Take Out [Paperback]

FromNew York Timesbestselling, award-winning author Margaret Maron--winner of the Edgar Award, Agatha Award, Anthony Award, and Macavity Award for her classic mysteryThe Bootlegger's Daughter--comes a stunning new mystery featuring NYPD Detective Sigrid Harald.

NYPD Detective Sigrid Harald is still reeling from the untimely death of her lover, acclaimed painter Oscar Nauman, when she is called to investigate the poisoning of two homeless men in the West Village. As she examines the mysterious deaths, Sigrid uncovers a grim neighborhood scandal surrounding two influential women: one a haughty mafia widow, the other a retired opera prima donna, both with dark secrets they've kept under wraps for decades. Was the poison really meant for the homeless men, or were they merely unintended victims as the decades-long feud between the two women comes to a head?

And still, Sigrid can't stop wondering what brought her late lover so urgently across the country to the winding mountain road that took his life--until she meets a man who may hold the answers she seeks . . . .
MARGARET MARONgrew up in the country near Raleigh, North Carolina, but for many years lived in Brooklyn, New York. When she and her artist husband returned to the farm that had been in her family for a hundred years, she began a series based on her own background. The first book,Bootlegger's Daughter, became aWashington Postbestseller that swept the major mystery awards for its year-winning the Edgar, Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity Awards for Best Novel-and is among the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century as selected by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. Later Deborah Knott novelsUp Jumps the Devil,Storm Track, andThree-Day Towneach also won the Agatha Award for Best Novel. Margaret is also the author of the Sigrid Harald series of detective novels. In 2008, Maron received the North Carolina Award for Literature, thelC-