Genre: Mystery
5 Stars
Kath McClellan has just arrived in Blue Plum, Tennessee for the funeral of her beloved grandmother, Ivy. Ivy owned a fiber and fabric shop named The Weaver's Cat. The shop, along with Ivy's house, were bequeathed to Kath upon her grandmother's death. Only Kath soon finds out that there is a problem: the house isn't hers. Ivy deeded it to Emmett, a shady character in Blue Plum that nobody liked. But Emmett is dead, murdered; and Cole Dunbar, Deputy, has suggested to Kath that her grandmother poisoned him. What's worse, the house has passed on to Emmett's son Max, and he has changed the locks so that Kath can't retrieve any of her grandmother's belongings; which she needs to do soon, because Max is renting the house out in a few days.
None of this, of course, makes any sense to Kath, and when she goes to her grandmother's attorney, Homer, to find out about it, he knows nothing about the house being transferred. His advice is sound: let him handle it. After all, he was her grandmother's attorney, and he can find out information better than she can.
She agrees, yet still wants to know what happened, and why. So, she sets out to do some sleuthing on her own. With no place to go, she is offered temporary housing by Homer's wife Ruth, and finds that she has unexpected help: the ghost-in-residence that she (nor anyone else) knew lived in the cottage. The only downside to this is that she is the only one who can see and hear the ghost.
The members of TGIF - Thank Goodness It's Fiber - are a group of fiber and needlework artists who meet regularly at her grandmother's (now hers) shop, and they are a colorful group of women. They stand friend to Kath as they did to her grandmother, and are willing to help her any way they can. There is Cole Dunbar, the deputy, who rubs Kath the wrong way and sees her as just an extension of "Crazy Ivy," her grandmother; and Cole's brother Joe, whom Kath at first mistakes for a burglar and only later finds out isn't, yet still has a hard time trusting.
I truly enjoyed this book, and liked the morose ghost, Geneva. She had a personality all her own that was different, to say the least. This was a ghost who loved television, which was a different twist on things. Quite humorous at times.
When the actual murderer was discovered, I had no clue. Indeed, there were no clues as to the identity. That, in itself, made it worth reading. I hate it when you read a book and you can figure out who the killer is within the first fifty pages or so. Not with this one, and that's a good thing.
There were times when I was angry, as was Kath; and I feel that if a book can actually make me care, then it is a good book. Too often you read a book and even though you like it, you don't find yourself feeling a lot of emotion with it. Because of this, I'm looking forward to the next one involving Kath and her friends, and it can't be too soon for me.
