Killer Market (Deborah Knott Series #5)

by Margaret Maron

Overview

The first Deborah Knott mystery, Bootlegger’s Daughter, swept the top mystery awards in 1993 with a down-home judge dedicated to justice, driven by private demons, and prone to decide with her heart. From the first though, the books have given us an insider’s look at North Carolina—from its western mountains to its Crystal Coast. Now in the series’ fifth book, Judge Deborah investigate the interior geography of human folly in an exquisite plot created with polish and élan…

Sent to High Point, North Carolina, to substitute for a vacationing colleague, Deborah finds there is no room at the inn. Or anywhere else for that matter. The International Home Furnishings Market has taken over the town and all the hotels. 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 she is befriended by Mrs. Jernigan, an eccentric older woman who promises to find her a place to stay. Deborah follows the chiffon-clad Good Samaritan through showrooms of French provincial and high-tech modern until the woman 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 are secrets hidden behind walls of silence. 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780692780565
Publisher:	Maron and Company
Publication date:	09/27/2016
Series:	Deborah Knott Series , #5
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	829,670
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.69(d)

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.

Interviews

Deborah Knott is a laid-back, smart-mouthed judge assigned to central North Carolina, but in the fifth installment of this Edgar-winning series, Margaret Maron sends her to hold court in High Point, the center of the country's high-dollar furniture industry. It's Market Week, a week of glittering parties, cutthroat competition for international buyers, and overbooked hotels as the giants of the industry unveil their newest lines in hundreds of upscale showrooms.

—Margaret Maron

Editorial Reviews

"North Carolina district court judge Deborah Knott unintentionally "crashes" several manufacturer's receptions at the internationally known Southeastern Furniture Market in High Point, where she becomes involved in murder. Initially befriended by a mysterious and elusive woman with bogus name tags, series protagonist Knott soon runs into an old woman friend from law school as well as a hunky ex-beau now in the furniture business. When Deborah later discovers the man dead, she and police begin investigating. Maron (Up Jumps the Devil, LJ 8/96) continues her usual warm-hearted, family-oriented approach, tempered with observant detail, infectious enthusiasm, and light humor. Highly recommended." -- Library Journal (1997)

"In this fifth entry in the widely praised, increasingly popular Deborah Knott series (following Up Jumps the Devil ), the judge must travel to High Point, North Carolina, to fill in for a vacationing colleague. Unbeknownst to her, the usually sleepy, little town is playing host to the International Home Furnishings Market, attracting companies from all over the world, and Deborah is practically laughed out of every hotel in town when she shows up without reservations. After losing her purse in one of a dozen cocktail-party feeding frenzies, Deborah finally finds a place to stay with an old law-school chum. When her purse is found at the scene of a murder--cutthroat furniture-company executive Chan Nolan is found dead in a pricey wicker porch swing--Deborah is brought in for questioning. Attempting to solve the case by tracking the whereabouts of Nolan's legion of enemies (and also shop for some bedroom furniture), Deborah comes into contact with some real characters, including a onetime legendary designer who has gone off her meds; a pesky, persistent free-lance reporter; and a southern belle with a homicidal streak. All the furniture shoptalk will keep decorating aficionados happy; the rest of us will be more than willing to settle for Deborah's feisty humor and sharp deductive skills." -- Booklist

From the Publisher

In a disappointing fifth entry in a robust series (Bootlegger's Daughter; Up Jumps the Devil, etc.), district court judge Deborah Knott substitutes on the bench for a vacationing colleague in High Point, North Carolina's furniture center, during the bustling Global Home Furnishings Market. Maron places her murder in a setting packed with industry jargon and lore. There's an immediately suspicious figure in elusive, eccentric Savannah, a legendary designer who's returned to High Point after a long absence from the decorating scene. Slippery as lemon oil, Savannah draws everyone's attention while someone kills Chan Nolan with a penicillin-laced brownie. Who knew that Chan, a widower who Deborah dated as a teenager, was allergic? His mother-in-law, Dixie Babcock, an old friend of Deborah's from law school, introduces her to numerous Market attendees. Many have strong motives for murder: the longtime employers Chan was leaving to form a new company of his own in Malaysia; spurned lovers; independent dealers who blame Chan for lost business; an evasive reporter; the mysterious Savannaheven Dixie and her neighbor Pell, who feared Chan would take Dixie's adored granddaughter, Lynette, to Malaysia. Deborah identifies the killer by sorting through everyone's dark secrets and some obviously arranged clues. Some readers will enjoy the furniture and decorating lore, but most will look forward to Deborah's return to the cozy milieu of her home town and colorful family.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

North Carolina district court judge Deborah Knott unintentionally "crashes" several manufacturer's receptions at the internationally known Southeastern Furniture Market in High Point, where she becomes involved in murder. Initially befriended by a mysterious and elusive woman with bogus name tags, series protagonist Knott soon runs into an old woman friend from law school as well as a hunky ex-beau now in the furniture business. When Deborah later discovers the man dead, she and police begin investigating. Maron (Up Jumps the Devil, LJ 8/96) continues her usual warm-hearted, family-oriented approach, tempered with observant detail, infectious enthusiasm, and light humor. Highly recommended.

Library Journal

North Carolina Circuit Court Judge Deborah Knott (Up Jumps the Devil, 1996, etc.) breezes into High Point just in time for the furniture industry's Market Week—a four-star production that features dazzling displays, nonstop parties, and no room at the inn for anybody who arrives, as Deborah does, without reservations. In her comically desperate hunt for lodgings, Deborah falls in with a loony old bird who introduces herself as Matilda McNeill Jernigan; by the time Deborah learns that the real name of this legendary, addled designer is simply Savannah, her supposed guide to the market has already walked off (in a fog, Deborah can only hope) with Deborah's handbag in exchange for Savannah's own. A scheme to swap bags falls through, but never fear: Deborah catches up with her bag the following day, when it's found next to the corpse of Chandler Nolan—once Deborah's pimply teenaged swain, now the dashing sales chief of furniture manufacturer Fitch and Patterson—who's been done to death with the penicillin tablets from Deborah's bag. Maron never recovers the panache of this quicksilver beginning; the puzzle she poses is so full of walk-ons, serious suspects (a rival Fitch and Patterson salesman, his Chandler-smitten granddaughter, loopy Savannah and her possible illegitimate daughters, Chan's rapacious heirs), and discreet hints of family irregularities that you'll probably be relieved—though Deborah isn't—every time she has to drag herself away from this morass back into her ever-amusing courtroom.

An overplotted souffl&%233; of a novel, puffed up to the sky with lethal doses of magnolia-scented gossip.

Kirkus Reviews

Furniture design can be a deadly business, as our heroine discovers when she spends time in a North Carolina town during its international furniture show. C.J. Critt's hint of a Southern accent gives verisimilitude to the multitude of colorful North Carolina characters--most of whom seem to be trying to murder or at least back-stab each other. Critt reads with zest for the zany tale. She does fail to vocally differentiate between the narration and the start of a conversation, but only occasionally. All in all, great fun--beware the couch you sit on in a furniture showroom. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

OCT/NOV 01 - AudioFile