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From New York Times bestselling, award-winning author Margaret Maron--winner of the Edgar Award, Agatha Award, Anthony Award, and Macavity Award for her classic mystery The Bootlegger's Daughter--comes a stunning mystery featuring NYPD Detective Sigrid Harald.
"Every Margaret Maron is a celebration of something remarkable." -- New York Times Book Review
"Maron writes with wit and sophistication." -- USA Today
"There's nobody better." -- Chicago Tribune
NYPD Detective Sigrid Harald is still reeling from the untimely death of her lover, acclaimed painter Oscar Nauman, when she is called to investigate the poisoning of two homeless men in the West Village. As she examines the mysterious deaths, Sigrid uncovers a grim neighborhood scandal surrounding two influential women: one a haughty mafia widow, the other a retired opera prima donna, both with dark secrets they've kept under wraps for decades. Was the poison really meant for the homeless men, or were they merely unintended victims as the decades-long feud between the two women comes to a head?
And still, Sigrid can't stop wondering what brought her late lover so urgently across the country to the winding mountain road that took his life--until she meets a man who may hold the answers she seeks . . . .
"Opening a new Margaret Maron is like unwrapping a Christmas gift." -- Cleveland Plain Dealer
"Of today's series writers none has been more successful at weaving the bond between star and audience than Margaret Maron." -- San Diego Union-Tribune
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"In MWA Grand Master Maron's outstanding 19th mystery featuring judge Deborah Knott of North Carolina's Colleton County (after 2012's The Buzzard Table), Deborah's elderly aunt, Rachel Morton, lies near death in a hospice. Rachel attracts a crowd of friends and relatives as she talks of "babies, fires, and unpaid debts, of someone who beat his wife and of cowbirds and vegetables and broken jars." A distraction allows a killer enough time to slip into Rachel's room and smother her with a pillow, thus ending her ramblings, which apparently concealed deadly secrets. Unraveling those secrets--some 60 years old--is a slow, difficult process with lots of suspects among friends and family. Maron achieves a delicate balance as she explores differences between mistakes, sins, and crimes, and shows that justice is not always arrived at by conventional means. Humor (e.g., Deborah outfoxes an unscrupulous auctioneer) and social issues (e.g., the difficult role of caregivers to the elderly) add to the warmth of a large family with all its foibles, squabbles, and quirks."
— Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) on Designated Daughters
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“Sigrid has a coolly analytic mind; it’s sad to think we’re watching her puzzle out her last case.”
— New York Times -
“[Maron] settles some unresolved issues in this, the excellent tenth and final entry in her series featuring New York City detective Sigrid Harald…A tangle of relationships tests Harald’s abilities to ferret out which of the two men was the killer’s intended victim—and why. If this is indeed Maron’s final book, as she has announced, she is quitting while still in top form.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review) -
“Maron wraps up her Sigrid Harald series with this sequel to Fugitive Colors…Tying up loose ends, the acclaimed Maron provides an entertaining and intriguing finish to a remarkable body of work.
— Booklist -
Margaret Maron is one of those authors whose devoted fans would follow them anywhere.
— The New York Times -
Excellent...If this is indeed Maron's final book, as she has announced, she is quitting while still in top form.
— Publishers Weekly (STARRED REVIEW) -
Maron's series finale and last book ends her distinguished writing career on a high note. Her many fans will enjoy this while wiping away tears of farewell.
— Library Journal (STARRED REVIEW) -
Every Margaret Maron is a celebration of something remarkable.
— New York Times Book Review -
Maron writes with wit and sophistication.
— USA Today -
Sigrid Harald is smart, efficient, and sympathetic.
— Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine -
There's nobody better.
— Chicago Tribune -
Opening a new Margaret Maron is like unwrapping a Christmas gift.
— Cleveland Plain Dealer -
You read a Maron mystery for the rich back stories of her main characters as much as for the whodunit, and she doesn't disappoint here.
— The News & Observer -
This author knows how to draw you in! The family interaction made me so curious that it was impossible to put down.
— Suspense Magazine on Long Upon the Land -
In DESIGNATED DAUGHTERS, practically the whole clan shows up at the hospice where Aunt Rachel has interrupted the process of dying to deliver a rambling account of all the things that have been on her wandering mind. It's quite a lovely deathbed aria, narrated in the honeyed accents of the region. But someone must have feared Aunt Rachel might divulge a buried secret because that someone creeps into her room and smothers her with a pillow.Maron knows how to adorn a solid murder mystery with plenty of ancillary entertainments. But her broader theme involves the way families flourish when they work together for the common good. While there are charming scenes of group projects like building a pond shed and assembling a bluegrass band, the clan members Maron really cherishes are those who devote themselves to caring for the elders of the family. Living saints they are, every last one of them.
— New York Times Book Review on Designated Daughters
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About Margaret Maron
Margaret Maron is the author of more than twenty-five novels and two collections of short stories. Winner of several major American awards for mysteries, including the Edgar, Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity, her works are on the reading lists of various courses in contemporary Southern literature. A native Tar Heel, she still lives on her family’s country farm a few miles from Raleigh.
About Courtney Patterson
Courtney Patterson graduated magna cum laude with a BA in theater performance from Valdosta State University. She is an associate artist at Georgia Shakespeare where she has appeared in dozens of shows, taught in the education department, and developed a cabaret series. She can also be seen frequently on the stages of the Alliance Theatre and has also worked at the Aurora Theatre, Theatre in the Square, Theatrical Outfit, Synchronicity Performance Group, and the Horizon Theatre. In addition to her work on stage, she narrates audiobooks and performs in film and television.