When it comes to the weaving of tangled webs, you'll find none finer nor more deceptive than those on the loom of Margaret Maron's Storm Track, the seventh entry in her critically acclaimed Judge Deborah Knott mystery series.

Colleton County, North Carolina, is home to Judge Knott, her moonshining daddy (the series opener, 1992's Bootlegger's Daughter, swept the Edgar Allen Poe, Anthony, Agatha, and Macavity awards in unprecedented fashion), and more brothers and cousins than hairs on a big dog's back. Likable young lawyer Jason Bullock lives there too, as does his lovely and--unbeknownst to him--extraordinarily unfaithful wife--an awkward situation all around, which turns even more so when she turns up dead in a local motel, wearing little more than whimsy and a wink:

"Who would kill her, Reid?"
"Hell, I don't know. Usually you'd say the husband, but Bullock was on the ball field, right? Millard King, too."
"She slept with Millard King? When?"
He shrugged. "Before me, after me, during me--I don't keep tabs."

Clues abound, suspects emerge, and chief among them is the judge's cousin, Reid; a cad, certainly, but a killer? Judge Knott thinks not and sets out to prove it, as the body count rises and Hurricane Fran commences to lower the boom.

A native North Carolinian, Maron opens a window onto the New South by concerning herself more with her multilayered characters and their intertwined lives than with overstyled prose or plot contrivances. An altogether satisfying mystery, Storm Track will surely propel readers straight through this series and into the prolific Maron's other series featuring Lt. Sigrid Harald, NYPD. --Michael Hudson --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Judge Deborah Knott of the Colleton County (N.C.) District Court is one of the most delightful and original of contemporary amateur detectives. The youngest of 12 children--and the only girl--she knows everyone in the county and is never shy about poking her nose in all manner of suspicious happenings. Then she sits readers down for a cosy chat about her adventures, as though they were old friends. In the series's seventh novel (Homes Fires), when promiscuous Lynn Bullock is found strangled in the Orchid Motel wearing black lace underwear, suspects include several local men as well as the deceased's attorney husband, Jason, and Deborah's womanizing cousin Reid Stephenson. But Deborah saw all of these men playing softball at the time of the murder. The judge helps investigate the crime, but soon she has to confront another killer--ferocious Hurricane Fran, fast approaching from the coast. Maron immerses the reader in the down-home, inbred world of the rural South, where intertwined family histories are common knowledge and some old-timers, like Deborah's unrepentant bootlegger father, still live by obsolete customs. Colleton County also has a growing population of black and female professionals, as well as spreading residential development to accommodate suburbanites from the coastal cities 150 miles away. One of Maron's many skills is her ability to weave into her story the social changes coming to this region with the speed of that hurricane. Agent, Vicky Bijur. Mystery Guild main selection. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews

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3.8 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars One of Maron's best, Nov 22 2003

By	"itzyu2" (Virginia USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Storm Track (Hardcover)

Storm Track takes place as a hurricane bears down on Colleton County. The stories of a minister having an affair with a local attorney, the murder of an unfaithful wife, and the approaching hurricane weave together, resulting in murder, attempted murder, and possible scandal.

I liked the way Maron wove together her ending - without a fairy-tale happy ending, but instead a mature view of life's inevitable compromises. It was a satisfying and mature conclusion.

Excellent book, highly recommended.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Two Storms Coming, Both Bad, Oct 9 2003

By	Vesta Irene (the Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews

Eleven year-old Stan Freeman is tracking hurricanes for his sixth grade science project, secretly hoping a big one will come, a couple looked good, but they died, however Hurricane Fran is growing and coming and she's foreshadowing the storm brewing in the tormented soul of a killer, and like the hurricane, the townsfolk are in his path.

Judge Deborah Knott's mind is centered on her love life, until the body of Lynn Bullock, the wife of a local attorney, is found in a cheap motel. Lynn had been to bed with enough men to create a gaggle of suspects and Judge Knot tries to narrow them down as both the hurricane's and the killer's rages build.

I saw this book in a friends bookcase and, because I'd spent ten years on a boat in the Caribbean where the weather is the first thing you think about in the morning and hurricane's are your deadliest enemy, I just had to read it. I enjoyed it, but because it was my first book in the series and the authors seventh, I had to spend a lot of time getting familiar with the characters. Still I liked it four stars worth.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

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4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, Sep 15 2002

By A Customer

I read this book on a recent plane trip. I've been reading Maron's Deborah Knott books since the beginning of the series and this is one of the better ones. I don't like the ending, though. It seemed too easy. One of the charms of this series how Maron talks about Knott's large family. You're actually able to tell her 12 brothers apart! And there are a few poignant passages about Knott's mother, who died when she was a teenager. In fact, the only book in the series that I really didn't enjoy was one that didn't discuss her family. It is called Killer Market and it is about the North Carolina furniture market. Anyway, this is a good book. It's not high literature, but it's not trying to be. It was entertaining and it gave me something to do during a boring plane ride (and it's nice that we have boring plane rides, isn't it?).

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Like talking to an old friend
I thought this book like all of Margaret Maron's Deborah Knott series was wonderful, and like catching up on things with an old friend. Read more

Published on April 15 2002

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing Denouement
I found this book abandoned in the departure area of an airport and picked it up. I have never read any of Maron's book and had a few hours to kill, so I gave it a whirl. Read more

Published on Dec 18 2001

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but not Maron's best
While the story was entertaining, I found the solution to be a little disappointing. Flipping back to the set-up for the crime, the ending didn't quite make sense. Read more

Published on Sep 4 2000 by Reader

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Winner
If you are a Deborah Knott fan, you'll definitely enjoy this outing. The story within the story is about a hurricane bearing down upon Colleton County. Read more

Published on Aug 7 2000 by Kimberly Edwards Taylor