Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Bootlegger's Daughter
    Bootlegger's Daughter
    Bootlegger's Daughter
    Audiobook9 hours

    Bootlegger's Daughter

    Written by Margaret Maron

    Narrated by C.J. Critt

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateApr 1, 2004
    ISBN9781449800376
    Bootlegger's Daughter

    More audiobooks from Margaret Maron

    Related to Bootlegger's Daughter

    Titles in the series (18)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Mystery For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      TV Pieces Of Her

      Mar 24, 2022

      TV Pieces Of Her
      1 min read

    • Article

      The Minders

      Oct 7, 2020

      RELEASED OUT NOW! 448 pages | Paperback/ebook/audiobook Author John Marrs Publisher Del Rey John Marrs’s latest near future, high-concept techno-thriller isn’t so much a sequel to The One (DNA dating app has dark secret) and Passengers (autonomous ca

      1 min read

    • Article

      ‘A Better Man’ Shows Louise Penny At Her Compelling Best

      Sep 5, 2019

      Her Three Pines mystery series, with Inspector Gamache, is a rare one that becomes more interesting the longer it goes on.

      2 min read

    • Article

      About The Author... J.P. Pomare

      Dec 27, 2020

      He grew up on a racehorse farm in Rotorua, left home at 15 and dropped out of university before finishing his degree. He now lives in Melbourne, where he worked in marketing while building his writing career. His real name is Joshua and this is his t

      1 min read

    • Article

      How Alfred Molina Found His Superpower In ‘Three Pines’

      Dec 2, 2022

      It was his 16-year-old granddaughter who asked just the right question. “What’s your superpower?” she asked Alfred Molina. Mr. Molina plays Chief Inspector Armand Gamache in the new TV series “Three Pines,” out Dec. 2 on Amazon Prime Video. The Briti

      4 min read

    • Article

      We All Live in Uncertain

      Jul 30, 2020

      “Think of Caddo as a maze of lakes within lakes,” says John Winn, proprietor of Caddo Outback Tours, as the two of us settle into a small Go-Devil boat roped to a dock in Uncertain, on the border of northern Louisiana. For two decades, Winn has given

      6 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Nov 1, 2018

      He threw the pale pink envelopes into the trashand smashed the Mickey Mouse phone hanging up. And when his wife asked you okay? he said okay,then took a twistoff to the back, screaming FUCK so loud he spooked the treefrogs and cicadas.He’d got canned

      2 min read

    • Article

      Following a Thread

      Sep 19, 2019

      Following a Thread
      6 min read

    • Article

      Roger’s PROFANISAURUS

      Feb 2, 2023

      Roger’s PROFANISAURUS
      8 min read

    • Article

      Roger’s PROFANISAURUS

      Feb 2, 2023

      Roger’s PROFANISAURUS
      8 min read

    • Article

      Magnets: Carried through time, lovers seek their purpose.

      Feb 6, 2014

      Moon Colony B, 2213 Former Ponzi-schemer Mary Pillar digs through a trashcan. It smells like rotten eggs and milk. She is elderly and homeless, living in an alley between two eco-efficient skyscrapers. Dust particles dance around her. She has lost ev

      11 min read

    • Article

      Gardens Of The Queen

      Feb 2, 2024

      Gardens Of The Queen
      9 min read

    • Article

      It’s Come to This

      Sep 1, 2021

      It’s Come to This
      16 min read

    • Article

      Unreality Television

      May 27, 2020

      Unreality Television
      4 min read

    • Article

      By the Horns

      Aug 28, 2017

      By the Horns
      13 min read

    • Article

      The Bush Administration

      Oct 12, 2018

      The Bush Administration
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Bush Administration

      Apr 25, 2017

      The Bush Administration
      5 min read

    • Article

      Roger’s PROFANISAURUS

      Jan 5, 2022

      Roger’s PROFANISAURUS
      5 min read

    • Article

      Parting the Waters

      Dec 29, 2022

      Parting the Waters
      12 min read

    • Article

      Tied Up In Knots

      Feb 19, 2020

      Tied Up In Knots
      3 min read

    • Article

      After the Storm

      Oct 22, 2019

      After the Storm
      9 min read

    • Article

      Stuck in Limbo

      May 2, 2019

      Stuck in Limbo
      12 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Sep 1, 2022

      1. Here there’s no rainy season.Sun scalds my forehead,yet the pool is empty. Beside it,a toppled table, its glass surface shattered.The asphalt is too hot for bare feet. 2. Far away: white hillocksand white dunes under a deepblue sky. Swirling winds

      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Bootlegger's Daughter

    4/5

    310 ratings26 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Not a classic, but certainly an enjoyable mystery novel. First in a rather large series (up to 12 books now, I think) featuring Deborah Knott. Deborah, the so-called bootlegger's daughter, is an attorney in a small North Carolina town. As often happens in such series, crime seems to follow her wherever she goes. In this book, she looks to solve a cold case murder that occurred when she was very young... and her investigation leads to several more deaths.

