction of two African American churches--one of which caused the death of a young man.<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><p>Since the first Deborah Knott novel, <em>Bootlegger's Daughter</em>, swept the Edgar, Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity Awards for 1993, Margaret Maron has brought to life the landscape and people, the history and current concerns of a contemporary South. As akin to Carson McCullers and William Faulkner as she is to her fellow mystery writers, Maron continues her acclaimed series with a chilling story of suspense: a searing crisis of race and region and other burning issues of the heart . . .</p> <p>One place the two Souths--black and white--meet is in Judge Deborah Knott's courtroom. From the pretty yet aggressive D.A. who requests harsh sentences for her fellow African-Americans to the three white teens caught desecrating a family graveyard with hate slogans, racial bias still tries the soul and tests the sense of justice in Colleton County, North Carolina.</p> <p>Busy with her reelection campaign and building a new house on land that has been in her family for generations, Deborah has both deep roots and a professional stake in her community. She's shaken when her nephew A.K. is arrested with a group of vandalizing teens at a local cemetery. Torn between her duty as a judge and her loyalty to her large, close-knit family, Deborah has to decide how far she can go to protect him.</p> <p>Then the first black church burns.</p> <p>Determined to investigate the arson in which A.K. has become a suspect, Deborah Knott is quickly swept into the dark undercurrents of prejudice, pain, m and betrayal in this rural Southern county. Add to this the sudden arrival of a 1970s black activist-turned-public-figure, the emerging secrets of an angry young woman and the burning of two more churches, and Deborah faces a crisis that will challenge her political acumen, her detective skills, and her core beliefs.</p> <p>The sins of the past return to forever change the present in Margaret Maron's most riveting, emotionally moving novel to date, a mystery that involves color and kinship, and the unbreakable bonds of love . . .</p><p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>"Maron's series featuring North Carolina Circuit Court Judge Deborah Knott got off to a great start when the launch novel, Bootlegger's Daughter (1992), swept the Edgar, the Macavity and the Anthony awards for best novel. The series is notable for the smooth way Maron blends the distinctively Southern charms of Deborah's vast extended family with engrossing plots and an intelligentAbut not heavy-handedAconsideration of social issues. In this sixth outing, Maron skillfully incorporates the changes and problems that integration has brought to the New South. Deborah, who narrates, is at the start of a reelection campaign when a nephew is arrested, with two friends, for desecrating a cemetery. When the same spraypainted graffiti appears at an African American church that's been torched, the young men are suspected of arson. Two more black churches are burned and two bodies uncovered before Deborah fingers the culprit. In a separate plotline, the fate of a young civil rights worker, missing for more than 20 years, is brought to light. Both solutions come a bit too easily, although the identity of the arsonist may surprise readers. Maron lays the groundwork with subtlety, however, and she brings much more depth to her portrait of small-town doings than do most mystery writers. Deborah, who dubs her competing inner voices "the preacher" and "the pragmatist," is a wholly engaging blend of country comfort and New South sophistication." -- Publishers Weekly (1998)<br>
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