Mystery Reviews Mystery Novel Authors Mystery Links Get Your Book Reviewed What is a mystery? Advertising Who Dunnit Home

Winter's Child

by Margaret Maron

Here's another in the great series starring Judge Deborah Knott: Winter's Child, by Margaret Maron. Ms. Maron is in her usual top form, telling a story not only about murder but majoring in the abduction of an eight-year-old boy. I'm wondering, however, if the Greek quotes before each chapter might better be placed at the end instead, since we tend to forget what they are and their relevance by the time we finish reading each section? It might be something for other authors to consider who use the same format, too…

A call to the Sheriff's office in Colleton County about a pickup truck suddenly plunging off a road and going into a ditch is received – and subsequently found to be a murder with a bullet going through the rear window of the pickup and into the driver's head. A woman picking up trash in the ditch nearby called it in. Deborah Knott's new husband, Dwight Bryant, is also chief deputy and head of the detective division, so he heads out to the crime scene. The dead man was universally disliked – a braggart, a wife-beater, and an alcoholic – a man who always took what he wanted regardless of the consequences.

Dwight then gets a call from his son by his first marriage – eight-year-old Cal is calling from Shaysville, Virginia. Dwight promises to be at Cal's school the next morning, even though it means he'll have to get up at four A.M. to drive the distance north. When Cal finally arrives he submits to his son's 'show and tell' – then eventually learns that Cal hasn't seen or heard from his mother since the morning before. Dwight determines to find his ex-wife, but meanwhile decides that Cal must come stay with him. While he's packing Cal's stuff ready for the trip, Cal disappears.

Joanna Shay, Dwight's former wife, is also missing, and at first Dwight thinks she's the individual who took Cal. When he questions Joanna's mother, however, she claims to know nothing. The Shays have long maintained their social position, and are loath to relinquish it, even though Joanna has actually fallen on hard times. She stubbornly refuses to admit she doesn't have the money any longer, and is desperate to get it.

There is another murder, and Deborah travels up to where Dwight is, in Johanna's old house. Between the murder at home and a murder north, plus the abduction of Dwight's son, grand theft and the problem of who shot the man in the pickup and why, Deborah and Dwight have their hands full.

Winter's Child ends with the requisite surprise, and Cal found. Margaret Maron has written a suspenseful tale as full of emotion as it is mystery. The possible death of a young child is a sure guarantee of plucking at your heartstrings, and Ms. Maron is obviously well aware of the fact! Winter's Child is typical Margaret Maron fare, and a fine mystery to please everybody as well as her loyal fans.

Alan Paul Curtis

back