Genre: Mystery
Five Stars
Returning to the quaint coastal town of Harbor Haven, Maine - a place she once called home - Angie Curtis finds her memories aren't all quite pleasant ones...After leaving a decade ago, Angie has been called back to Harbor Haven by her grandmother, Charlotte, who raised her following her mother's disappearance when she was a child. Her mother has been found, and now the question of her whereabouts has sadly become the mystery of her murder.
The bright spot in Angie's homecoming is reuniting with Charlotte, who has started her own needlepointing business with a group called Mainely Needlepointers. But when a shady business associate of the stitchers dies suddenly under suspicious circumstances, Charlotte and Angie become suspects. As Angie starts to weave together clues, she discovers that this new murder may have ties to her own mother's cold case...
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Angie Curtis has been living in Arizona as an assistant to a P.I. But when her mother's remains are discovered - nineteen years after she disappeared - Angie returns home to Maine and to her grandmother. While there, it's discovered that her mother had been murdered, and that her grandmother, Charlotte, is in a bind due to some shady financial dealings, so Angie decides to stay, at least for the time being, to help her grandmother out, and to find out the truth about her mother.
It was her friend Lauren who found the body, and some people think that Lauren's father committed the murder, while others don't believe it, but there aren't any other suspects. To make it worse, the investigating officer is Angie's high school crush, who is now married and has a child. And when there's another murder, everyone in Mainely Needlepointers is a suspect, but especially Charlotte.
I'm not giving away any more of the plot, but I will tell you that this is a very good book. Ms. Wait offers us a real mystery, one you can get your teeth into and get interested in almost immediately. I have never been to Maine, but her descriptions are such that you can almost imagine yourself there. The characters are and situations are believable, without anything that seems far-fetched. If I have any complaints about the book, it is the fact that Angie drinks and drives. Yes, I know it only "one beer," but still, it is drinking and driving, and not a good thing at all. This is one thing I would like eliminated from future books. (These are the kinds of details I notice).
Since there is no love interest (her "crush" is married, alas!) the book concentrates on the murders and how she goes about gathering information to solve them. A different approach, but one that works. All in all, highly recommended.
This book sounds just like something that I would love to read. Mysteries and cozies in particular are about 95% of my reading and the rest is for book club books, mostly non fiction. So, when I read the write up about Twisted Threads, it definitely sounded like a book that I have to order soon. Thank you for this blog post; it was very helpful.
ReplyDeleteSincerely,
Cynthia
I also meant to add to the previous comment about the fact that I am a New Englander and that Maine is a state that we have gone to for over 50 years of married life. As a child my parents used to take up to Maine at least once a summer as well. We have dear friends in Maine too, so this book would have lots of common threads for me. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteCynthia B.