Synopses & Reviews
In her newest novel featuring popular Judge Deborah Knott, multiple-prize winning author Margaret Maron explores the achingly beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, where leaves are turning...and corpses are deadly still. No one is more surprised than Judge Deborah Knott by her engagement to her childhood friend Dwight Bryant. Stressed out by the impending marriage, Deborah agrees to fill in for a vacationing judge in the hills of Cedar Gap. With its fresh mountain air and gorgeous fall foliage, it's the perfect place to clear her head...until a local doctor is brutally murdered. Presiding over the probable cause case against the main suspect, Deborah decides the trial can proceed. But when a second person is killed, Deborah begins to look at this case-and her relationship with Dwight-with more critical eyes. And if she fails to notice the fast approaching darkness, she could end up as another corpse in the High Country fall...
Synopsis
With friends and family over-reacting to her announcement that she plans to marry Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant, Judge Deborah Knott gratefully seizes the opportunity to put a five-hour drive between herself and Colleton County when the Chief District Court Judge offers her a week on the bench in Cedar Gap.
It is early autumn, leaves are turning, and summer residents are preparing to close up their mountain "cabins" (palatial houses perched atop the most desirable locations) and return to their winter homes in Florida. But Deborah's peaceful break is disrupted when one Floridian is found murdered. He won't be going home, and Deborah won't be either - until she tracks down the killer.