Storm Track
by Margaret Maron
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Book Summary Information
Author: Margaret MaronEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-04-18
ISBN: 0892966564
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Mysterious Press
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780892966561
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Storm Track
Book Review: 4 1/2 Stars
Summary: 4 Stars
This is actually a review of the Kindle Edition, but it wasn't available when I posted this.
Plot/Storyline: 3 3/4 Stars
This novel has two storylines: A murder with subsequent connected violent episodes and a hurricane hitting a small town. The hurricane is actually given more play than the murder mystery.
Having not read the previous novels featuring the main character, Deborah Knott, I was at a loss to keep up with all of her family members and the extraneous characters which seemed to have populated the earlier works. There were really just too many characters making appearances in too short amount of time. I felt like I needed to start taking notes to keep up with them all. However, later, it does settle down with the author making clear who the characters are that were important to the story.
The book opens rather slowly with third person viewpoints from minor characters. Later, it continues in this lazy plot development while switching to first person for Deborah's portion. The book does not really pick up any speed until after the first quarter.
However, with the second quarter, the mystery bulls out of the starting gate with intrigue and foreshadowing to keep the reader guessing until the end. After the excruciatingly slow start, I was rather amazed at my new inability to put the book down. False clues abound with real ones intermingled to ensure a very smart mystery.
The hurricane storyline streams along beside the mystery unhurriedly. It did not seem to have much to do with the mystery, but did serve as a nice side story which was interesting and well told.
There was a section of foreshadowing that kind of cheats the reader. By that, I mean that I thought something was going to happen, but it didn't. I found this method of build up and let down to be very irritating.
Character Development: 4 Stars
Deborah Knotts would have probably been more developed had I read any of the previous novels featuring her and her family. However, I still felt that there was no real progression here. She does have a love interest, but he never really makes an appearance.
The young preacher's son who is following the hurricane is the most developed character. While he is only peripheral to the mystery, he provides some detailed information on the hurricane. He comes across as realistic for his age and was really the only character to evoke any empathy.
The preacher's wife was also done well. Having her father make an appearance went far toward understanding her personality and choices.
Writing Style: 5 Stars
Ms. Maron's writing style is exquisite. She excels at beautiful descriptions showing a command of the art of making readers visualize scenes. Her dialogue is right on target with accented voices and colloquialisms that really draw the reader into the world she depicts.
Editing/Formatting: 5 Stars
The editing and formatting were both of professional quality.
Rating: PG-15 for Violence and Adult Themes
Summary of Storm Track
Judge Deborah Knott blows the lid off a murder investigation with gale force winds in this newest entry in the award-winning series. As Hurricane Fran strikes the North Carolina coast, Judge Knott seeks clues to a motel murder and a determined killer finds a perfect time to strike again.When it comes to the weaving of tangled webs, you'll find none finer nor more deceptive than those on the loom of Margaret Maron's Storm Track, the seventh entry in her critically acclaimed Judge Deborah Knott mystery series.
Colleton County, North Carolina, is home to Judge Knott, her moonshining daddy (the series opener, 1992's Bootlegger's Daughter, swept the Edgar Allen Poe, Anthony, Agatha, and Macavity awards in unprecedented fashion), and more brothers and cousins than hairs on a big dog's back. Likable young lawyer Jason Bullock lives there too, as does his lovely and--unbeknownst to him--extraordinarily unfaithful wife--an awkward situation all around, which turns even more so when she turns up dead in a local motel, wearing little more than whimsy and a wink:
"Who would kill her, Reid?""Hell, I don't know. Usually you'd say the husband, but Bullock was on the ball field, right? Millard King, too."
"She slept with Millard King? When?"
He shrugged. "Before me, after me, during me--I don't keep tabs."
Clues abound, suspects emerge, and chief among them is the judge's cousin, Reid; a cad, certainly, but a killer? Judge Knott thinks not and sets out to prove it, as the body count rises and Hurricane Fran commences to lower the boom.
A native North Carolinian, Maron opens a window onto the New South by concerning herself more with her multilayered characters and their intertwined lives than with overstyled prose or plot contrivances. An altogether satisfying mystery, Storm Track will surely propel readers straight through this series and into the prolific Maron's other series featuring Lt. Sigrid Harald, NYPD. --Michael Hudson
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