Uncommon Clay - Softcover

Maron, Margaret

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0446610879 ISBN 13: 9780446610872

Publisher: Grand Central Pub, 2002

Synopsis

Whenever Judge Deborah Knott comes to town, murder seems to follow. In the red clay country of Seagrove, North Carolina, she is busy overseeing the distribution of property in the bitter divorce between two members of the Nordan clan, a dynasty of skilled potters who have long been cursed by suicide and scandal. After gruesome violence suddenly strikes the homestead, Judge Knott must quickly untangle the darkest twists of the human heart to stop a killer -- a vengeful fiend who will stop at nothing to continue a dark history of family secrets, old sins, and new blood.

About this title

Review

"In this eighth book in the Judge Deborah Knott series (after 2000's Storm Track), Maron employs spare, straightforward prose and the languid language of the Carolina Piedmont to spin an exceptionally gripping tale of hate, jealousy and murder. Still smarting from the betrayal of her lover, Kidd Chapin, the redoubtable jurist travels to Randolph County, N.C., in order to settle the equitable distribution of the marital property of a pair of freshly divorced potters, Sandra Kay Nordan and James Lucas Nordan. Before she can finish her legal duties, however, somebody bakes James Lucas in a kiln. Deborah's own sense of loss in the wake of Kidd's rejection helps her empathize with patriarch Amos Nordan's multiple tragedies (another son died two years earlier) as well as a hired woman's grief over her retarded son. Amidst a beautifully evoked flowering spring countryside, Deborah pursues the murderer with her usual keen eye and common sense. If the book fairly swells with passion, a healthy dose of Southern humor keeps things from getting too maudlin. By the time the story reaches its dramatic conclusion, readers will be in mourning, wishing the end hadn't come so soon. Maron's mastery of jurisprudence, her well-researched depiction of the potting world but especially her sensitive portrayal of human relationships raise this novel far above the ordinary run of mysteries." -- Publishers Weekly (2001)

About the Author

MARGARET MARON grew up in the country near Raleigh, North Carolina, but for many years lived in Brooklyn, New York. When she and her artist husband returned to the farm that had been in her family for a hundred years, she began a series based on her own background. The first book, "Bootlegger's Daughter," became a "Washington Post "bestseller that swept the major mystery awards for its year-winning the Edgar, Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity Awards for Best Novel-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 also won the Agatha Award for Best Novel. Margaret is also the author of the Sigrid Harald series of detective novels. In 2008, Maron received the North Carolina Award for Literature, the highest civilian honor the state bestows on its authors. 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. To find out more about her, you can visit MargaretMaron.com.

About this edition

• Publisher: Grand Central Pub
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0446610879
• ISBN 13: 9780446610872
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336