One Sharp Stitch (A Nimble Needle Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – North Carolina
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Kensington Cozies (March 25, 2025)
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 256 pages

When thirty-something Shelby Phillips returns to her quiet hometown just outside of Asheville, North Carolina, she reluctantly takes over her mother’s Nimble Needle needlepoint shop—and gets entangled in a murder investigation . . .

It’s only temporary. That’s what Shelby Phillips tells herself when she returns to excruciatingly harmless Gwen Lake after her graphic arts career—and the office romance blooming with it—get tossed like rejected design mockups. Her plan is as simple and fool-proof as a tent stitch: manage the family needlepoint shop during her parents’ RV vacation. It’s just a month. It’s not as if they’re retiring . . . right?

When Shelby becomes responsible for hosting a trunk show with local vendors, she’s determined to pull it off. Even if that means dealing with former classmate Kat Katsaros, a rising entrepreneur specializing in needlework scissors. Kat has changed since high school—and she’s angling to take over the Nimble Needle herself. The tension unspools when Shelby makes a terrible discovery on the morning of the event: Kat’s dead body.

Shelby can’t believe the death was an accident. That’s why she’s set on exposing who committed the murder with Kat’s own equipment. She finds help in a new friend, a potential crush, and the surprising support of her sister and the Nimble Needle stitchers. Still, Shelby must move quickly to stop the crafty culprit before her maybe not-so-temporary new life in Gwen Lake comes apart at the seams . . .

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Guest Post

Pulling at Threads to find a Killer

By Shelby Phillips (as told to her author Allie Pleiter)

Sometimes life throws you a curve, and you end up back home.

Returning to Gwen Lake North Carolina wasn’t in my achieve spectacular success by age thirty five plan, but a corporate layoff meant the end of my graphic design career in Savannah. It also mean the end of an office romance with my boss before it even had a chance to get started. (Hint: the boss asking you to dinner really could just be the boss asking you to dinner. Even when you think it isn’t).

So when my parents decided my sudden lack of employment presented the perfect opportunity for me to come home and  manage my mother’s needlepoint shop, I could hardly refuse. I could run Nina’s Nimble Needle “just for a month.” They were just going on an extended RV vacation, not really retiring. I could spare a month to help them have an adventure.

Ah, but who ended up having the adventure here? I thought I’d be looking at a quiet, maybe even boring month.

Like I said, sometimes life throws you a curve.

Or in this case, a dead body.

Again, not in my success plan. When an old high school acquaintance turns up dead, my month managing The Nimble Needle becomes anything but boring. My return to needlepoint quickly becomes an adventure in sleuthing. Did Kat Katsaros’ knife sharpening machine malfunction and kill her? Or were there human hands behind the tragic death?

It doesn’t help that Kat wasn’t exactly likeable. Her mobile knife sharpening business had customers, but the woman had few friends. As I find some new friends of my own here in Gwen Lake, we stitch together not only a loyal little social stitching group, but the details of a baffling mystery.

Whether the NYAGs—the Not Your Average Grannies who are shop regulars and fountains of both opinion and gossip—help or hinder things is up for grabs.  My oh-so-perfect sister finds reasons to nit-pick at every turn. I get support—and caffeine—from my new friend Deb who runs the local coffee shop, so that’s helpful. And then there’s Jake. The handsome town mechanic is a down-to-earth good friend. We’re just not yet sure if there’s something more there. It would be nice if we could put aside the crime-solving thing long enough to find out.

Gwen Lake is “charmingly quirky.” Full of good people (well, killers notwithstanding), wonderfully loyal customers, gorgeous North Carolina scenery, and the most unusual yacht club you’ve ever seen. Yes, I said yacht club. What’s a yacht club doing hundreds of miles from the Atlantic coast? You’ll just have to visit us to find out.

Turns out stitching a canvas and unraveling a murder are skills I happen to have. The needlepoint I always knew—I’m Nina Phillips’ daughter, so it’s in my blood. The mystery-solving, well let’s just say that’s a new line on my resume. I’m determined to prove Kat’s death wasn’t an accident, which means I need to find out who’s hand was on the knife that killed her. And that’s going to take some clever thinking. And some first-rate creative sleuthing.

If you think a smart woman can’t wield the skills of needlepoint and a clever raffle plan to flush out the killer, you’re wrong. Unconventional? Absolutely. Effective? Surprisingly.

After all, us needlepointers make great detectives. Here’s three reasons why:

• We recognize patterns when we see them. One detail is just one detail—until you notice the five others just like it. Then, it’s a pattern. If you’re looking to solve a crime, patterns will usually lead you to clues.
• We’re methodical and patient. Needlepoint is a craft requiring patience and attention to detail. If you rush things, you miss a stitch and throw the whole thing off. But if you pay attention and take your time, you get the results you’re seeking.
• We know what you can’t see is as important as what you can. What the stitches look like on the back of the canvas tells you a lot about the stitcher and their skills. Every canvas has a few secrets to hide—just like every person has something they’re not showing you. Keep peering “under the hood,” and you are bound to learn things.

Would you agree? Spend this month with me in Gwen Lake managing Nina’s Nimble Needle and find out. You may never look at a needle and thread in the same way ever again.

About the Author

An avid crafter, coffee junkie and firm believer that “pie makes everything better,” Allie Pleiter writes both fiction and non-fiction working on as many as four books at a time.  The bestselling author of over sixty books, Allie has enjoyed a twenty-plus year career with over 1.8 million books sold.  In addition to writing, Allie maintains an active writing productivity coaching practice and speaks regularly on the creative process, publishing, and her very favorite topic—The Chunky Method of time management for writers. She lives in the Charlotte area with her husband and the world’s most adorable dog.

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