The premise of this new
mystery series is that Samantha “Sammy” Kane has
gone back to her hometown for her friend Kate’s funeral.
She decides to stay and take over Kate’s business, a
craft store named Community Craft. Three years later Sammy
is still there living and working in Heartsford, WI. When
Ingrid Wilson, who has just opened The Yarn Barn calls and
ask for help with hanging a knit afghan is her shop’s
window, Sammy tells her young assistant Carter that he should
stay and keep working and she would go and help Ingrid. After
a short intentional delay to make Ingrid wait, Sammy walks
over and discovers that Ingrid is dead. Murdered with a dark
green aluminum knitting needle to the throat.
Ingrid
was unlikable and thus there are plenty of suspects in town.
When Detective Liam Nash arrests woodwork Miles Danbury, Holly
wants to clear her friend’s name so she sets out to
do some detecting on her own. But if she gets too close will
the killer use another needle to stop her in her sleuthing
tracks permanently?
Overall
this is a typical cozy mystery and the theme of craft shop
owner cum sleuth has been used in several series over the
years, often quite successfully. Whether this series can cut
the mustard in the tightly knit crafty mystery genre or not
remains to be seen. I feel rather neutral about this book.
I neither loved it nor disliked it. The protagonist could
stand to gain some maturity in the way she relates to people,
so perhaps that could be used as a point of reference in a
future book. Maybe a “how she grows up and why”
type of story?
Give
this one a chance. If the series finds a firm enough footing
in the cozy market, it could go far. If readers don’t
try it, it might not achieve lift off and we’d miss
a potentially delightful series.
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