Designated Daughters, Margaret Maron
Designated Daughters, Margaret Maron
1 Rating(s)
List: $24.98 | Sale: $17.49
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Designated Daughters

Author: Margaret Maron

Narrator: Margaret Maron

Unabridged: 7 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/12/2014

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

When Judge Deborah Knott is summoned to her ailing Aunt Rachel's bedside, she assumes the worst. Thankfully when she arrives at the hospice center she learns that Rachel hasn't passed; in fact, the dying woman is awake. Surrounded by her children, her extended family, and what seems like half of Colleton County, a semi-conscious Rachel breaks weeks of pained silence with snippets of stories as randomly pieced together as a well-worn patchwork quilt. But the Knott family's joy quickly gives way to shock: less than an hour later, Aunt Rachel is found dead in her bed, smothered with a pillow.

Who would kill a woman on her deathbed? Was it an act of mercy, or murder? As Deborah and her husband, Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant, investigate they cross paths with an unlikely set of suspects: Rachel's longtime minister; her neighbor, the respected local doctor; the friendly single father who often sought her advice; and perhaps the most puzzling party of all, the Designated Daughters, a support group for caregivers that Rachel's own daughter belongs to.

Soon Deborah and Dwight realize that the key to solving this case is hidden in Rachel's mysterious final words. Her mixed-up memories harbored a dark secret-a secret that someone close to them is determined to bury forever.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Linda on September 03, 2014

As a "born and raised" NorthCarolinian who has lived for a long time away from my home state, the Bootlegger's Daughter series is a must read for me. As I have watched NC race itself to the bottom in terms of education, environmental issues, voter restrictions and women's rights, it is always good t......more

Goodreads review by Nell on August 21, 2014

"...I had gone out with a cup of coffee to skim through the paper and see what new rollbacks our current legislature had enacted in its determination to undo all the progress the state's made in the last fifty years. Not too long ago, we led the area in education, jobs, civil rights, and quality of......more

Goodreads review by Grey853 on September 01, 2014

Who kills an old woman with only hours to live? That's the premise in this new Deborah Knott book. I found the whole thing incredibly confusing, with a list of dozens of names and relationships. One needed a chart to keep up with who was related to whom and all the back stories connected to the pres......more

Goodreads review by Janet on August 04, 2021

These are kind of like candy - easy to read, nothing complicated and in the end, the mystery is solved. These last few feel a little dialled in. But I’m in so deep now, I will have to finish the series.......more

Goodreads review by Terric853 on October 21, 2014

This is book 18 in the Deborah Knott series. Deborah's Aunt Rachel is dying and her daughter and son take her off life support. Remarkably, she starts talking to unseen friends and relatives about events that happened as far back as 65 years ago. Soon, Deborah's family gathers to listen and say thei......more


Quotes

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

"Smartly written"—The New York Times on The Buzzard Table

"As always, Maron skillfully layers an absorbing plot with the doings of Deborah's large extended family and the domestic details of their semirural lifestyle. In addition, the contrast between Deborah, who is warm and caring, and Sigrid, who is reserved and cerebral, gives Maron's tale added depth."—Booklist on The Buzzard Table

"Maron...adroitly melds ugly American (open) government secrets with classic whodunit intrigue and stirs the pot by itemizing domestic travails that will touch readers' hearts."—Kirkus Reviews on The Buzzard Table

"There's nobody better."—Chicago Tribune

"Every Margaret Maron is a celebration of something remarkable."—New York Times Book Review