MARGARET
MARON
Copyright © 2007 by Margaret Maron
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976,
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with Time Warner Inc.
First eBook Edition: August 2007
Summary: “As judge Deborah Knott presides over a case involving a barroom
brawl, it becomes clear that deep resentments over race, class, and illegal immigration
are simmering just below the surface in the North Carolina countryside”—Provided
by publisher.
ISBN:
0-446-19825-0
1. Knott, Deborah (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Women judges—Fiction.
3. North Carolina—Fiction. I. Title.
For Ann Ragan Stephenson,
whose friendship enriches me and
keeps me rooted in reality
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Special thanks to Jay Stephenson, my friend and neigh-
bor, for sharing his practical knowledge and farming
expertise; to Margaret Ruley for insights into stepmoth-
ering; and to my cousin Judy Johnson for giving me
tuberoses. As always, I am indebted to District Court
Judges Shelly S. Holt and Rebecca W. Blackmore, of the
5th Judicial District Court (New Hanover and Pender
Counties, North Carolina), and Special Superior Court
Judge John Smith, who keep a watching brief on
Deborah’s grasp of the law.
HARD
ROW
D E B O R A H K N O T T ’ S
F A M I L Y T R E E
(stillborn son)
Annie Ruth
1) Ina Faye
