C.J Critt

With friends and family over-reacting to her announcement that she plans to marry Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant, Judge Deborah Knott gratefully seizes the opportunity to put a five-hour drive between herself and Colleton County when the Chief District Court Judge offers her a week on the bench in Cedar Gap. It is early autumn, leaves are turning, and summer residents are preparing to close up their mountain "cabins" (palatial houses perched atop...

In the town of Listre, North Carolina, the orphan Wesley--known for his penchant for "borrowing" cars--takes up bricklaying, music, and preaching, in this novel of the contemporary South.

Best-selling author Margaret Maron is a winner of the Edgar, Anthony, Agatha, Macavity, and American Mystery Awards. Her captivating mysteries feature quick-witted Deborah Knott, a lawyer, district judge, and devout North Carolinian. At the annual Harvest Festival carnival, while everyone else is playing games and having fun, someone commits murder. As Deborah investigates, she must struggle to win a carny's confidence while a dark web of dangerous...

From the pen of the Edgar Award-winning author of Bootlegger's Daughter and Southern Discomfort flows a tale of mystery, money, and murder on the Outer Banks. Populated with colorful, richly drawn characters, Margaret Maron's latest novel captures the flavor of life in rural North Carolina. Arriving in Carteret County to fill in for a sick colleague, Judge Deborah Knott finds herself in the thick of battles between sport and commercial fishermen and...

Ever since Bootlegger's Daughter stormed the mystery awards in 1993, Margaret Maron's Deborah Knott novels have won a dedicated following. Readers love her wise and witty heroine, intriguing plots, and charming southern country settings. Home Fires offers all this and more, as it tackles one of the contemporary South's most burning issues. When racial tension erupts in the sleepy community of Colleton County, North Carolina, Deborah is caught off...

Margaret Maron, winner of the Edgar, Anthony, Agatha and Macavity Awards, has reached renowned success with the Deborah Knott Mystery series. Uncommon Clay delves into the intriguing world of the Nordans, a deep-rooted family of talented yet cursed North Carolina potters. Judge Knott is filling in for another judge who suffered a mild stroke. When she decrees that the divorcing Nordan couple split their valuable earthenware collection, the husband...

The Herdman children, who enjoy terrorizing their classmates, volunteer to play the main characters in the Sunday school Christmas pageant.

"If Chaucer were a Texan writing today . . . this is how he would have written and this is how he would have felt."— New York Times

In Leaving Cheyenne (1963), which anticipates Lonesome Dove more than any other early novel, the stark realities of the American West play out in a mesmerizing love triangle. Stubborn rancher Gideon Fry, resilient Molly Taylor, and awkward ranch hand Johnny McCloud struggle with love and...

Best-selling author Margaret Maron's colorful Deborah Knott mysteries crackle with sassy Southern dialogue and rural wisdom. In Up Jumps the Devil, fast-moving progress is threatening to forever destroy the leisurely, heart-warming pace of Colleton County, North Carolina. District court judge Deborah Knott sees trouble brewing when plans for a new interstate highway start pushing up property values. As her own relatives battle lifelong neighbors over...