Showing results by narrator "C. J. Critt" in All Categories

It's Christmastime in Jubilee, Texas, but Lissette Moncrief is having a hard time celebrating.... Especially after she accidentally smashes her car into Rafferty Jones's pickup truck. Yes, he's a whole lot of handsome - from the tips of his boots to the top of his Stetson. But he's no Christmas present. Lissy's not about to let herself get whisked away by his charming ways and words...only to watch him drive away in the end. But what Lissy doesn't know is Rafferty's in town just to meet her - and to give her a share in a windfall that doesn't rightly belong to him.

At 44, Eve Mozell has a wonderful husband and a creative job. She also has a temperamental teenage son, two headstrong sisters, and a demented old father. As she deals with her family's frequent crises, her days overflow with lengthy phone calls. She is never far from a dial tone. But as her father begins to die, Eve is tempted to disconnect and to sort out her feelings for this difficult man.

Uncommon Clay delves into the intriguing world of the Nordans, a deep-rooted family of talented yet cursed North Carolina potters. Judge Knott is filling in for another judge who suffered a mild stroke. When she decrees that the divorcing Nordan couple split their valuable earthenware collection, the husband winds up dead, in his own kiln! Many people have motives and the clay wheel swirls with suspects.

When Carlotta Carlyle agrees to help a mysterious woman locate her missing immigration card, she doesn't anticipate any complications. But then her client disappears, and the immigration card in question turns up on the dead body of another woman. Suddenly, Carlotta is plunged into the desperate world of illegal aliens, the cold-hearted immigration agents who hunt them down, and the deadly “coyotes” who bring the innocents across the border.

Best-selling author Margaret Maron shows the form that has won her the Edgar and Agatha Awards, among many others, in this riveting mystery. Judge Deborah Knott and Deputy Sheriff Dwight Bryant are due to marry in a week. But all plans are put on hold when an assistant district attorney is killed, and the clues compel Judge Knott to investigate an earlier double murder that may be connected

When racial tension erupts in the sleepy community of Colleton County, North Carolina, Deborah is caught off guard. She is happily tending her own home fires: her simmering romance with Kidd Chapin, the house she's building on her family's land, and her campaign for reelection as district judge. But then the first black church is burned, and all of Deborah's alarms go off.

Margaret Maron continues her best-selling Deborah Knott series with Sand Sharks - an "outstanding ... neat mystery that [is] highly recommended" ( Library Journal, starred review). Judge Deborah's hopes for relaxation at a seaside judicial conference are dashed when she stumbles upon the murdered body of a colleague. And when more judges turn up dead, Deborah fears she could be next.

No one worries much about the scantily clad woman found strangled in the Orchid Motel, she must be a tourist who brought along her own problems. But when the victim turns out to be the wife of an up-and-coming lawyer, people begin looking suspiciously among themselves for the culprit, and Judge Deborah Knott learns her cousin possesses a mighty powerful motive. While Deborah searches for the vicious killer, a deadly hurricane rages up the Carolina coast, bringing destruction and its own kind of justice.

In Up Jumps the Devil, fast-moving progress is threatening to forever destroy the leisurely, heart-warming pace of Colleton County, North Carolina. District Court Judge Deborah Knott sees trouble brewing when plans for a new interstate highway start pushing up property values. Deborah finds herself calming the combatants with down-home wit, but when the squabbles escalate to murder, Deborah is forced to search for a killer uncomfortably close to home.

Publishers Weekly declares that the "leaves of autumn are in full splendor, and so is Maron's talent in her 10th Deborah Knott adventure". Judge Knott 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 in the high country of North Carolina. But ugly murder haunts the beauty of the Smoky Mountains.

Killer Market takes the quintessential steel magnolia to the hub of North Carolina's massive furniture industry. Deborah soon gets caught up in the whirl of the International Home Furnishings Market and finds herself a suspect in a high-power murder case. The feisty judge must use her courtroom experience and intuitive skills to strip through layers of deception if she is to clear her own name. Maron draws from her own rural southern roots to craft her trademark authentic settings and characters.

Margaret Maron's Judge Deborah Knott mysteries set in rural North Carolina are cherished by discerning readers who value authentic characters and intriguing plots. As housing sprawl creeps across the land, farmers are feeling the pinch. County commissioners have been making lucrative land deals in secret, and now murder brings Deborah and Sheriff Bryant into the middle of a major dispute.

Just uttering the word wedding makes Jodi Carlyle break out into a cold sweat. So a year after she was dumped at the altar, and two days after turning the big 3-0, she decides to break some rules - by dressing to the nines, hiring a limo, and crashing a swanky wedding....

The Prince of Air was raised to fear love and distrust women. This all changes the moment he sees Princess Rosalie, and he kidnaps her and hides her away, much to the dismay of her father. When the Invisible Prince comes to visit Rosalie’s father, it seems he might be able to rescue Rosalie after all, thanks to a magical gift from a fairy that granted him invisibility.

Margaret Maron’s best-selling Deborah Knott mystery series won instant acclaim upon its debut in 1993. In this 16th entry in the series, the judge is faced with a horrifying holiday murder case. After a beautiful young cheerleader is found dead in a car wreck, Judge Knott’s husband Deputy Dwight Bryant discovers evidence that the death was anything but an accident.Now Knott and Bryant are on a desperate search for a killer before he or she trikes again.

Sexy cowboy-scholar Jericho Chance always knows exactly what he wants and how to get it. And after sauntering back home to Cupid, he's shocked to discover that he wants Zoe McCleary. After years from home, he takes one new look at his bubbly best friend, with her lightning smarts and luscious body, and it hits him like a bolt: She's his somebody to love and he's not leaving town again without her.

Maggody Police Chief Arly Hanks is all shook up when she hears that her mother collapsed during a pilgrimage to Graceland and is in a Memphis hospital. Another member of the tour is pushed to her death from a hotel balcony. A prominent Maggody citizen stands accused of the murder. Arly's suspicious mind tells her to snap into action--it's now or never--before the touring residents of Maggody are returned to sender ... in a hearse.

Ex-pitcher Rowdy Blanton never saw a woman he couldn't conquer or a team he couldn't beat. And now that he's off the field he's ready to tell all about when he played the field. So he chooses Breeanne Carlyle to do the job - she's got the requirements, but more important, there's something about her that makes him want to be a better man.

Melody Spencer had long-ago wiped the dust of Cupid, Texas, off her cute shoes…and done her best to forget the chiseled jaw and strong arms of cowboy Luke Spencer. Their families might be part of a long-time feud, but he was her very first love, even if it turned out they never wanted the same things. But now Luke's come striding back into her life, tempting her with the memories of long, lazy evenings and hot, passionate kisses.

At the annual Harvest Festival carnival, while everyone else is playing games and having fun, someone commits murder. As Deborah investigates, she must struggle to win a carny's confidence while a dark web of dangerous secrets begins to unravel.