Angels of darkness Book

In reading a 'stash' of novels in the Deborah Knott Mysteries series that have been on my tbr shelves, I began with Book 2, and continued to read Book 3, Book 6, and Book 7. In reading Book 13, there is welcome news for the series readers but for me it was also bittersweet in missing the developments of Book 8-12. I'm sure that at some point I will read all the books I missed and including up to when the series ended in 2015 with Book 20. I can easily imagine that fans of the series eagerly await "Tales from Colleton County" with anticipated publication date of April 30, 2020. The author is said to have "gathered some of Deborah's shorter adventures...a dozen stories of mystery and mayhem beginning with the very first tale from Colleton County, North Carolina, and concluding with a never-before-published Deborah Knott story."

I was excited to see that "Deborah Knott's Family Tree" is again available on the opposite page of Chapter 1 as it is very useful. The 1st time that I viewed the family tree was in Book 6, "Home Fires." After reading several books in the series right in a row I'm more familiar with Deborah's large family but it is a good resource and I wish it would have been available in the first book I read in the series which was Book 2, "Southern Discomfort."

This novel continued a feature which I enjoy as it provides a "heading" and/or very effective "lead-in" at the beginning of each chapter. In this novel the italicized sentences are verses of hymns which are credited on the copyright page: All chapter epigraphs are from "Profitable Farming in the Southern States," by J. W. Fitz. "Assisted by a Large Corps of Prominent and Successful Agricultural Writers," 1890. Franklin Publishing Company, Richmond, Virginia. Margaret Maron's selected epigraphs are as true to farming today as they were when written in 1890.

In this series Margaret Maron used the foundation of a strong, independent female, Deborah Knott and a large and yet close-knit family to explore diverse issues from rape to elections to building homes for single mothers to racism to hurricanes to the challenges of farming from the family history of being tobacco farmers, the initial use of pesticides to the advent of the younger generation trying to explain the desire and need for organic farming. The writing is compelling yet straightforward. I also appreciated the sense of humor the author gave to Deborah Knott as throughout the series Deborah has 2 sides of her brain quietly talking to her - the preacher and the pragmatist.

I really enjoyed this series. Each book can easily be read as a stand-alone but to enjoy reading multiple novels in the series consecutively has been pure joy.