Up Jumps the Devil

I genuinely love Margaret Maron's works. Deborah Knott is perhaps her best character. She is so typical of the Southern women I have known. And Maron absolutely gets the culture of North Carolina.

This book has the subtext of exploring the "gentrification" of rural North Carolina. What were once fields are now upscale housing developments. Mom-and-Pop stores get squeezed out in favor of the known quantity of big-box stores. Are we losing the joy of rural life to the lure of lots of money in hand?

Of course, to really look at this, there must be a murder. And, of course, Deborah must investigate. While she does so, we learn more about her past, including her large family. The author did play fair with the reader in the reveal.

This cozy show more mystery series should appeal to anyone who enjoys mysteries and to those who enjoy North Carolina fiction. Highly recommended! show less

Fourth in the Judge Deborah Knott mystery series set in North Carolina. I thoroughly enjoyed the audio version of this book—the reader was excellent, really did well with the different voices, and was able to tell the story in such a way that it didn’t annoy me as I worried it might, this being a “Southern” mystery. The story addresses issues of land development, and reaches back into Deborah’s and her family’s past and how this ties in to a murder investigation of one of their elderly neighbors. Was Jap Stansel killed because of his land, because he knew something about the murder of his son, or for other personal reasons? There are plenty of folks who “could’ve done it” or could’ve at least been involved, but who show more had the motive and opportunity? I have to say that I did figure out the bad guy as soon as he/she was introduced, but at the time didn’t really know why, just one of those “gut feelings” I get quite a bit of the time. I did figure that out as time went on too, but honestly, even knowing that detail did nothing to spoil the ‘getting there’ of the story. I love Deborah’s family, though I highly suspect I would not myself want to be a member of it, as they are very traditionally involved with one another, nosier than hell, and seemingly very time-consuming to be a part of. LOL Anyway, I think I will see if some more of the series are available on CD from the library—unfortunately, without a (steady) internet connection at home it would be too difficult I think to try to just download more in MP3. Excellent stuff! show less

I'm a huge fan of Maron's Debra Knott series, and I'm trying to backfill the ones I've skipped over the years. This one is so "old" I got it on cassette tapes - we did find an old walkman that still works, and I listened to this one this weekend while I worked on some needlepoint. Keeping up with the 11 brothers and a town full of cousins adds to the fun while Debra tries not to get involved in solving murders. Great southern setting, fun characters, and a better than average story.

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There's such a sense of family in these novels, and even more amazing is that it's not just in one or two books of the series, but throughout every single one.

Up Jumps the Devil is a book more about the past than the previous three in the series. We get to meet Allen Stencil, who has a history with Deb. And we also get to meet some more of Kezzie Knott's neighbors.

The mystery is all about land and how it's inherited when people die. And a couple of people definitely die in this book. As usual, the murders also somehow wind up touching Deb and her very extended family.

It still got confused here and there because there were what seemed like hundreds (okay only a few dozen) of new Knott (and Knott affiliated) family members.

Kidd was still show more there, as was Dwight, and there was even a little bit of strife between Kidd and Deb, which was interesting. A little bit of strife is always interesting.

It's not the most involved and complicated mystery Maron's written, but all the family drama and action more than made up for the thinner than usual plot. show less

Back for her fourth leisurely outing, North Carolina judge Deborah Knott (Shooting at Loons, 1994, etc.) has personal connections to just about every suspect in the murder of old Jap Stancil--a failed farmer who's been eking out a living working on cars and growing ornamental corn for the Thanksgiving season. Suspect #1 is Jap's roguish, layabout nephew Allen, whom Deborah idiotically eloped with when she was an unstable 18-year-old college freshman (the marriage was almost instantly annulled). Worse yet, Deborah's land-proud father and some of her 11 brothers- -all of whom own property adjacent to the Stancil farm--had strong feelings (ranging from outrage to greed) about Jap's plan to sell out to a local developer. And Deborah also show more has a soft spot for Billy Wall, a hard-working kid with a very pregnant wife, who just might have killed Jap for his corn money. Deborah show less

4th in the Judge Deborah Knott series, set in North Carolina.

Maron usually manages to weave a socially relevant them into her plots; in this installment, it’s the turning over of farmland in the rural south for development to accommodate the hordes leaving the Northeast and the Midwest:

“Sometimes I wonder how places like Iowa or Ohio or upstate New York still have enough people to make it worthwhile keeping the lights on up there.”

Fans know from previous books that Deborah has in her past a brief unhappy marriage that she dislikes thinking about, never mind discussing. In this book, we learn all about that rash marriage to Allen Stancel, two of whose family wind up getting themselves murdered as the story goes on.

In the previous show more book, Deborah started an affair with Kidd Chapin, a North Carolina wild life officer; that affair continues in the book, as do the lives of her 11 brothers, sisters-in-law, and countless nieces and nephews. As usual, there’s plenty of humor, not the least of which is the story of how one of her nephews tries to claim an 8 point buck deer for his own and the hilarious consequences of that act.

What makes these stories so good, makes the stand out from the rest of the pack, is the inclusion of the kind of cases that a judge in North Carolina’s district Court system must face. DUIs, fights, domestic violence, child abuse—they’re all there, and Deborah’s point of view makes for absorbing reading. It’s all of one piece, whether she’s presiding in court, at a family gathering, or nearly caught by a murderer out to eliminate witnesses. And all told with an easy language style that quite accurately portrays both the language and the living style of her rural North Carolina home.

Another excellent installment in a top-notch series. show less

Series stays interesting, as we learn more about Deborah's family and early life. Conflicts about land are generated by strong investment interest from developers and, murder results. A face to face confrontation puts her in danger before the case is resolved. Another well told story from North Carolina.