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Title details for Uncommon Clay by Margaret Maron - Available

Uncommon Clay

Deborah Knott Mysteries Series, Book 8

#8 in series

by Margaret Maron
C.J. Critt
Audiobook
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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 winds up dead—in his own kiln! Many people have motives and the clay wheel swirls with suspects. C.J. Critt's narration heightens the suspense in this family's story of long-time grudges, murder, unbearable pain, and loss. This exciting novel is as rich as the red clay pottery of North Carolina.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Judge Deborah Knott

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 16, 2001

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781449881498
      • File size: 252988 KB
      • Duration: 08:47:03

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Someone is killing off the Nordans, a family of potters as deeply entrenched in the North Carolina Piedmont as the clay they use to produce their famous Rooster Ware. Deborah Knott, Maron's wonderfully realized no-nonsense judge, finds herself entangled in family secrets and up to her elbows in grisly murder. Narrator C.J. Critt remains firmly in control of each character even as the bullets fly and the bodies pile up. Critt invests Deborah with equal parts inspiration, insinuation, and insouciance. Secondary characters become distinct personalities, easily identified by voice alone. Maron's thorough research into the business of pottery and Critt's expert performance combine to provide an unflinching look into the tenuous bonds within families, professional jealousy, and not-so-sweet revenge. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from April 9, 2001
      In this eighth book in the Judge Deborah Knott series (after 2000's Storm Track), Maron employs spare, straightforward prose and the languid language of the Carolina Piedmont to spin an exceptionally gripping tale of hate, jealousy and murder. Still smarting from the betrayal of her lover, Kidd Chapin, the redoubtable jurist travels to Randolph County, N.C., in order to settle the equitable distribution of the marital property of a pair of freshly divorced potters, Sandra Kay Nordan and James Lucas Nordan. Before she can finish her legal duties, however, somebody bakes James Lucas in a kiln. Deborah's own sense of loss in the wake of Kidd's rejection helps her empathize with patriarch Amos Nordan's multiple tragedies (another son died two years earlier) as well as a hired woman's grief over her retarded son. Amidst a beautifully evoked flowering spring countryside, Deborah pursues the murderer with her usual keen eye and common sense. If the book fairly swells with passion, a healthy dose of Southern humor keeps things from getting too maudlin. By the time the story reaches its dramatic conclusion, readers will be in mourning, wishing the end hadn't come so soon. Maron's mastery of jurisprudence, her well-researched depiction of the potting world but especially her sensitive portrayal of human relationships raise this novel far above the ordinary run of mysteries. (May 22)FYI:The first Knott novel,
      Bootlegger's Daughter (1992), won all four top mystery awards—the Edgar, the Anthony, the Agatha and the Macavity. Maron, who's also the author of the Sigrid Harald series, will be the guest of honor at this year's Malice Domestic Convention.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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