      Margaret Maron's books are quite engaging and fun-to-read... I blew through this book in a few days.
    • 4/5
      Bootlegger's Daughter by Margaret Maron - 4 stars Book Description: This smart, sassy series introduces Deborah Knott, candidate for district judge--and daughter of an infamous bootlegger. Deborah's campaigning is interrupted when disturbing new evidence surrounding a murder that has never been solved surfaces and she is implored to investigate. My Review: I enjoyed the first book of this series. It had a good plot with wonderful characters. It's a great book to learn about southern living. I will definitely continue with this series!
    • 4/5
      This book is the first in the Deborah Knott mystery series and the winner of the Edgar Award in 1993. I have had this series in my TBR list for a long time, and I finally took the time to read this first book in that series. I was very impressed with Maron's portrayal of tough-as-nails Deborah Knott. She's smart, savvy and down to earth - a true North Carolina native whose father happens to be the best bootlegger in the whole state. From this ignominious beginning, Deborah climbs up the professional ladder until she achieves her goal of becoming an attorney with higher aspirations to at some time in the near future, sit in a judge's chair. In this book Deborah is asked by the daughter of an old friend to try to find out who killed her mother 18 years ago. Deborah uncovers a whole pile of family secrets in her investigation. This is a very well-written and fast-moving mystery with very believable characters. The setting is so delicious - murder mystery set in the modern-day southern states. Everything is realistically portrayed and this book with by my first stop on this wonderful fictional journey,
    • 5/5
      When I heard that Margaret Maron had passed away, I knew I needed to reread (in some cases read) her books again. I decided to start with Bootlegger's Daughter. I remembered it fondly, and how could I go wrong with a book that won the 1992 Agatha Award and the 1993 Anthony, Edgar, and Macavity awards for best novel. Back in the 1990s, I loved the book because Deborah Knott, the main character, was about the same age as I was. I related to her problems, her thoughts, her career choices. Now I love the book because of the insights about the land and the people in the fictional Colleton County. I *know* those people, have lived in that area, and understand the ebb and flow of life. The mystery is a bonus. The author does play fair with the reader in this book. You can put together clues and perhaps figure out the person who murdered in the past. You might figure out who is murdering people now -- the clues are there. But in some ways, this is a novel that happens to be a mystery. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys well-crafted books. If you like mysteries, this should be on your "to read" list. So stop reading this review and start reading the book!
    • 3/5
      I was not wildly impressed with this first book in this series despite the fact it won the Edgar and Anthony Awards for best novel. I listened to it because the author had recently died and online comments mentioned this series as being her best. I found the prime character, Deborah Knott, to be too good to be believed; she's smart, beautiful, unmarried but not without many suitors, good at fishing and other outdoor pursuits and able to juggle multiple calls on her time without ever wearing herself down. Not my cup of tea.
    • 3/5
      It seems key to Attorney Deborah Knott's identity that when she gets fed up with the abuses of racist judges she chooses to run for the office rather than support the qualified black man who is already in the race. And if it weren't for the fallout of her investigation on behalf of the girl she once babysat she might have a better chance. None of the men who is interested in her can attach her feelings, though women don't seem to interest her. The rare southern novel without a chorus of heat and sweat.
    • 5/5
