Slow Dollar (Thorndike Press Large Print Basic Series) - Hardcover

Maron, Margaret

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786246707 ISBN 13: 9780786246700

Publisher: Thorndike Pr, 2002

Synopsis

Opening night at the annual Harvest Festival carnival and the moonlit autumn evening has brought out half of Colleton Country to ride the Tilt-A-Whirl and Ferris wheel, throw quarters at Polly's Plate Pitch, or toss ping-pong balls into bowls of live goldfish against a cacophony of music, clacking machines and hucksterism. The air is sweetly redolent of hot grease, fried dough, grilled meats and spun sugar...and one whiff is all it takes to send Judge Deborah Knott straight back to her childhood, holding her mother's hand, riding on the shoulders of one of her eleven brothers or clinging to her father's trouser leg, dazzled by the bright neon tubes and colourful chasing lights. Unfortunately, all is not try-your-luck and stuffed prizes this year. Murder stalks the midway, and when one gaffed game ends with a brutal death, Deborah discovers more than a body. For hidden beneath the carnival's razzle-dazzle surface is a sordid reality of danger, greed and dark secrets - devastating confidences kept concealed for almost twenty years. Now as family loyalties war with judicial obligations, Deborah must struggle to win a carny's trust...before the killer pins a bull's eye on yet another victim.

About this title

Review

"Step right up! Play a game and win your girl a prize! The carnival's in town and Maron brings to this ninth Judge Deborah Knott mystery (after 2001s Uncommon Clay) the vigor and verve that have served her so well to date. Larceny, both grand and small, as well as death hover over the Ames Amusement Corporation's show on its arrival in Colleton County, N.C. Deborah, her irrepressible siblings (she's one of 12, the youngest and the only female) and some newfound kinfolk gather to mourn her great-nephew and carnival worker Brazos Hartley, after the young man is stomped to death, his mouth stuffed with quarters. The rural North Carolina dialogue and "carny" talk are perfect, especially descriptions of food, fashion and enchanting scenery of Indian summer in the South. The author draws family relationships so clearly you feel you could melt right into the crowd for barbecue, biscuits, slaw and cobbler. Before Maron is done, there's a bizarre theft of some tacky paintings, a second murder and a steamy romance. Is Judge Knott finally going to settle down and marry? Maron is one of the most seamless Southern authors since Margaret Mitchell, yet she beautifully writes a series about a New York police detective, Lieut. Sigrid Harald, with equal authority. A Knott family tree and a glossary of carny terms round out a novel that Nero Wolfe would describe as most satisfactory!" -- Publishers Weekly (2002)

About the Author

Born and raised in central North Carolina, Margaret Maron lived in Italy before returning to the USA where she and her husband now live. In addition to a collection of short stories she's also the author of 16 mystery novels. Her works have been translated into seven languages and her Bootlegger's Daughter, a Washington Post bestseller won Edgar, Anthony, Agatha, and Macavity awards.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thorndike Pr
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0786246707
• ISBN 13: 9780786246700
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 344