Bloody Kin

by Margaret Maron

After Jake Honeycutt dies in a hunting accident, his pregnant wife Kate moves to his family farm in North Carolina and soon discovers that she is a Yankee outsider and that Jake's death was no accident. Reprint.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Cozy Mystery, Crime, Southern

181 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 1985

About the author

Born and raised in central North Carolina, Margaret Maron lived in Italy before returning to the USA. In addition to a collection of short stories she also authored numerous mystery novels.

Her works have been translated into seven languages her Bootlegger's Daughter, a Washington Post Bestseller won Edgar Anthony, Agatha, and Macavity awards.

She was a past president of Sisters in Crime and of the American Crime writers' league, and a director on the national board for Mystery Writers of America.

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Reviews

[Connie Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read Bloody Kin before, and reread it because it's the book that preceedes the Deborah Knott series that Margaret Maron started writing several years later.

In Bloody Kin, Margaret Maron sets up a fictional area in North Carolina: Colleton County, Dobson as a large town, and various other towns, farms, roads, environment. Characters in the book are the Bryant family, especially Deputy Sheriff Dwight Bryant and his brother Rob. The characters and the Colleton County setting is later drawn upon to establish Deborah Knott and her large family beginning with Bootlegger's Daughter, the first book of the Knott series.

In Bloody Kin,Jake Honeycutt, inheritor of a farm who lives in New York, dies in a hunting accident when he visits his Uncle Lacy. His wife Kate finds she is pregnant and leaves New York to raise her child on the Honeycutt farm. She meets neighbors who live in a nearby restored plantation house: Gilead, inherited by the child Mary Pat whose family died in cruise ship wreck. Uncle Gordon Tyrrell takes care of her.

Kate remodels an old farm building into a design studio, and in it she finds a dead man who turns out to be one of Jake's old Viet Nam army buddies. A photo of four young soldiers, in a small chest with other items, appears and disappears. Enter Dwight Bryant to solve the homicide, and his brother Rob, who falls in love with Kate. It's Kate who figures things out. She almost dies in the fire started in an old barn, but Uncle Lacy rescues her.

An excellent book on its own, Bloody Kin is interesting to read as people and places appear who are still in Colleton County when Deborah Knott becomes a judge.

[Tobinsfavorite · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this one a bit better than the others so far, but it was depressing to open the book with the murder of a character I'd been briefly but pleasantly introduced to just one book earlier. (I'm not reading these in order, so it may not be just one book earlier for everybody.) It took a significant fraction of the pages to care about anything else; I suppose that makes sense with a murder, but the widow had a number of unchronicled months to come to grips with it, and I didn't.

I did like the end.

[Ken Finlay · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Bloody Kin” is a prequel to the 'Deborah Knott' series, featuring many of the same characters and locations, but not the woman herself.
Kate Honeycutt has left the big city and re-loated to the farm of her dead husband, Jake, in Colleton County, North Carolina.
Jake died in an accidental shooting on the farm a short time before.
Shortly after her arrival she discovers a body – initially anonymous, it is identified as an army veteran who served with Jake in Vietnam and was one of a small group who survived an overwhelming attack by the Viet Cong.
Oddly, all the photographs and the documentation concerning Vietnam have been stolen.
Kate doesn't set out to investigate (it's definitely not an amateur P.I. story) but does have access to information which ultimately proves to be the key to the killings.
It has a nice line in red herrings:- “Hidden Buddhist idols, torn treasure maps, and murders disguised as accidents ...”
Occasionally it is a little heavy-handed, e.g. the description of the gas tank pretty much guarantees that it re-surface.
There's also far too much detail given about flora and fauna.
3 Stars.

[Elise Kind · Rating 5 out of 5]

The prequel to the Deborah Knott/Dwight Bryant is an excellent way to start reading the series. A rich story of violence and greed that will keep you on the edge of your seat through this fast paced mystery. The details and descriptions of North Carolina add to the atmosphere of this fascinating book.
This is not a new book that has just come out. It gives the reader a good look at life in the south in 1985. Not only is it a wonderful mystery, it's also an important glimpse of life in the 1980's. It is well worth the read by a very good writer.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

A young, pregnant widow moves from New York City to her husband’s country place to economize and finds herself enmeshed in one suspenseful turn of events after another. The book effectively conveys a strong sense of place for its North Carolina piedmont setting. The hostility between the young widow and her husband’s uncle would have been more believable if it had been less blatant; it (like the complex plot) just seemed overdone.

