Margaret Maron Deborah Knott Mysteries Series Books In Order

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Deborah Knott Mysteries Books In Order

With its blend of Southern charm, legal drama, and mystery, the Deborah Knott series follows the adventures of Knott, the only daughter of a bootlegger and the youngest of 12 siblings. She begins the series as an attorney but later becomes a district court judge in Colleton County, a fictional county in North Carolina.

Margaret Maron’s authentic recreation of the customs and culture of eastern North Carolina is something that readers say makes the series one of their favourites. She populates the books with fun, lively characters that readers want to revisit and which are a big part of the books’ appeal. More than just mysteries, the stories explore Deborah Knott’s personal life and family history throughout the series.

Maron also wrote several short stories related to Deborah Knott that are best read chronologically. Bewreathed (Book 11.5) takes place between Rituals of the Season and Winter’s Child. With This Ring (Book 17.5) takes place between Three Day Town and The Buzzard Table. Deborah’s Judgement is a prequel story marking Knott’s first appearance in print, while Bloody Kin includes several prequel stories of Colleton County characters before they meet Knott.

1. Bootlegger’s Daughter

This smart, sassy series introduces Deborah Knott, candidate for district judge–and daughter of an infamous bootlegger. Deborah’s campaigning is interrupted when disturbing new evidence surrounding a murder that has never been solved surfaces

2. Southern Discomfort

Deborah Knott may have lost the district election, but a bigoted judge’s sudden death–and some old-fashioned political horse trading–have won her a governor’s appointment.

3. Shooting at Loons

Asked to sit in for a hospitalized judge in gracious old Beaufort, Deborah hopes to spend a restful week at her cousin’s nearby Harkers Island cottage; but her very first clamming expedition turns up the corpse of a well-known fisherman in the shallow waters.

4. Up Jumps the Devil

When truck driver and childhood neighbor Dallas Stancil is shot and killed in his own backyard, Deborah figures she owes his memory at least the respectful ritual of taking his widow one of her Aunt Zell’s best chicken casseroles.

5. Killer Market

Arriving in High Point, North Carolina, to substitute for a vacationing colleague, Judge Deborah Knott finds there is no room at the inn, the Radisson, or anywhere else.

6. Home Fires

One place the two Souths–black and white–meet is in Judge Deborah Knott’s courtroom. From the pretty yet aggressive D.A. who requests harsh sentences for her fellow African-Americans to the three white teens caught desecrating a family graveyard with hate slogans

7. Storm Track

Sexual tension, illicit love, and brutal murder entangle and explode in Deborah Knott’s life…

8. Uncommon Clay

North Carolina’s Randolph County is heavy with bright red clay and home to generations of skilled potters. Two of the best are James Lucas Nordan and Sandra Kay Hitchcock, locked in a bitter divorce after 25 years of marriage. Enter Judge Deborah Knott

9. Slow Dollar

A ragtag carnival comes to Colleton County—with murder as the main attraction.

10. High Country Fall

No one is more surprised than Judge Deborah Knott by her engagement to her childhood friend Dwight Bryant. Stressed out by the impending marriage, Deborah agrees to fill in for a vacationing judge in the hills of Cedar Gap.

11. Winter’s Child

Judge Deborah Knott’s new marriage will be tested as she and her new husband are drawn into an emotional hunt for his missing ex-wife and son.

12. Rituals of the Season

Judge Deborah Knott and Deputy Sheriff Dwight Bryant are due to marry in a week. But all plans are put on hold when an assistant district attorney is killed

13. Hard Row

When another body is found, these newlyweds will discover dark truths that threaten to permanently alter the serenity of their rural surroundings and their new life together.

14. Death’s Half Acre

Unchecked urbanization has begun to eclipse the North Carolina countryside. As farms give way to shoddy mansions, farmers struggle to slow the rampant growth. In the shadows, corrupt county commissioners use their political leverage

15. Sand Sharks

When Judge Deborah Knott travels to Wrightsville Beach for a summer conference for North Carolina District Court Judges, she stumbles upon the body of one of her colleagues.

16. Christmas Mourning

It’s Christmas in rural North Carolina’s Colleton County and Judge Deborah Knott is looking forward to a family celebration when a tragedy clouds the holiday season.

17. Three-Day Town

Deborah and Dwight must team up with Lt. Harald to catch the killer before he strikes again.

18. The Buzzard Table

Judge Deborah Knott and her husband, Sheriff’s Deputy Dwight Bryant, are back home in Colleton County amid family and old friends. But the winter winds have blown in several new faces as well.

19. Designated Daughters

When Judge Deborah Knott is summoned to her ailing Aunt Rachel’s bedside, she assumes the worst.

20. Long Upon the Land

On a quiet August morning, Judge Deborah Knott’s father Kezzie makes a shocking discovery on a remote corner of his farm: the body of a man bludgeoned to death.

With This Ring: A Deborah Knott Short Story

Deborah's Judgment: A Deborah Knott Short Story

Five Christmas Gifts: A Holiday Short Story Collection