Judge Deborah Knott’s court docket brings her into contact with a violent barroom fight, but the case opens onto a wider pattern of resentment and fear in rural North Carolina. As spring arrives in Colleton County, grisly discoveries along back roads point to a hidden victim and a murder investigation that reaches into the lives of undocumented farm workers and those who profit from their vulnerability. The investigation tests Deborah’s professional judgment and her new life with Sheriff’s Deputy Dwight Bryant. With Dwight’s young son, Cal, now living with them full-time, the newly married couple must balance domestic adjustment with a case that unsettles the quiet rhythms of their community. Hard Row is a Deborah Knott mystery centered on justice and the human cost of exploitation in rural life.

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