Review by Booklist Review
The "bright red clay" of eastern Randolph County, North Carolina, is the setting for Maron's latest Deborah Knott mystery; the pottery that local artisans create using that clay and the relationships linking those artisans to each other and to their clients are its subjects. Judge Deborah Knott heads to Randolph County to supervise the equitable distribution of marital property in two divorces. The central case involves her with the Nordan Pottery clan: aging patriarch Amos; his talented son, Donny, deceased under suspicious circumstances several years ago; loyal if less talented son James Lucas and his soon-to-be ex-wife Sandra Kay, a gifted pottery "decorator"; and the family that operates the neighboring Rooster Clay Works--Sandra Kay's brother Dillard; his wife Betty, Amos Nordan's daughter; and their children. Much is shattered at Nordan Pottery--relationships, assumptions, expectations--and Deborah cannot prevent more deaths within this troubled family. As for Judge Knott herself, the book opens with an explosive end to her affair with game warden Kidd Chapin and includes an abortive new-relationship seduction scene that readers will chuckle about for months. (Hint: costumes judicial and prophylactic play key roles!) Uncommon Clay is a solid addition to the Knott series: a believable mystery blending humor and social issues with an empathetic understanding of the complexities of family life. --Mary Carroll
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
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. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The famous Nordan family, who live in an area of North Carolina known for its pottery, is being torn apart by a traumatic and bitter divorce. Judge Deborah Knotts (Storm Track) oversees distribution of the marital property, but her work is interrupted by a tragic death in the family reminiscent of a terrible suicide two years earlier. Heady stuff from a talented author. (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
Her eighth adventure finds North Carolina Judge Deborah Knott (Storm Track, 2000, etc.) in a courtroom in Asheboro, not far from her Seagrove home, where shell be overseeing the equitable distribution of property between just-divorced Sandra Kay and James Lucas Nordan. He's the son of Amos, owner of the well-known Nordan Pottery. Amos now produces only small pieces, in the wake of a stroke brought on by the strange death of his son Donny several years back. The cardinal-red glaze for which the pottery was famous has long been banned because of lead content, although Amos is still covertly using it. He now has domestic help from June Gregorich, who lives in his house with her retarded son Jeffy, and who also cleans house for Deborahs longtime friend Felicity Chadwick. Despite the trappings of domesticity, Deborah is still disentangling the Nordans property division when James Lucas is found murdered in one of the potterys kilns. Though everyone has considered James Lucass son Tom as Amoss heir, Amos has sought to protect Tom, especially in light of his sons suspicious deaths, by taking under his wing Donnys illegitimate son Davis Richmond. Despite his precautions, however, therell be yet another death before a crafty, lunatic killer is revealed. Consistently interesting despite a tangle of characterssome related by blood, some just shedding itwith Deborah playing second fiddle to a spate of pottery lore. Different and diverting, like most entries in this series. Mystery Guild main selection
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
