[amazon_link id=”0446555789″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Title : Three Day Town
Author : Margaret Maron
Genre : Mystery
Publisher : Grand Central Publishing
Pages : 288
Source : NetGalley / Publisher ARC
Rating : 3.5/5

Given my love for mysteries, I’ve had friends recommend Margaret Maron to me more than once. I’ve read one of her books “Boot-legger’s daughter” many years ago. While that was interesting, I didn’t happen to pick up other books in the Deborah Knott series. So, am delighted to find that this book, the 17th in the Knott series, is quite good.

Sigrid Harald and Deborah Knott both feature in their own series (the last Harald book was published in 1995), but in this book Maron brings them both together. Though there are hints to Harald’s and Knott’s past alluded to here, the references are slight and explained well enough for the purposes of this book. I’m always a little wary of reading books from the middle of a series, but am happy to report that “Three Day Town” works well as a stand-alone mystery.

Three Day Town is a little different from the other Knott books since in it Deborah and her husband Deputy Dwight (who has featured in the Knott series before) are away from her hometown of Colleton County where she is Judge. Both are on a slightly delayed honeymoon to New York city where Dwight’s sister-in-law has lent them her apartment for the weekend. Deborah also has an errand to run in the city – she needs to pass on a package to Sigrid Harald’s mother, who is a distant relative. Harald’s mother is out of town, but Harald who is a detective with the NYC police department, swings by to pick up the object. She happens to come by when Deborah and Dwight are attending a party at the apartment next door. Among swilling strangers, Deborah escorts Sigrid back to her apartment to find the front door cracked open and the parcel missing. Plus there’s a body in the apartment.

Sigrid immediately calls upon help from her fellow policemen. Debra also, despite herself is sucked into the hunt for the perpetrator. But as clues, thefts and the body count mounts it gets harder and harder to find the elusive killer.

This is an engrossing mystery and Maron engages us with interesting characters . Harald and Knott have very different personalities and deal with the investigation differently. Maron manages to flesh out both their characters by switching voices very effectively. Sigrid is detached and unemotional (we get a hint of a past tragedy), Deborah is charming and impulsive and Dwight is the supportive husband, complete with his penchant for culinary delights. Other minor characters in the book also come with quirks.

With plenty of red herrings and suspects, this fast-paced, well-told story is a good pick for mystery lovers.