Winter's Child

Up to now, I have only read Maron's series staring Lieutenant Sigrid Harald which features a much grittier atmosphere. While there is sudden violence and a number of murders, the North Carolina setting seems to give an overall atmosphere that is gentler and more romantic.

Judge Knott has just married her life long love Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant and life seems to be going well. Then Dwight receives a call from his 8 year old son that he needs him to show up at his school the next morning which entails a several hour drive. Once there he soon discovers that his ex-wife appears to have abandon his son and he begins a search for her. In a short time he finds her murdered and his son is missing and the hunt is on for the murder and show more kidnapper. A reasonably complicated plot kept this reader turning pages. show less

The further adventures of Judge Deborah Knott now married to a man who has loved her since she was a child. This is a series that has held on well through the 12 I have read, without getting stale. This was one of the best so far, I thought, as it moved away from the Knott family, and featured Deputy Sheriff Dwight Bryant in a tense search for his little boy who disappears from under his nose after his mother has inexplicably left him alone for over 24 hours. Other recurring characters have some good moments, and there are family secrets, and impossible shots, an adorable smart little dog, and secret rooms, and.....well, OK, enough.
Review written in 2015

First Sentence: The call came through to the Colleton County Sheriff’s Department just after sunset on a chilly Thursday evening in mid-January.

Judge Deborah Knott’s new husband, Sheriff’s Deputy Dwight Bryant, has a murder to solve. Troublemaker J.D. Rouse has been fatally shot while driving his truck. But more important to Dwight is that his ex-wife is missing and, shortly thereafter, his son, Cal, as well.

I rather liked that this was more Dwight’s story than Deborah’s. It was a nice change. It is definitely the characters that make this story, and this series, work. There’s always that feeling you’ve gone to visit a good friend and her entire family. That said, there were two plots to this story. The first, which was show more almost a secondary plot, seemed there to involve Deborah in the story and it was she who solved the case in the end. The second, involving Dwight and his son, was the more interesting, emotional and suspenseful story and the one that really kept me involved in the book. It may not have been a “wow” book, but it was a reliably good read. There’s nothing wrong with that. show less

12th in the Judge Deborah Knott series set in North Carolina.

Barely married a month, Dwight Bryant has his hands full with a puzzling murder—and then an odd, urgent plea from Cal, his 8 year old son, who lives with Dwight’s ex-wife in western Virginia, to make an unscheduled visit—immediately. Dwight agrees, and the next day is on his way.

When he arrives, the situation is both puzzling and highly disturbing. Cal has been left alone for about 24 hours, with no sign of Jonna, his mother, anywhere. Increasingly alarmed, Dwight enlists the help of the local police chief, an old friend. Soon they find Jonna—murdered. Then Cal disappears.

As in her previous book, Maron has written a police procedural; this time, with two murders in show more very different locations. She has also structure the book quite differently, sectioning it as a running diary, and written from the point of view of a number of people during the same time frames: Dwight, Mayleen Richards, Deborah (the only 1st person narrative). It works beautifully.

One of the problems in a series when a marriage occurs is that the tension between two principal characters immediately reduces. So—how to maintain interest and keep the new relationship from cloying up the stories? Maron has her own answer for her series, and it works really well, demonstrating once again that she is an extremely skillful writer. Her handling of characters is top-notch, particularly as she continues to use regionalisms with great effect in her dialogue and narration. This is particularly true in this installment as she uses the sometimes subtle (other times blatant) but very real class distinctions that still exist in the South as an integral part of her story.

By including an ongoing narrative of the murder investigation going on in Colleton County simultaneous with Dwight’s search for his son in Virginia, Maron also manages to maintain the great contribution to her stories from her cast of recurring minor characters. Mayleen Richards has become an increasingly important character, and Maron has done an excellent job with increasing the interest in Richard’s life.

Maron will never be known for incredible ingenuity in her plots, but this one is of more than usual complexity, even though one of the “bad guys” is detectable from very early on.

All in all, an excellent addition to the series. Highly recommended. show less

I'm not sure I'd want to be driving on the roads in the fictional Colleton County of Deborah Knott. People tend to get shot on the roads while in their cars. That's how this book starts too. But, even though that's how the novel stars, the shooting is not the main mystery in the book. That is what's happened to Joanna, Dwight's ex-wife and their son Cal.

It's quite a chase around Joanna's hometown and Dwight and then, of course, Deb search for them. And interwoven is even more family history. This time Joanna's family, as well as Deb's thoughts on her impending step-motherhood.

I really liked how Maron wrote Cal. She seemed to write him with the right combination of youth and grownup-ness. On the other hand I was a little bummed that show more there were fewer court scenes, but, this book was about Dwight and Cal mostly, and Deb was more like a supporting character. And as long as it was only this novel and the series won't turn into the Dwight and Cal show, this was a great novel that definitely moved the characters' stories forward. show less

This tale hits close to home for Dwight when his son goes missing along with his ex-wife. We get a look into his past, and honestly, his leaving when Deborah as 13 to go to the army was laudable if he was thinking about her that way. :P That's sure a nasty part of Southern life, the early marriages.

#12 Judge Deborah Knott mystery set in Colleton County, North Carolina. Newly married sheriff’s deputy Dwight Bryant is just settling in to his blissful home life with Judge Deborah but is pulled away from her AND from a murder investigation in which a much-disliked, abusive good ole boy is shot in the back of the head while driving home from work. The summons away from Colleton County is a strange phone call from his eight-year-old son Cal, who lives five hours away in Virginia with his mother. Dwight makes a trip north to see Cal, and then learns that Jonna, his ex-wife, is actually missing.

When Cal goes missing, last seen being picked up in front of his house by a woman in a blue parka who was assumed to be Jonna, Dwight show more frantically tries to figure out what’s going on, as his relationship with Jonna has not, to this point, been antagonistic at all. Jonna’s body is discovered in her car a day later, murdered, and Cal is still missing, so Deborah takes emergency leave to be with her new husband in the search for his son. Back home, Detective Maylene Richards is now in charge of the murder investigation, which continues with too many suspects and not enough opportunities. As a twisted tale of family secrets and prideful deception unfolds, Deborah and Dwight begin to piece together the tale of Jonna’s death in hopes of finding Cal unharmed. Excellent entry in the series, which just seems to get better and better with each one, and as a reader, C.J. Critt is wonderful and never lets me down. show less