Up Jumps the Devil

"Speak of the devil and up he jumps" was something my grandmother always said when someone she'd recently mentioned turned up unexpectedly, whether it was my grandfather in from the field early or one of her brothers who dropped in unannounced.

In Up Jumps the Devil, the 4th in my Judge Deborah Knott series, the "devil" in question is Allen Stancil, her ex-husband and the car jockey from Charlotte with whom she eloped immediately after her mother died.  (That he came close to dying when she stabbed him is almost incidental in her mind.)  She does not welcome his return to Colleton County.

Cars and real estate development play important roles in this book.  Cars because most teenage boys in the south are fascinated with them enough to become "shade tree mechanics." Real estate because Deborah's brother Adam is back from California ready to cash in on rising land values.  (This book was written before the housing bubble burst.)  For a Knott to sell land is almost unthinkable to Kezzie Knott's large brood. Throw in tangled lines of inheritance and Deborah has her hands full.

Up Jumps the Devil is now an eBook on Kindle and Nook.  I still don't have an electronic reader, but at least 95% of my friends who own them are pleased with their versatility and portability.  I may just have to add one to the list I send to Santa this year.