| It’s 1923 and
Mrs Alice Chandler and her quilting group are working on a special
project. Every year she has held a flower show in memory of
her deceased husband whose family business has dominated and
run the area since his grandfather’s time. This year she
won’t be alive to see it as she is murdered – stabbed
in the back with a pair of scissors. Cue detective Steve Walsh,
who is called in to assist the local police with the investigation,
and whose already complicated love life will soon take a new
turn…
This series opener is also a first for the
author, who is the sister of a celebrated quilter. Anybody
expecting the standard crafty cozy with plenty of quilting
tips and a cat or two might want to look elsewhere as this
is not that type of story. Quilting is mentioned, but not
that much so an interest in/knowledge of it is not essential
for enjoyment (or understanding). Instead I would class this
more as a historical procedural, as Walsh has to discover
whodunit and try not to upset the wrong people. There is also
romance with him meeting up with old flame and keen reporter
Julie Boroni and getting introduced to the Mrs Chandler’s
flapper daughter Silene. This book wears its research lightly
as the author deftly drops the reader into the period with
just the right amount of detail. We couldn’t be in any
other period than the early 1920s, a time when people are
recovering from the war and the flu pandemic, coping with
prohibition and trying to have a good time. To its detriment
it is not hard to guess whodunit, and thus anybody hoping
for a teasing mystery replete with red herrings will be disappointed.
If the author can sort this out for the second book, this
series will really take off.
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