This is another series I have not read before, and I am very pleased to have found it. It is the Deborah Knott Mystery series by Margaret Maron, the latest of which is "Sand Sharks."
Knott is a district court judge in Colleton, North Carolina, who experiences more excitement than she bargained for when she goes to a conference for state judges in Wrightsville, NC, near Wilmington. She discovers the body of a judge colleague near the restaurant where she eats for dinner the night before the conference starts and is caught up in helping the detective assigned to the case to determine who killed the judge. Of course, there is some collateral damage and more dead bodies along the way to the truth about Judge Jeffrey's murder. Did another judge kill him off? Was it the friend of Deborah's cousin, who's son was victimized by a criminal the judge let loose? Was it someone completely unassociated with the judge or his cases?
This is a profession I know little about, so watching the politics that goes on to get judges elected and kept in office is interesting. What I liked best about the book is that all of the characters are given very human feelings and reactions. Reading the book is like taking a page out of the lives of ordinary people and weaving a tale around them. There are personalities you like and others you hate, and some that are just interesting or different. All are described, warts and all, including the main character, Judge Knott.
This was a fast read. I didn't want to put the book down and spent a large part of two days finishing it. That is one of the tests of a good book for me. If I am so involved that I can't put it down, it rates highly with me. It means that the characters speak to me, the plot is absorbing and paced right, and the transitions are skillfully written so that you want to keep going on from one chapter to the next. That is a skill that is accomplished by only the best and most experienced authors, usually, and Maron is experienced. She has about 15 books in the Knott series, 8 books in the Sigrid Harald series, and 4 other novels.
Maron grew up near Raleigh, NC, lived in Brooklyn for many years, and has returned to her native North Carolina. She has won awards for many of her mysteries. You can learn more about her at her website, www.MargaretMaron.com.
Liz Nichols
lizdnichols at gmail.com
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Evil for Evil by James R. Benn
Evil for Evil is a bit of a twist on the classic war novel set during World War II in Jerusalem and Northern Ireland.
Billy Boyle is a Second Lt. on Dwight D. Eisenhower's staff and followed the war across Africa and Italy with Ike. He has a distant familial relationship with Ike and calls him, affectionately, Uncle Ike. His girl friend, Diana, is about to go out on another SOE special op for Britain behind enemy lines and Billy in a fit of frustration decides to take an assignment requested by the British to solve the disappearance of 50 Browning Automatic Rifles in Northern Ireland, which the British think may be linked to German infiltration and an attempt in the making of a German effort to topple the neutrality of the Irish Republic.
This sets Boyle up for a very interesting set of conflicting relationships in Ulster, for Irish-American Catholic Boyle is expected to take orders from the British and their Northern Irish Protestant cronies against possible members of the IRA, an organization Boyle and his family support fervently and with lots of dollars at home in Boston.
The book is remarkable in how deftly Benn explains the complexities of Irish Catholic and Protestant interaction and politics and weaves it into the personalities, speech and actions of his characters. In the end it is clear that the good and reasonable on both sides cooperate in the best interests of the whole, and the extremists on both sides tend to be more alike than different. The extremists are killers with little real motive other than selfish self-interest. The only way to tell apart one their killings is by the MO.
If there had been more Boyles and more of the Protestant persuasion like DI Carrick, perhaps the bloody troubles in Northern Ireland would not have gone on for most of two centuries.
I found myself really being compelled to read on and on in this book with little desire to stop until I found out what would happen to Boyle and to the others who were looking for the guns, the German infiltrators and the extremists on both sides. I will remember Billy and look forward to following him through the rest of the war in future Benn books.
This is a cracking good war mystery with a little bit of a twist and lots of action and surprises.
Liz Nichols
Billy Boyle is a Second Lt. on Dwight D. Eisenhower's staff and followed the war across Africa and Italy with Ike. He has a distant familial relationship with Ike and calls him, affectionately, Uncle Ike. His girl friend, Diana, is about to go out on another SOE special op for Britain behind enemy lines and Billy in a fit of frustration decides to take an assignment requested by the British to solve the disappearance of 50 Browning Automatic Rifles in Northern Ireland, which the British think may be linked to German infiltration and an attempt in the making of a German effort to topple the neutrality of the Irish Republic.
This sets Boyle up for a very interesting set of conflicting relationships in Ulster, for Irish-American Catholic Boyle is expected to take orders from the British and their Northern Irish Protestant cronies against possible members of the IRA, an organization Boyle and his family support fervently and with lots of dollars at home in Boston.
The book is remarkable in how deftly Benn explains the complexities of Irish Catholic and Protestant interaction and politics and weaves it into the personalities, speech and actions of his characters. In the end it is clear that the good and reasonable on both sides cooperate in the best interests of the whole, and the extremists on both sides tend to be more alike than different. The extremists are killers with little real motive other than selfish self-interest. The only way to tell apart one their killings is by the MO.
If there had been more Boyles and more of the Protestant persuasion like DI Carrick, perhaps the bloody troubles in Northern Ireland would not have gone on for most of two centuries.
I found myself really being compelled to read on and on in this book with little desire to stop until I found out what would happen to Boyle and to the others who were looking for the guns, the German infiltrators and the extremists on both sides. I will remember Billy and look forward to following him through the rest of the war in future Benn books.
This is a cracking good war mystery with a little bit of a twist and lots of action and surprises.
Liz Nichols
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