A Crafter Knits a Clue: A Handcrafted Mystery
NEW COZY MYSTERY SERIES
SET IN WISCONSIN
Crooked Lane Books (October 9, 2018)

Synopsis

For fans of Betty Hechtman and Maggie Sefton, the latest craft frenzy is Holly Quinn’s Handcrafted series debut.

Sammy Kane just moved back to her hometown to run a craft store. But when the owner of a nearby yarn shop is murdered, Sammy will needle little help finding the killer.

When a heartbroken Samantha “Sammy” Kane returns to her hometown of Heartsford, WI, for her best friend Kate’s funeral, she learns that Kate’s much-loved craft store is in danger of perishing with its owner. Confounding all her expectations of the life she would live, Sammy moves back home with her golden retriever and takes over Community Craft. A few doors down Main Street, fellow new arrival Ingrid Wilson has just opened the Yarn Barn, a real “purl” of a shop. But when Sammy strolls over to see if Ingrid could use a little help, she finds Ingrid’s dead body—with a green aluminum knitting needle lodged in her throat.

Detective Liam Nash is thrown for a loop as every single citizen of Heartsford seems to have a theory about Ingrid’s murder. And nearly everyone in town seems to be a suspect. But the last time Sammy did any sleuthing was as a little moppet. And this is not fun and games. Sammy is eager to help the handsome Liam—who seems to be endlessly inventive in finding reasons to talk with her—and when Liam arrests affable woodworker Miles Danbury, Sammy puts everything on the line to help clear Miles.

As the case comes dangerously close to unraveling, Sammy must stitch the clues together. But the killer has other plans—and if Sammy’s not careful, she may wind up in a perilous knot in A Crafter Knits a Clue, the first warm and woolly yarn of Holly Quinn’s new Handcrafted mysteries.

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Review

I always enjoy cozies that involve cooking or crafting.  Perhaps because I’m not extremely crafty and am a little envious of what the characters manage to create from a little yard, some paint, or paper.  I also enjoy the small town feel and the different festivals or events that these many small towns create to bring joy and excitement to the town and its residents.  Holly Quinn has managed to bring both of these together to this small town in Wisconsin with great success.

Sammy has a heart of gold but is very impulsive and jumps in feet first without looking or thinking.  This is a good and a bad quality to have especially if you are going to insist on helping solve a murder (even though you haven’t been asked to help!).  She ropes her cousin and sister into helping and restarting S.H.E. (their first initials) which was a detective type group from their youth.  They definitely retained some of their skills from those days, but Sammy seems to be the one that is really diving into this mystery of who killed Ingrid, the yarn shop owner.

The murder victim, Ingrid, has her own story to tell in this book – from a tragic incident as a young woman, to trying to fit into this small town.  She doesn’t succeed on that last part very well before she is tragically murdered.  The clues are there for the reader to discover the killer, but these clues are not obvious and I was kept guessing until the very end.  I was quite surprised to learn who the killer was but it made sense once the whole story was laid out for the reader.

Of course, this would not be a complete story without some sort of love interest for Sammy.  And in this case, it is the new police detective, Liam Nash.  It is not a smooth relationship for these two.  I think a lot of that falls on Sammy and the walls she has around her from her own past.  But I think we’ll see more going forward for these two.

Overall the book was enjoyable.  There are times that the book moved slowly and the words were a bit choppy, but I think this could be a series to keep an eye on as it will flourish.

We give this 3 1/2 paws.

About the Author

Holly Quinn is both an avid reader and crafter. Holly sells her artistic creations locally and dreamed of one day opening a gift shop to sell local artist’s handiwork. Instead, she began writing about it and thus her journey of the Handcrafted Mystery series was born.

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