I've been reading the Deborah Knott Mysteries that I have had on my tbr pile so this has moved me from Book 3 to Book 6. Readers of my previous reviews may remember my delight with the feature of italicized sentences which I enjoy as it provides a "heading" and/or very effective "lead-in" at the beginning of each chapter and have been related to the overall theme of each novel. In "Home Fires" although the sentences are related to the novel's theme, I did not find them as effective as in Books 2 and 3. As no credit was given on the copyright page I'm not sure if the author saw these sayings on church signage or if they are also of her own creation.

This is the first time that I have viewed "Deborah Knott's Family Tree" on the opposite page of Chapter 1 and it is very helpful. After reading several books in the series right in a row I'm more familiar with Deborah's large family but it was still convenient to refer back to the chart and I wish it would have been available in the first book I read in the series which was Book 2, "Southern Discomfort."

A very poignant paragraph in the novel states

"God knows life would be a lot simpler if we could all wake up one morning color-blind, but we're nowhere close to it on either side. Not by a long shot. We continue to lead separate, parallel personal lives, seldom connecting without self-consciousness, at genuine ease only at points of old familiarity such as Maidie and me here in my mother's kitchen.

It was at that point that I had to pause in my reading to look at the copyright page to learn when the novel was published and was saddened by the copyright date of 1998. 22 years since the author wrote those words. How little progress we have made as the author later writes,

"...that people might quit letting their eyes stop at a person's skin but keep on looking deeper until each saw the other's humanity."

Or as the saying goes, “If not us, who? If not now, when?”

Margaret Maron writes excellent murder mysteries and they occur in the midst of everyday life and highlight relevant themes that all beg the reader and even challenge the reader to be better tomorrow than we were today not merely with our words but more importantly with our actions. ( )

At a stop along her campaign trail, Judge Deborah Knott attends a community picnic at the Mr. Olive Church. When the historic building is destroyed by a fire shortly after the outing -- and the charred skeleton of a young man is found among the ashes -- Knott begins her own investigation into the tragedy. Earlier national news reports of a fire at a local African-American church had already gained the attention of Wallace Adderly, a Black Panther from the '70s. Knott and Adderly team up to discover if the blazes are merely coincidence, or the work of a racist arsonist. As the number of suspects rises, Deborah finds herself re-examining her own beliefs and values as she and Adderly race to prevent another devastating loss in the community. ( )

Synopsis: Generally in this small southern town there's not much racial unrest. However, three black churches are first covered in nasty graffiti, then torched. Two young locals are arrested, but Deborah doesn't think that they are the guilty parties. When arson turns to murder, the police increase their search for the guilty parties. Deborah finds some clues that lead her to an unexpected conclusion.
Review: Although I had suspicions, the 'bad guy' was the logical culprit. The characters in this book are well developed and interesting. ( )

This was not one of the easier Deborah Knott books to get through. Take religion, add in a little bit of tension between races, plop it in a southern locale and the book was full of both good and bad tension.

It started with the teenage desecration of a family camp, and then a black church is burned, and then a couple more after that. I wasn't quite sure who in the end was going to have done it because there were definitely a lot of suspects, including one of Deb's nephews. I'm always happy when I can't guess who did it before the halfway point in the book, so that made me happy about this book.

As usual the history that the author gave, both about the Knott farm as well as the churches were as interesting as usual. And I really loved the interludes about Deborah's house that they were building. Not to mention Deborah describing her relationship with her brothers.

There wasn't much Kidd, which was okay, and there was just the right amount of Dwight. Although I always love to see more of him. The book is about Deborah, and I'm always appreciative when an author lets her female characters fight their own battles (and not constantly get rescued by the man either). ( )

This was an enjoyable audiobook, not exactly action packed, but still enjoyable. I liked the references to the Triangle area of North Carolina in this book as well. ( )