Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 11, 1993 TAG: 9307130344
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MIKE MAYO/Book page editor
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
BOOTLEGGER'S DAUGHTER. By Margaret Maron. Mysterious Press. $4.99.\ (paper).
Margaret Maron is riding high.
"Bootlegger's Daughter," the first in a new series, won last year's Edgar Award for Best Novel. The new paperback edition is selling well and so is the sequel, "Southern Discomfort." The third, tentatively titled "Shooting At Loons," is due next year.
The protagonist of these novels is Deborah Knott, a 30- something lawyer who has returned home to Colleton County, North Carolina, after an adventurous and yet to be revealed past. As the second book begins, she has just been appointed to a district judgeship. Most of the first part of the story revolves around her learning the judicial ropes. It doesn't take her long to realize that there's more to the job than determining the guilt or innocence of those who are brought before her. Much more.
Subtle political considerations are as important as justice, and in central North Carolina, politics are as much a matter of family as party affiliation. That's where the novel really shines. Instead of the conventional mystery format - it takes more than 100 pages for the first body to appear - Margaret Maron uses that first half to describe the interlocking webs of marriage, family, friendship and work that make up a society.
Deborah finds herself working with an all-woman crew to build a small house for a poor family. That leads to an encounter with a womanizing building inspector who has already run afoul of the law on another matter. At the same time, there are strong overtones of sexual abuse and a stolen bottle of arsenic to be dealt with. So the novel is not without the suspense elements that readers want.
But, as is the case with all good crime fiction, the identity of the killer is the least important part. "Southern Discomfort" passes Raymond Chandler's test for a good mystery in that it's one you'd read even if the last chapter were missing. It's the trip, not the destination, that's important.
With these two novels, Margaret Maron has established a firm base for a series. In a brief interview, she said that the third installment is already in the works, though she is still figuring out her main character. "I think Deborah's been married before," she said. "In her early 20s she had a wild period where she really went off the rails. In fact, it might have been earlier, at 18 when her mother died. She probably made a totally unsuitable early marriage. But she is a Southern woman and she was brought up in a certain way."
"Shooting at Loons" will be set on the North Carolina coast. In part, it's about a real conflict between local fishermen and rich outsiders. "You have all these groups at loggerheads . . . commercial fishermen, pier owners, yachtmen . . . and they're going to be the backdrop. I figure this one wealthy woman will get enough people ticked off at her because she wants her own beach how she wants it that somebody will kill her. And I may have a body floating in the bay. How about that?"
It really doesn't matter how soon or late the first corpse appears. Margaret Maron's little postage stamp of soil is a fine place to visit, and readers are going to enjoy their time there.
by CNB