Killer Market

After reading a serious history of World War I, I needed something light and fun and who better to turn to than Margaret Maron. I love her books and have been saving a couple I found at a book sale.

Judge Deborah Knott not only has a huge family, she has many friends throughout the South, and occasionally is sent to fill in for a vacationing judge in some interesting little town. This time she's been sent to High Point, North Carolina and doesn't realize until she arrives and finds every motel filled that it is Market Week. That's the week when everyone who is anyone in the furniture business arrives in High Point to sell, steal ideas, entertain, and oh yes, there's a murder.

Thankfully Deborah runs into an old friend from law school who show more had to drop out when her daughter was severely injured in an accident. Dixie then wound up in the furniture design business. Her best friend and neighbor Pell Austin, has a spare bedroom Deborah can occupy. That good news is clouded by Deborah finding the murder victim who happens to be Dixie's son-in-law.

The story is convoluted but easy to follow with the fun mix of characters that we've come to expect in a Maron mystery. One of them is a woman who was a brilliant designer until she fell victim to bipolar disease; she won't stay on her medications and so is believed to be a crazy bag lady.

Through the story we learn a lot about the ins and outs of furniture design and marketing. It appears to be a more cut-throat business than I would have thought. This is a good story, a fun read, and one I recommend. show less

A chilling misadventure begins when Deborah, hunting high and lowboy for lodging, is befriended by an eccentric old lady calling herself Mrs. Jernigan. Deborah follows the chiffon-clad Good Samaritan through rooms of French provincial and high-tech modern when the lady suddenly vanishes, leaving a sexy hunk of manhood dead and motionless on a pricey piece of "motion" furniture. Who is the mysterious Mrs. Jernigan and why is Deborah herself suspected of killing a furniture executive who specialized in making after-hours bedroom arrangements and cutthroat deals? To clear her name, Deborah has to table all other plans and investigate. But the knotty heart of this case is a secret well hidden behind a wall of silence about a woman's past. show more It will take all Deborah's courtroom experience and intuitive skills to strip through layers of deception to solve a whodunit that is strictly top-shelf... show less

I don't think Killer Market is as good as the other book by Margaret Maron I read, or as most of hers are judging from reviews. There was too much intertwined detail about the family ties of a bunch of rather peripheral characters. But I like Deborah Knott, the judge/protagonist, the way she talks and think. What I liked best about the book was the local color, all the details about High Point, a furniture making capital, Furniture Market Week there, and the furniture business in general. Very North Carolina!

Ah, furniture. Deborah has been loaned out again, this time it's to a town called High Point where there is a massive furniture showing/conference/selling event going on.

We start very much In Media Res in this novel. An old acquaintance of Deb's has gotten killed and her purse also happened to be right near the victim.

Of course, Deb also just happens to be bunking with the victim's extended family because there's no room at any of the inns/hotels/motels. And she gets caught up in the investigation, very caught up.

This was an interesting novel, there was some discussion of mental illness in it and a whole lotta discussion of furniture and the furniture business. Most of it I totally didn't understand, but the amount of it was helped by show more the fact that Deborah had no idea what anyone was saying either.

This fifth in the Deborah Knot series wasn't the worst, or the best, it was well written and plotted and a solid four star book. show less

Four solid stars for this one with interesting themes of mental illness (schizophrenia), adoption and found family, with a double helping of the "secret child" trope.

Fifth book in the Judge Deborah Knott mystery series set in North Carolina. Judge Knott is off to High Point to fill in for a colleague on vacation, not realizing that she is arriving during Market Week when an international furniture show has taken over the town. While trying to find somewhere to stay (who knew she’d need a hotel reservation in the usually sleepy little town?) she stumbles into a murder mystery centering around the furniture industry and many of the top players in the furniture market. Oddly enough, the murdered man is someone she met briefly in her youth and her tote bag ends up beside his body—and it was an allergic reaction to her penicillin pills that killed him! For an even bigger dose of coincidence, Chan, show more the murdered fellow, is the son-in-law of a former college classmate of Deborah’s—so at least she does find a place to lay her weary head. LOL Admonished to ‘stay out of it’ and not get involved by both the local police and her police friend back home in Colleton County, Deborah really tries to do just that, but of course doesn’t succeed and is very much in the thick of things as potential suspects start coming out of the woodwork. I love this series, whether I’m reading it or listening in audio, and look forward to continuing ahead. This mystery I didn’t figure out until close to the end of the book which is always an added bonus. I don’t always follow the red herrings, but I did this time! show less

Judge Knott does Market Week in High Point and we learn much about the Home furnishing Industry and its denizens. A dead body appears and leads to serious family; not hers, this time, revelations and ramifications before Deborah sorts it out. Another good story and another NC venue is the appropriate setting.