After a year of marriage, Judge Deborah Knott and Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant are off to New York City for a long-delayed honeymoon. January might not be the perfect time to take a bite of the Big Apple, but Dwight's sister-in-law has arranged for them to stay in her Upper West Side apartment for a week.

Deborah had been asked to deliver a package to Lieutenant Sigrid Harald of the NYPD from Sigrid's Colleton County grandmother. But when the homicide detective comes to pick it up, the package is missing and the building's super is found murdered. Now despite their desire to enjoy a blissful winter getaway, Deborah and Dwight must team up with Lt. Harald to catch the killer before he strikes again. ( )

Deborah and Dwight are off to wintry NYC and a belated honeymoon.. Settling into s relatives apartment, they are invited to a neighbor party. And, find a murdered man on their balcony. Investigating is Sigrid and her team. Lots of interaction between the cousin, sort of, and several more deaths occur. Good crossover between the two series. ( )

Every few Deborah Knott series books Maron seems to get a bit of cabin fever and sends her characters out and about, either somewhere in North Carolina other than Colleton County or as in the case of this novel, New York, New York.

The mystery starts after Deb and Dwight get to New York City and their lent apartment for the week, and go to a party on the floor. When Deborah goes back to the room she finds a dead body. Thankfully (because it would be a bit of a stretch) Deb's not related to the victim unlike most of the other Deborah Knott mysteries.

Sigrid Harald, from Maron's other mystery series, is on the case, and then it becomes a race, who will solve the mystery first. Sigrid or Deborah.

There's also a cool little subplot about Deborah's nieces and nephews back at high school in North Carolina that had me chuckling a bit.

But the most interesting part of the novel was to see Maron's two very well fleshed out main characters from her two serieses interacting, working together (or not) on the page.

Also there were a couple of twists, including a big one, that I didn't see coming. And while I thought the big twist was handled well, I was a little disappointed that it got a little lost in the end.

Still. A pretty great novel with an interesting mystery and as always great characterization and character interactions. ( )

Judge Deborah Knott and her husband, Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant, are spending a January week in New York City, a delayed honeymoon after their marriage a year ago. The plan is to visit museums, jazz clubs, and Broadway shows, but their plans change when a man is found dead in the apartment they are borrowing for their visit. Things I liked: Deborah and Dwight's relationship, the cross-over with one of Maron's other series characters, NYPD lieutenant Sigrid Harald, and the NYC setting. Things I could have done without: Deborah ending up in physical danger again by trying to solve the murder on her own. Things I could have used more of: I missed the usual North Carolina setting and the interest and amusement provided by Deborah's huge family (11 brothers and a bootlegger daddy). Still worth reading, overall. ( )

I remembered that I had read earlier books of Maron's and thought I didn't care for them much. But since this one had pretty good reviews I decided to give it a try as I needed something to pass the time. I can only give it two stars for the plot. There are so many wonderful female protagonists out there, these characters are really trite. Musing on how one's former lover, now dead, didn't compare her beauty to the beauty of super models, wasn't she lucky? Another, thankful to get a break from her spouse on her honeymoon to go shopping for expensive red high heels and boots on 5th avenue in NYC (while enmeshed in murders happening all around her)? Sorry, not my kind of women. And as for the main male character - the last few paragraphs of the book made me want to barf. Sorry, but that is what came to mind. ( )