      This first Deborah Knott mystery introduces lawyer Deborah Knott who has decided to run for district judge. She is outraged at what she sees as betrayal of justice from a bigoted, snobbish judge and believes that she can do better.She is running in her home county where she's related to many and knows many more. She comes with a reputation of her own since her father was a well-known bootlegger who went to prison but then had his sentence expunged. Now he's a prominent businessman in the county with lots of political power. Deborah and her father are currently estranged because she isn't the picture of a usual Southern woman and he doesn't understand why she wanted to be a lawyer and now wants to be a judge.She's busy with her campaign when Gayle Whitehead comes to see her. Eighteen years earlier, Gayle and her mother Janie went missing. Janie was found a few days later dead in an old abandoned mill. Gayle was found in a babyseat near her mother dehydrated and dirty. The murder was never solved but not Gayle wants Deborah to look into it one last time.Deborah babysat for Gayle and more recently she's dated Gayle's dad Jed Whitehead who she had a crush on as a teenager. She tries to discourage Gayle but eventually agrees to look into it as she is campaigning.As Deborah investigates, she apparently is too close to buried secrets and becomes a target herself. First someone tries to damage her campaign and then shots are fired. I really enjoyed getting to know the characters Deborah meets and interviews in this story set in the early 90s. Racial tensions are still high. Homosexuals are not well-accepted. Cell phones aren't yet in everybody's pocket. I loved the Southern setting with the strong sense of community. I loved Deborah who has a strong sense of justice and great tolerance for the old boy network while finding her own way to work around it. This is the first of a 20 book series and I look forward to reading many more.
    • 5/5
      Unconventional North Carolina attorney Deborah Knott does the unthinkable when she tosses her hat into the heated race for district judge of old-boy ruled Colleton County. Then suddenly, the young daughter of Janie Whitehead begs her to investigate Janie's unsolved, eighteen-year-old murder. Taking the case, Deborah uncovers dangerous old secrets. . . and someone determined to derail her future - political and otherwise. But it will take more than sleazy scare tactics to frighten this tough steel magnolia off the scent of down-home deceit. . .even in a town where a cool slug of moonshine made by Deborah's father can go down just as smoothly as a cold case of triple murder.
    • 4/5
      Interesting start for a series. Quirky characters people a bucolic Southern plotscape. A suitable environment for an old mystery that becomes suddenly violent.
    • 4/5
      A mystery set in North Carolina in the 1990s. Compelling narrator (a lawyer running for judge, and the daughter of the title), an interesting mystery, and a great setting. Some minor "genre-writing" tics (bad. dialogue. tags.), but not enough to be very bothersome and the story is enough fun that it almost doesn't matter anyway. A pleasant diversion precisely when I wanted just such a thing, and I will probably read some more of the series. I liked spending time in Colleton County and with Deborah Knott, and will almost surely feel pulled back there at some point.
    • 5/5
      This is a hard to categorize novel. It's definitely a mystery. Deborah Knott, an attorney running for judge, gets asked by a young woman she used to babysit for to look into the very cold case murder of her mother.It, of course, is not quite that easy, but the mystery is very well written, weaving throughout the story above, next to, and below the plethora of subplots.One thing that the book has a whole lot of is characters. Deborah has a passel of brothers as well as cousins, aunts, etc. On one hand it gives the story, a very homey and connected feeling, but on the other hand in some places it's a bit hard to remember which set of twin brothers came first, or that sort of thing. But, on a third hand, the really important characters in the story stand out and are unique enough that they're easily rememberable.Hey, I love complex family trees in stories, it just will take a few more Knott books to get this tree entirely straight in my head.A great book and an awesome start to the Deborah Knott Mystery series.
    • 3/5
      I would have given this first Deborah Knott book a better rating if it had been better edited. I found to many grammar errors for me to give it 4 stars which I would have for the story. Deborah is looking into Gayle's mother's murder which hasn't been solved in 18 years. At the same time, Deborah is running to become a judge. The mystery is great with a surprise ending. I love her big family and how they get along and help each other. The story is a good read.
    • 4/5
      This is the first book in the wildly popular Judge Deborah Knott series. Deborah is an attorney running for judge when an old murder comes back to haunt her and a new murder seems to be somehow tied to the old one.