[Naomi Yoelin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Southern Mystery. Charming but confusing

So many characters. Kinda confusing. Especially the ending. All of a sudden the main characters are gone and their story not quite finished and some totally peripheral character has the end. Also way too much description of things that are not interesting.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of people - relatives and non-relatives - to keep track of, especially in light of having read many of the Judge Knott series. But it did give backstory details that might have been mentioned in following books but I probably forgot in the "heat" of a good story.

[Kristie Kirkpatrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have loved and devoured everything that Margaret Maron writes, but this prequel to the Deborah Knott series is not my favorite.

[Gayle Stever · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great backstory to the Deborah Knott series. If you like that series, don’t miss this one.

[Lane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed a good mystery that includes old crimes, hidden identity and southern lives.
Sets up the future series.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Margaret Maron

This is roughly the sixteenth book I've read by Margaret Maron and one of f the best. She never disappoints.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Favorite Author

Well written and engaging. I live in the South, not North Carolina, but it's very true to life. The characters are great.

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author guest-blogged and mentioned this book, which preceded her Judge Deborah Knott series by a few years, but has the same setting and some of the characters who show up in the series. Kate Honeycutt, freshly widowed and expecting her late husband's baby, returns to his home farm in North Carolina to carry on her fabric design business and escape too many memories in New York City. Shortly after her arrival, she finds a body on the farm -- which turns out to be that of an old army buddy of her husband's. Investigations (partly carried out by Dwight Bryant, familiar to readers of the Judge Knott series) suggest that Kate's husband's death was not really due to a hunting accident but may have been murder. A thrilling conclusion includes the possibility of a new romance for Kate. Margaret Maron does the regional mystery as well or better than anyone writing now; the plethora of family and kinship references may be confusing for non-genealogists, but stick with it. Highly recommended.

[Wanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have read several others in this series so it was nice to go back in time a little and see how some of the family connections began. Good story with greed at the heart of it. Easy to see how someone could impersonate someone else when both people were not all that well known to others in the area. Small little details did trip up the killer in the end. Liked seeing how Kate was adapting to living on the farm, how she had to learn a few things about farm life. Glad to see her and Lacy finally came to an understanding. He tried to take advantage of her and part of it was because of a misunderstanding on his part. Interesting how Mary Pat handled James taking on the roll of his brother. Deep down she knew it wasn't him but adults had told her it was so she decided everything could change even if it hadn't. Glad to see she was going to stay with Kate.

[Jocelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here is Margaret Maron at her best. Descriptions of characters and settings convey a nice sense of people and place. The story moves along well and doesn't trip too badly over the orphaned child or the hasty yet detailed confession.

Newly widowed and pregnant, Kate Honeycutt moves from New York City to the Honeycutt farm in Colleton County, North Carolina. Here, she decides, is the best place for her to settle and raise the next young Honeycutt. All she needs is an obstetrician, a studio for her fabric design work, and a network of friends and family. The first two -- no problem. But it's not going to be so easy for some people to accept her as more than just an occasional visitor from Yankee-land. Maybe a little ol' murder will help to ease the way.

[Amy Thorleifson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maron is a favorite author, and I was initially disappointed when I found this book was a reissue predating her Judge Deborah Knox series. But the characters and even more, the setting, made this a great backdrop for her later books.
Kate Honeycutt is left a widow and pregnant when her husband Jake is killed in a hunting accident(?) on his farm is North Carolina. The couple had lived in New York but made frequent trips south, and Kate decides her baby would have a better home on the farm. Subsequent murders and a dour uncle-in-law make Kate wonder about her decision.
Wonderful descriptions of the North Carolina area are a key part of this story.
If you have not read this one, I recommend it.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an OK book. It's worth a read. Interestingly, although it doesn't have Deborah Knott in it, Dwight is the deputy and prominent in the story line. This is early Margaret Maron, 1985, but it shows her promise. All she needed was a great central character. I had trouble keeping up with who all the characters were, even though there was a family tree in the front, because they were all interconnected AND each had a cook and/or a maid and other household help. One character had live-in people to watch over the estate and his ward, a cook, a couple of maids, etc. Whew! I was forever flipping back and forth trying to keep up with them.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prequel to the Judge Deborah Knott mystery series.

