"Deborah Knott may have lost the district election, but a bigoted judge's sudden death - and some old-fashioned political horse trading - have won her a governor's appointment. True to Southern form, her swearing-in is followed by a raucous reception that brings out every elderly aunt and cousin in the county." "Unfortunately, Lu Bingham, the force behind WomanAid, is at the reception, too. Not only has she come to collect the leftovers for her daycare...

A few days after Dallas Stancil refuses to sell his land to a speculator, his stepson and wife murder him. Then, Dallas's peripatetic cousin Allen, the devil from Deborah's past, comes to town. Several days later, Dallas's father, Jap, is killed just before he can divide the property between Merrilee Grimes, his late wife's niece, and Allen. So who killed Jap, and who gets the Stancil land?Dallas's widow? Allen? Merrilee and her husband, Pete? Billy...

North Carolina judge Deborah Knott investigates the burning of four black churches. Suspects include one of her nephews and to clear his name she must find the real arsonists. By the author of Up Jumps the Devil.

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 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.

Deborah is finally ready to marry her long-time friend Deputy Sheriff Dwight Bryant and settle down--or is she? She jumps at a chance to fill in for a judge far away in the state's high country. But human ugliness haunts the beauty of the Appalachian Mountains. The community of Cedar Gap is rocked by a murder just as Deborah pulls into town. Within days, she becomes involved in helping an innocent man prove himself, even if it means putting her own...

One month after her marriage to Deputy Sheriff Dwight Bryant, judge Deborah Knott finds their union tested when Bryant's ex-wife takes flight with their eight-year-old son, forcing Bryant to launch a search for the boy before he comes to harm.

Unchecked urbanization has begun to eclipse the North Carolina countryside. As farms give way to shoddy mansions, farmers struggle to slow the rampant growth. In the shadows, corrupt county commissioners use their political leverage to make profitable deals with new developers. A murder will pull Judge Deborah Knott and Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant into the middle of this bitter dispute and force them to confront some dark realities.

North Carolina judge Deborah Knott and her husband Deputy Dwight Bryant are looking forward to Christmas until a traffic fatality turns out not to be an accident.

Judge Deborah Knott and Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant are back home in Colleton County. Lt. Sigrid Herald and her mother, Anne, are down from New York to visit Anne's ailing mother, Mrs. Lattimore. When the group gathers at Mrs. Lattimore's home, they meet the enigmatic Martin Crawford, an ornithologist researching a new book. More importantly, he is Mrs. Lattimore's long-lost nephew. Anne can't shake the feeling that there is something familiar...

"On a quiet August morning, Judge Deborah Knott's father Kezzie makes a shocking discovery on a remote corner of his farm: the body of a man bludgeoned to death. Investigating this crime, Deborah's husband, Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant, soon uncovers a long-simmering hostility between Kezzie and the slain man over a land dispute. The local newspaper implies that Deborah's family may have had something to do with the murder-and that Dwight is dragging...