Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9780425225004
Berkley Prime Crime
288 Pages
$7.99; $7.99 Amazon
December 2, 2008
⭐⭐⭐
The Tarzana Hookers are a motley crew of women, all of whom are not afraid to speak their minds. Except Sheila, a timid, anxiety-ridden crocheter in desperate need of money, who sells her beautiful scars at a local consignment store. When the owner stiffs Sheila, the boisterous ladies rally to her support. Then the shop owner is found dead. Molly Pink ignores the warnings from her homicide-detective boyfriend and sets out with her stitchmates to clear Sheila's name.
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Molly Pink is a widow who worked for her husband's PR firm. Now she works at a bookstore as an event coordinator. She's also a member of the Tarzana Hookers, a group of women who crochet items for charity. As a novice crocheter, she's also the target of sarcastic remarks from Adele, another bookstore worker who dislikes Molly because she got the job that Adele wanted. One morning another crocheter named Sheila shows up miserable because she'd been crocheting beautiful scarves and giving them to a shop across the street for consignment. It turns out that the old owner had passed away, and her nephews took over the shop; one of the brothers refused to give her the set upon price telling her that they weren't selling as well.
Sheila needs the money to make ends meet as she doesn't make enough working at a gym and is staying in a woman's home in return for part-time babysitting. So the women agree to come with her for moral support while she demands the full amount owed her. So they all head over to the Cottage Shoppe and wait for an opening. After talking with Drew, Sheila comes downstairs disheartened that he laughed at her. But then they hear a woman's scream and all run up to his office and find him dead. While Sheila is afraid that the police suspect her, and no one seems to be looking in any other direction, Molly knows she can't abandon her friend. Especially when they tell Sheila that she'll find the killer. Now, Molly's in the middle of a situation she can't get out of: she needs to find a killer and keep her homicide detective boyfriend from finding out about it. And, of course, the killer, who might be closer than she thinks...
This is the second book in the series and is a bit of an improvement over the first, but still there were things that bothered me. I just can never get over the fact that amateur sleuths think it's perfectly fine to go snooping into homes and offices and they never seem to get caught, no matter what they do. It's rather uncomfortable to read about. Then, I wondered why Barry showed up when Molly and Dinah were suspected of being robbers. Isn't he a homicide detective? Why would he show up? He wouldn't even have been notified since there was no dead body.
Aside from that, it was a decent book. There weren't a whole lot of clues to the murderer, which was fine; but the worst thing is Adele. I really, really dislike her as a person. She's what I call the 'evil nemesis,' and it's just not needed in a book. What's worse is the fact that she's trying to take over Molly's job, and Molly's okay with that. She doesn't even see what Adele's really doing. Either Molly has no backbone or she's just numb altogether.
Then there's her relationship with Barry. She's sleeping with him, but wants a casual relationship, knowing that he wants more. She's allowing him into her life which is giving him hope (he wants to marry her) but she's not figured anything out. You know, if you find a nice guy and don't snap him up, someone else will eventually. I got tired of her playing games with Barry and Mason, even though we're given a hint in the end.
All in all, the murder itself wasn't bad, and everything came together nicely in the end, and I really did like the way it all tied together. So, saying that, I will continue with this series and hope that it improves over time.
More on Betty Hechtman's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/h/betty-hechtman/
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