When Jake Honeycutt is killed in a hunting accident, his pregnant wife, Kate, decides to return to the Colleton County, North Carolina farm where Jake grew up to have his baby. A successful fabric designer, she leaves behind the fast-paced life of Manhattan and a comfortable apartment on the Upper West Side for the idyllic world of cotton and tobacco fields, of piney woods and quiet starlit nights. But Kate's arrival at the farm is far from peaceful: on her first day, she stumbles across the body of one of Jake's Vietnam war buddies and discovers that her husband's hunting accident was no accident but premeditated murder.

[Nell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The descriptions in this book is so vivid I swear I can almost taste the scuppernongs!

This is a prequel to her Deborah Knott series. The main character is a cousin of Sigrid Harald's who has moved to NC. Dwight Bryant, his mother and his brother, Rob are featured. Great descriptions of the area. Even with a critical clue from having read several Deborah Knott's mysteries,I did not figure this one out. The mystery had a twist at the end that surprised me. I fell for the red herring! It's a very good read.

[Richard Brand · Rating 4 out of 5]

it is a gentle slow moving story with only the last ten pages explosive, but since I was reading it during the ACC tournament it was fun since the has that as part of the local flavor. The mystery and its solution are not such that the reader could solve it before the author. The romantic at heart will be content with the ending. If you are not gifted in the way "second cousins,once removed" or other kin relations you may find it hard, as i did, to understand all the inter-related players in this story. nevertheless, it did inspire me to look for the deborah knott series.

[Kitty Tomlinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is a kind of prequel for the Deborah Knott series. It introduces background characters that people this series.

When Katie's husband, Jake, is killed in a hunting accident in NC, Katie moves from their home in New York City to Jake's family farm in Colleton County, NC, to deliver and raise their unborn child. She soon discovers that she is considered an outsider and that her husband's death was no accident.

Very good book.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read all the Deborah Knott books before this one so I'd heard of many of the characters including Kate and Mary Pat. I realized that Mary Pat was adopted (?) or something but I'm still confused about exactly where she fits in the family tree. I read an e-edition with no tree at the front of the book as others have mentioned in reviews. But other than some confusion I thought this book was great but ended too abruptly. The Epilogue was odd as well.

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

While not technically connected to the Deborah Knott mysteries this book is definitely kin to it. I picked up the latest by Maron in paperback and the main characters were mentioned in first ten pages. A great beginning, before you meet Deborah and her family.

[Agatha Donkar Lund · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is obviously an early effort -- the writing is a bit clunkier than Maron's later stuff -- but deeply charming, in getting all of Kate Honeycutt Bryant's story, and getting to read about Rob and Dwight and Mary Pat in their own story, not as satellites to Deborah Knott.

[Michele bookloverforever · Rating 5 out of 5]

precedes the Deborah Knott series but tells how Dwight' s brother met and fell in love with his wife, Kate....her husband was killed in what seemed to be a hunting accident but turned out to be murder.

[Kevin Kern]

Another excellent entry, if you like family based mystery and North Carolina/southern culture. This story precludes the Deborah Knott series and introduces characters that become very prominent later in those books.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like all of the books I have read by Margaret Maron. She peoples her stories with very likeable families.

[Lynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't part of the Deborah Knott series, but it's a prequel with Dwight's family. Very good!

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Magaret Maron mysteries. This one was especially enjoyable as I met the characters and realized I knew some of them from other Margaret Maron books I have read.

[Patti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I needed a familiar author/book, and I chose this one. Margaret Maron is one of my very favorite authors, and I read straight through this one in one evening. Exactly what I needed!