Bootlegger's Daughter

By: Margaret Maron

Narrated by: C.J. Critt

Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

With a steamy Southern plot and a sassy new heroine, this Edgar Award-winning novel debuts an exceptional new series. Attorney Deborah Knott is North Carolina's answer to V.I. Warshawski, a legal sleuth with a knack for sniffing out the most baffling crimes. Deborah has just done the unthinkable: entered the heated race for judge of old-boy-ruled Colleton County. The only female candidate, she's busy reeling in voters and giving campaign speeches. There couldn't be a worse time for Gayle Whitehead to beg Deborah to investigate the 18-year-old unsolved murder of Gayle's mother, Janie. Gayle wants the busy attorney to poke around for any new clues the police may have missed all these years. Unlikely, thinks Deborah; until she discovers that not all the details of Janie's case made it out of confidential police files.

Filled with the patter of Southern voices and populated with a cast of colorful characters, Bootlegger's Daughter expertly unwinds a funny, cunningly-crafted tale of mystery and deceit in North Carolina's backwoods.

Don't miss the other books in the Deborah Knott mystery series.

©1992 Margaret Maron

Critic reviews

• Edgar Allan Poe Award Winner, Best Novel, 1993

"Filled with good-ole-boy pitter patter and detailed local color, the story flows smoothly." (Publishers Weekly)
"A fine start to a promising new series." (Kirkus Reviews)

Story was interesting enough but narration needs work

Story just wasn’t as engaging as I had hoped. Narrator has a nice voice and works to separate characters but is far too breathy and breaks to long. Only way I could get past it was to read book at 1.5 speed.

Characters

I liked how the family interacted with other people in the community. The solving of the murder was interesting.

Wonderful Series

I love a good series... one you can settle into and get to know the characters ... and this is just such a series. I'm finishing book #11 now and can honestly say, I like the series and the characters more with each book. I love the consistency of having the same narrator, CJ Critt, and like the fact that she doesn't "overdo" the southern "thang". She has a comfortable, easy listening voice with just enough country in it to fit the setting, in my opinion.

Deborah Knott, the main character, is an intelligent, educated woman in her 30's as the series begins. She's been around the block a few times and after a bit of a rough start when she first left home, she settled down, earned a law degree, returned to her hometown in North Carolina and is now running for judge. The stories are a wonderful mix of her life as a judge and her large family, consisting of her father (who was indeed a bootlegger "back in the day") and eleven (yes, 11) older brothers and their wives and assorted nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. That may sound a little much ... but trust me, it all blends well and makes for interesting story lines. Every story has a mystery and somehow Deborah winds up in the middle of it every time, whether by accident or her curiosity that is hard to control. She has an easy way about her and her integrity and feistiness come through in the stories. She still has a respect and love for her country roots, but she's definitely her own woman and there's a lot of humor in the writing.

I highly recommend these and hope you enjoy them as much as I have. There are some tough stories, but the books are not gritty and depressing, and are more of a cozy mystery series. Mrs. B.

Engaging

This is book one in a series about attorney Deborah Knott, the daughter of an infamous North Carolina bootlegger. The book is supposed to mix a murder mystery and Southern politics together in a story. Knott is campaigning for a district court judgeship when an eighteen year old girl asks her to investigate the unsolved murder of her mother. This is a cold case as the murder took place about seventeen years ago. I learned a new expression in this story. The author used the term “yellow dog democrat”; I had never heard of this term before so looked it up. Apparently it came about as a term used in the South in the late 19th century, to refer to a person who voted the straight democratic ticket saying I would rather vote for a yellow dog than a republican. I also learned that yellow dog is a breed of dogs called Carolina dog that is indigenous to the Carolinas and not descended from Eurasian breeds.

Maron is building the characters for her series so the book seems to move slowly but flows smoothly. The book is well written but light on suspense. Some humor occurs with the battle with the good ole boys’ networks. The book won the Edgar award in 1992 and also won the Diys, Macovity and Anthony awards. This is the first book I have read by this author so I am in the process of getting to know her writing. C. J. Critt does a good job narrating the book.

Great story...average narrator

Would you consider the audio edition of Bootlegger's Daughter to be better than the print version?

Never read the book...I like audio books.

What didn???t you like about C.J. Critt???s performance?

It sounds like she has a cold. Very nasal reading...almost turned me off from the book. And the accent was not realistic.

Wonderful

What a great listen! Just moved to North Carolina and this is a must read if you live in NC or not! The book is captivating and I love the detailed writing. You feel like you are there! Definitely must listen, amazing!

Delicious characters.

Delicious characters brought to life by a talented narrator. Moved right along by a turning plot, punctuated with an "I didn't see that coming" end. Set in an old south you had to be there to know.

Interesting

This was from the 90’s so the language is very outdated. The story is longer than necessary but the mystery isn’t bad.

Boring

I listened for over an hour and just couldn't go any further. Eventually I finished the book after some time. It became better by the end. The heavy accented narration with too long technical pauses didn't help.

boring

Boring book. Keep looking!