After three critically acclaimed mysteries set against the art world of New York, Margaret Maron turned to her family farm in North Carolina for the setting for Bloody Kin. Considered a prequel to her Judge Deborah Knott series, it introduces many of the "Colleton County" characters that readers have come to know and love in the later books. Readers familiar with the series will be amused to meet Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant before his life became irrevocably entangled with the judge's. The Indianapolis News said, "More than just a mystery; it is a portrait of a place," and the Houston Chronicle agreed: "Dramatic and satisfying . . . So rich in detail and description of the new South that you can almost hear the North Carolina twang and taste the barbecue."