      There are a lot of characters to try and keep straight (Deborah is the youngest of a *bunch* of brothers) so it takes some concentration to keep everyone straight. I'm not sure I managed but her writing style leads me to believe that she will keep bringing the family and friends back so I should get a chance to start keeping them straight.

      The title? Deborah's father was convicted of bootlegging back in the "bad old days" - but he's gone straight now, or has he?
    • 4/5
      In North Carolina in the 1970s, there was still strained relationships between blacks and whites and gay lifestyle was something that wasn't talked about.Defense attorney Deborah Knott sees legal injustice from a judge in his courtroom and decides to run against him in the upcoming elections.Jed Whitehead is a family friend and at a political meeting he tells her that his daughter, Gayle, now eighteen, wants to look into her mother's murder. She has money from a trust fund and is able to hire an investigator.Since Deborah is a friend, Gayle, pleads with her to run the investigation and says that she could do so while running for office.The setting is well described as Deborah goes to political meetings and Church picnics to talk about life and look for voter support.Deborah is a charming character and easy to like. As she talks about the times it is very visual and that adds to the entertainment.A very enjoyable novel that deserves the multiple literary awards it received.
    • 4/5
      A blurb inside by mystery writer Loren Estelman compared Maron to Flannery O'Connor, Hemingway and Faulkner. Another described the protagonist and first person narrator, Dorothy Knott, as Scout of To Kill a Mockingbird, all grown up. I don't think this book is in that league at all. Yes, this is set in the American South, in North Carolina, and the author is good at choosing and using details to evoke that setting and in reproducing the rhythms of speech of that region. But all in all I'd say this is just a good, solid mystery. If you're in the mood for what many call a "cozy mystery"--set in a small town, rather PG-13 in rating without graphic violence or sex, this might well scratch that itch. I found Knott likable, even with the handicap of her irking me with the usual jibes against Republicans (she's running for district judge as a Democrat in the book). I warmed to her and most of the cast of characters the farther I got into the book--I particularly liked her father and the love interest. The problem is I never had a twinge of writer's envy, or found anything quotable, didn't find this thought-provoking or moving or unpredictable--in other words, I doubt I'll remember a thing about this book a year from now and I can't imagine ever rereading it. So not a keeper, but an entertaining read if you're fond of mysteries.
    • 3/5
      cozy mystery, amateur detective, ---pages, set in 1990's North Carolina. female lawyer with locally infamous dad takes on complex old case for a friend; deals with gender, race, and sexuality issues. strong, likeable characters, social commentary, sedately-paced, good descriptions, strong sense of place. read-a-like James Lee Burke, Nevada Barr for mid-paced mysteries with strong sense of place. 1st in Deborah Knott series.
    • 5/5
      Just started collecting all the Deborah Knott Mysteries... this one being the 1st in the series has provided those not familiar with the rural south will like the characters and the location descriptions. Since I grew up in rural NC during the 60's, Margaret Maron's characterization of both the culture, people and locations is mostly accurate. I found the book to be an excellent cozy mystery..light but very fast moving. I read it in 2 days!!! Excellent start of a nc writer's series of cozy mysteries.
    • 4/5
      I read this book for a RL book group. I had never heard of the author or the series before we picked it. It is a light book, and the mystery really takes second place to the characters. I didn't mind, and in fact loved it. I quickly got all the books in the series that I could get my hands on, and read them like eating candy. This book and the series is set in rural NC and the main character is the only daughter in a family with 11 boys. There were 2 wives - both dead now, and the patriarch who was the bootlegger. He is alive but reformed. The main character of the books and the series is Deborah Knott. She is a defense lawyer and in this book runs for judge because of the sexist, racist old timers she has to appear before, and their prejudiced remarks and decisions.She is trying to deal with the fact that she can't find a romantic partner, and with her father and her huge family. The characters are just wonderful, and are what made me fall in love and will keep me reading the books.The mystery in this book is the unsolved death of a young mother who was friends with Deborah's mother. She was murdered 18 years ago, and the grown daughter, who as a baby was there when her mother was killed, wants to find out what happened. During her investigation Deborah uncovers secrets about the people in her set, and her own family.Although there are 15 books in this series, I could only find this one (book 1) and then it skips to book 8. I like what happens from book 8 on, so I may not go back and read books 2 to 7, but who knows. I would say book 1 is the weakest of the books I have read (8-14), but still very enjoyable. I am waiting for book 15 to go into paperback before getting it. I may not be able to wait, and may get the Kindle version.
    • 4/5
      nice picture of north carolina and people. the mystery is not that interesting. i get tired of wacko, wicked women. i would try another one by maron. don't quite understand why this won so many awards. i liked the comment by another reader that this was scout, all grown up.
    • 4/5
      Engaging start to a new series - new for me that is, this was published in 1992. But aside from the lack of cell phones at certain moments, it still works today.... Funny how it's only when you read books written 15 or so years ago that you realize how much the world has changed since then. This book is set in a fictional South Carolina county, and introduces Deborah Knott, from an entrenched family, her father being the bootlegger of the title. She solves an 18 year old mystery - how a young woman had been killed and her 3 month old baby left beside her for 2 days till they were both discovered. Gayle, now 18, wants to know what happened to her mother, and pressures Deb into taking on the case, despite her protestations that she's not a detective.I loved the descriptions of local colour which felt both genuine and not too hammy. I liked the issues and politics that the book discussed and I look forward to spending more time with Deborah - who clearly was a success because I think there are 15 more books to follow...
