Purls Before Swine (Clear Creek Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery
3rd in Series
Setting – Rocky Mountains
Independently Published (March 23, 2023)
Length: ~250 pages
Synopsis
Autumn has arrived in the Rocky Mountains. The resort that was almost the death of the small town of Clear Creek is trying to mend relations by hosting a local artisan show.
Jemma has been asked to create a display showing beginner projects all the way up to expert. Hoping to knit up attention for the shops in Clear Creek, she agrees. The last thing she expects is to trip over a body in the middle of the exhibits.
Curiosity piqued, she wants to know how someone was killed under the watchful eyes of the resort’s security staff — headed by the man she loves.
Even though her past experiences have taught Jemma she doesn’t want to be anywhere near a killer, when Deputy Chase surprises everyone by asking for her help she can’t bring herself to say no. Because if the killer isn’t bound off before the resort guests leave, someone will get away with murder.
Amazon
Review
This has been such a fun series to watch grow. The characters are engaging and complex, the mystery is well crafted, and there is a romance to round things out.
Jemma is a fun character. She has seen the world yet can’t boil water. However, that adds to her charm. Yet, in future books, we might see that change based on some hints in this novel. But then it might have just been me reading between the lines.
It is nice to see cozy protagonists work well with the police. Deputy Matthew Chase seeks her assistance, much to her boyfriend’s objections, because she has a way of putting pieces together and helping solve the crimes. This story is no different, and as usual, she figures out the truth in the end when it is almost too late.
I thought it was an interesting twist to set the crime away from her town. While we still see some activity in her village, especially when it comes to her shop, having the bulk of the story elsewhere just added another layer to this series. The resort is where Brandon is employed (the boyfriend), so it still pulls in elements of their relationship and reflects the ties between the two locations.
I have to admit that I didn’t guess the killer. I went down another path, and I couldn’t have been further from the truth. There are a few clues to help you solve the mystery on your own, but they aren’t obvious. So pull out those detective skills when reading this novel.
This is a fun series that is pushing me to learn how to knit. I don’t know that I will pick up any needles to do that, but it is fun imagining the soft yarn and the possible creations.
We give this book 5 paws up.
About the Author
Rebecca McKinnon enjoys playing with her imaginary friends and introducing them to others through her writing. She dreams of living in the middle of nowhere but has been unable to find an acceptable location that wouldn’t require crossing an ocean.
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Giveaway
Joyce Proell is the award-winning author of Amaryllis, Eliza and the Cady Delafield mysteries: A Deadly Truth, A Burning Truth and A Wicked Truth. Along with her husband and little dog, Nellie, she lives in Minnesota in her very own little house on the prairie. She loves to hear from readers.
Brenda Whiteside is the award-winning author of romantic suspense, romance, and cozy mystery. After living in six states and two countries—so far—she and her husband have settled in Central Arizona. They admit to being gypsies at heart and won’t discount the possibility of another move. They share their home with a rescue dog named Amigo. While FDW fishes, Brenda writes.
Secrets that defy time!
Award-winning Author Anita Dickason is a twenty-two-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department. She served as a patrol officer, undercover narcotics detective, advanced accident investigator, tactical officer, and first female sniper on the Dallas SWAT team.
Laura Childs is the New York Times bestselling author of the 
About the Author
Nancy Lynn Jarvis left the real estate profession after she started having so much fun writing the Regan McHenry Real Estate Mysteries series that she let her license lapse. She’s enjoyed writing about Regan and her husband, Tom, but decided it was time to do a new series.
Michelle Hillen Klump began her writing career as a newspaper reporter, traveling the back roads of central Texas and Arkansas, reporting on everything from natural disasters to crime and corruption. She’s interviewed former presidents, covered a midnight manhunt through the Ozark Mountains, and learned the finer points of how to break a car window from a looter while covering a hurricane. Now, she uses her experiences as fodder for fiction, writing a cozy mystery series about a former reporter turned craft cocktail caterer.
Felicity Koerber’s bean to bar chocolate shop on Galveston’s historic Strand is expanding, as it has become a gathering spot for the community, despite having been the scene of multiple murders. Artists she met while doing a chocolate sculpture are now working out of the shop. So when Felicity is invited to tea by an eccentric art collector, she’s intrigued, especially when she gets asked to pose for a portrait done with chocolate on chocolate. Only, where there is a murder the next day at the same historic house where the tea was held, one of Felicity’s artist friends becomes the main suspect.
Amber Royer writes the Chocoverse comic telenovela-style foodie-inspired space opera series and the Bean to Bar Mysteries. She is also the author of Story Like a Journalist: a Workbook for Novelists, which boils down her writing knowledge into an actionable plan involving over 100 worksheets to build a comprehensive story plan for your novel. She also teaches creative writing and is an author coach.
While Toni Lotempio does not commit – or solve – murders in real life, she has no trouble doing it on paper. Her lifelong love of mysteries began early on when she was introduced to her first Nancy Drew mystery at age 10 – The Secret in the Old Attic. She and her cat pen the Nick and Nora mystery series originally from Berkley Prime Crime and now with Beyond the Page Publishing. They also write the Cat Rescue series from Crooked Lane and the Pet Shop series, originally published by Midnight Ink and rebranded last year as “Urban Tails Pet Shop Mysteries.” Book six in the Nick and Nora mysteries, A PURR BEFORE DYING, is released this February from Beyond the Page. There is also a new series, Tiffany Austin Food Blogger, coming out in April.
