Hard Row

(Grand Central Books, 304 pages)

by Margaret Maron

Judge Deborah Knott promised her new husband, sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant, that she wouldn't interfere in his work.

But that promise gets hard to keep when a hand, legs and other body parts start popping up along roads and in fields in Colleton County.

Margaret Maron established herself as a writer to be reckoned with when her first Deborah Knott mystery swept the Edgar, Anthony, Agatha and Macavity awards. In her 13th outing, she continues to tackle controversial current issues while offering insight into life in rural North Carolina.

Hard Row takes on illegal immigration and domestic abuse. But Maron's insights into the changes in agriculture and work conditions on farms are what really give the reader a sense of learning while being entertained.

In one scene, Knott watches with amusement as her siblings and their children brainstorm about ways to keep the family farm going when they can no longer grow tobacco. A niece suggests growing shiitake mushrooms. A nephew proposes raising ostriches, which his aunt dubs "outlandish foolishness".

But their parents are even more surprised when the cousins propose organic farming.

"Well, Haywood and Robert can remember when they had to worm and sucker tobacco by hand," Knott explains to another relative. "No wonder they love being able to run a tractor through the fields pulling a sprayer that'll take care of everything chemically."

Then Knott learns that some farmers have sent workers into still-wet fields or sprayed as they labored. She is horrified.

Maron also intertwines Knott's detective work with her struggle as a new wife and parent. At home, as in court, Knott tries to make the sentence fit the crime and comes up with a creative punishment for her eight-year-old stepson.

The one nagging point in Maron's writing is her main character's extreme competence. Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone has a rebellious temper, and the stubbornness of Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski often outweighs her social skills. Knott is smart, well-adjusted and patient enough to give anyone an inferiority complex.

But Maron works that into the novel, too, making one of Knott's competitors for Bryant's attention a main character.

Ultimately, this is a tightly written novel that never lets the background of Southern life or Maron's smart take on social issues overshadow the main story line.

Readers will be wondering who did it until the final pages, when Maron wraps up the plot so neatly that there's no question why she's one of America's best mystery writers.