Review by Booklist Review
In this fifth entry in the widely praised, increasingly popular Deborah Knott series (following Up Jumps the Devil [BKL Ag 96]), the judge must travel to High Point, North Carolina, to fill in for a vacationing colleague. Unbeknownst to her, the usually sleepy, little town is playing host to the International Home Furnishings Market, attracting companies from all over the world, and Deborah is practically laughed out of every hotel in town when she shows up without reservations. After losing her purse in one of a dozen cocktail-party feeding frenzies, Deborah finally finds a place to stay with an old law-school chum. When her purse is found at the scene of a murder--cutthroat furniture-company executive Chan Nolan is found dead in a pricey wicker porch swing--Deborah is brought in for questioning. Attempting to solve the case by tracking the whereabouts of Nolan's legion of enemies (and also shop for some bedroom furniture), Deborah comes into contact with some real characters, including a onetime legendary designer who has gone off her meds; a pesky, persistent free-lance reporter; and a southern belle with a homicidal streak. All the furniture shoptalk will keep decorating aficionados happy; the rest of us will be more than willing to settle for Deborah's feisty humor and sharp deductive skills. --Joanne Wilkinson
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In a disappointing fifth entry in a robust series (Bootlegger's Daughter; Up Jumps the Devil, etc.), district court judge Deborah Knott substitutes on the bench for a vacationing colleague in High Point, North Carolina's furniture center, during the bustling Global Home Furnishings Market. Maron places her murder in a setting packed with industry jargon and lore. There's an immediately suspicious figure in elusive, eccentric Savannah, a legendary designer who's returned to High Point after a long absence from the decorating scene. Slippery as lemon oil, Savannah draws everyone's attention while someone kills Chan Nolan with a penicillin-laced brownie. Who knew that Chan, a widower who Deborah dated as a teenager, was allergic? His mother-in-law, Dixie Babcock, an old friend of Deborah's from law school, introduces her to numerous Market attendees. Many have strong motives for murder: the longtime employers Chan was leaving to form a new company of his own in Malaysia; spurned lovers; independent dealers who blame Chan for lost business; an evasive reporter; the mysterious Savannaheven Dixie and her neighbor Pell, who feared Chan would take Dixie's adored granddaughter, Lynette, to Malaysia. Deborah identifies the killer by sorting through everyone's dark secrets and some obviously arranged clues. Some readers will enjoy the furniture and decorating lore, but most will look forward to Deborah's return to the cozy milieu of her home town and colorful family. Author tour. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
North Carolina district court judge Deborah Knott unintentionally "crashes" several manufacturer's receptions at the internationally known Southeastern Furniture Market in High Point, where she becomes involved in murder. Initially befriended by a mysterious and elusive woman with bogus name tags, series protagonist Knott soon runs into an old woman friend from law school as well as a hunky ex-beau now in the furniture business. When Deborah later discovers the man dead, she and police begin investigating. Maron (Up Jumps the Devil, LJ 8/96) continues her usual warm-hearted, family-oriented approach, tempered with observant detail, infectious enthusiasm, and light humor. Highly recommended. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
North Carolina Circuit Court Judge Deborah Knott (Up Jumps the Devil, 1996, etc.) breezes into High Point just in time for the furniture industry's Market Week--a four-star production that features dazzling displays, nonstop parties, and no room at the inn for anybody who arrives, as Deborah does, without reservations. In her comically desperate hunt for lodgings, Deborah falls in with a loony old bird who introduces herself as Matilda McNeill Jernigan; by the time Deborah learns that the real name of this legendary, addled designer is simply Savannah, her supposed guide to the market has already walked off (in a fog, Deborah can only hope) with Deborah's handbag in exchange for Savannah's own. A scheme to swap bags falls through, but never fear: Deborah catches up with her bag the following day, when it's found next to the corpse of Chandler Nolan--once Deborah's pimply teenaged swain, now the dashing sales chief of furniture manufacturer Fitch and Patterson--who's been done to death with the penicillin tablets from Deborah's bag. Maron never recovers the panache of this quicksilver beginning; the puzzle she poses is so full of walk-ons, serious suspects (a rival Fitch and Patterson salesman, his Chandler-smitten granddaughter, loopy Savannah and her possible illegitimate daughters, Chan's rapacious heirs), and discreet hints of family irregularities that you'll probably be relieved--though Deborah isn't--every time she has to drag herself away from this morass back into her ever-amusing courtroom. An overplotted souffl of a novel, puffed up to the sky with lethal doses of magnolia-scented gossip. (Author tour)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