    • 3/5
      1st in a series of light murder mysteries. Set in a small town in the South, Deborah decides to run for Judge. During her campaign she is asked to look into the murder of a young woman that occurred 15 years ago.Great small town characters, warmth, and a good mystery.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. As a person who grew up in a small town in the South (well, Oklahoma, which is almost South), I could taste, touch and smell the land as Maron told the story. I just love good story-telling.
    • 4/5
      An extremely enjoyable start to a series that has proved to have a lot of life to it.
    • 3/5
      Maron's mystery, the first in a sequence starring attorney Deborah Knott, is set in a small-town setting south of Raleigh, NC. Deborah is asked to help 18-year-old Gayle, for whom she used to babysit, to find the person who killed Gayle's mother when Gayle was an infant. Deborah seems to be the sort to step in things, so she agrees to help.The novel is full of minor characters; everybody knows everybody and has lots of relatives. The reader must work a bit to decide whom to keep track of. The small-town NC setting is emphasized and drawn carefully with sweet tea, pig pickings, and just enough down-home lingo. Deborah's opening the old case causes two more deaths before it is solved. There is an appealing sexual tension between single-at-34 Deborah and several men, which I expect will be a continuing theme in the series. The whodunnit story is integrated pretty well into Deborah's "real life," in which she is running for a judgeship. The writing is rather precious at times, as Maron too visibly works at establishing the southern setting, but I found it an enjoyable, if not memorable, read.
    • 5/5
      First book in Maron's series starring Deborah Knott, and set in eastern North Carolina farm country. The murder plot is actually almost a subset in the overall story of Knott's electoral race for District Judge.Maron evokes what certainly appears to me (someone who has never spent any real time in North Carolina) both a sense of the place and a sense of the people. There are those of the "old" South--actively prejudied against blacks, from cops to judges and beyond--and then you have other native North Carolinians who are emphatically no such thing. Deborah Knott and her huge family--for whom Maron clearly has affection but just as clearly does not overly romanticize--are an unforgettable set of characters (if you can keep her 12 brothers and their families straight!). All develop through the series and it's too easy on reread to view them now from the perspective of the other books. With so many, only a few are briefly sketched out in this book to be fleshed out later as plots demand in later books. Most noteworthy are her father and (dead) mother. The women, no matter who they are, are strongly drawn and for the most part are themselves very strong characters. The older women certainly do not fall into the stereotype of "southern belles" though they share personality characteristics that we associate with Southern women. The men are well-drawn too, particularly her cousin Reid, her brother Will, and Dwight Bryant. There are sharp character sketches of less-than-admirable male judges. In fact, one of the more memorable lines in a book full of them comes from a black woman judge who, at a meet-the candidate meeting (Southrn style) talks to Deborah about the problems she's faced in her first term: "I thought my big problem was going to be race. Honey, race is nothing compared to being a woman in a good ol' boy system." As a woman who was just starting her professional career in the 60s before the feminist movement got started, believe me, this line resonates.But there are better. Describing her fright at a sudden noise:"As I opened the door, I heard a rustle somewhere near and every red corpuscle in my body ducked down behind the nearest white ones."Throughout, Maron uses Christian religious similes and references that are consistent with Knott's (I presume) Southern Baptist upbringing--which seems to be the general ambience of the area--used and taken for granted by almost everyone in the book."Inside was blacker than Satan's unwahsed soul..."These phrases and references are scattered in a thoroughly unforced, unconscious way throughout the book and add enormously to the sense of time and place. It's one of the distinctive aspects of the series, totally lacking from her other series featuring a femal detective in NYC. The climax is well done in keeping with an excellently executed plot. The end of the book, which has to do with the main story, is also extremely well done.Good plot, fascinating back story, and just plain outstanding writing.
    • 4/5
      This mystery won all the major awards for Best First Novel--the Edgar, the Agatha, the Macavity, and the Anthony. It is the first in the Deborah Knott series about a North Carolina attorney who solves crimes.When the novel begins, Deborah has decided to run for district judge of old-boy-ruled Colleton County. She sat and watched a judge let a white man off scot free for a DUI and then turn around and throw the book at a black man charged with the same offense. She couldn't take it any more. She knew she'd do a better job and decided to run in the election for a chance to prove it.Shortly before the primary, the young daughter of Janie Whitehead begs Deborah to investigate Janie's unsolved eighteen-year-old murder, and the ensuing events almost make Deborah forget all about the election.Why is the book titled Bootlegger's Daughter? Deborah has a slight handicap with some folks in the legal and do-gooder circles. Her father was once the best bootlegger in the state. This device puts an interesting spin on things more than once.I can see why this book won all those awards. When you read it, you can see North Carolina in your mind and hear her people speak. You feel as if you know the characters. The mystery is solid and not given away in the first few pages. You can almost believe that Deborah Knott is, as one reviewer put it, "Scout all grown up."