Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781496723635
Kensington Publishing
288 Pages
$7.99; $1.99 Amazon
October 29, 2019
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Pamela has been in merry spirits since her artsy daughter Penny returned home from college for the holidays. But their mother-daughter bonding time gets cut short when a terrified Penny stumbles upon the dumped body of Millicent Farthingale, a wealthy craft shop owner who was popular for all the wrong reasons. From a scheming business partner to a seedy husband several years her junior, Millicent attracted scammers so in love with her assets, they'd toss her down a chimney to get their paws on them. Now, with only a hand-knit red scarf connecting the killer to the crime, Pamela and the Knit and Nibblers could use some extra creativity as they find out who's really naughty or nice in Arborville -- because going up against a looming culprit is DIY or die!
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Pamela Paterson is getting ready for Christmas with her daughter Penny, who is home from college for the holidays. But things aren't very merry when she receives a frantic phone call -- Penny has found the body of a local craft store owner in a nature preserve where she was sketching.
When Pamela and her best friend Bettina, who is a reporter for the weekly newspaper The Advocate, get involved, they know there's a killer out there and they're determined to find out who it is. But just questioning people isn't going anywhere, and the dead woman's husband might have a motive but he also has an alibi. Now they have a couple of others to focus on, but they haven't ruled him out.
They're also trying to get ready for Christmas, with wrapping last-minute gifts and planning parties, and Pamela has been cooking up a storm. When one of the suspects suddenly turns up closer than Pamela would like, she's on the hunt to figure it out. But will she be able to do it before the holidays are over?
This is the fourth book in the series, and I honestly don't know why I'm continuing on with it. I guess because I bought the books, I tell myself I should finish them.
The main problem with the books is the fact that people are rarely knitting. They're always eating. And we get long, detailed descriptions of what they're eating. Over and over. We know that Pamela loves whole-grain bread, because she tells us every time she has a slice. We also know she drinks tons of coffee. There were over four pages detailing every step of making the poppy seed cake. Why? Why are we told in every single book about Pamela's wedding china? About Bettina's sage green dishes? Do we really care? Who does that? We're told about Bettina's pumpkin-colored coat numerous times. It's as if the author needed a heavy word count. The result? Very little time was spent on the mystery.
To top it off, there were no clues apparent to us on who the murderer might be, until after they were discovered and Pamela explained it -- and we wouldn't have figured it out anyway! Not with that one clue. Why didn't the police get closer to the killer? They never do, and they're inept in these books. There is no detective presence at all, just Bettina relaying messages.
In the end, this book gave us exactly what all the other books have done: unanswered questions as to what happened to various characters. It's as annoying as Nell, who disapproves of anyone eating anything that isn't healthy. (None of her business, and she shouldn't spout it off to people). What others eat isn't anyone's business but their own. (No, I don't want to see people gorge themselves, but not my circus, not my monkeys).
I know this sounds like a rant, but I wish there were more murder clues and less descriptions of food and dinnerware. Saying that, when the killer was discovered, it came as a surprise, because...there were no clues. Ah, well. I guess I'll just go have a cup of coffee, with cream, in my pretty red reindeer mug and have a slice of homemade banana swirl bread on a blue-rimmed plate...
More on Peggy Ehrhart's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/e/peggy-ehrhart/
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