Tuesday, February 9, 2021

For Better or Worsted (A Crochet Mystery Book 8)

Author:  Betty Hechtman
Genre:   Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book (Other Formats Available)
ISBN #:  9780425252611
Berkley Publishing
286 Pages
$9.79; $7.99 Amazon
November 5, 2013

⭐⭐⭐


When Molly is invited to a major society wedding, she expects some drama but not this much.  The bride -- the daughter of Molly's friend Mason -- has been planning the nuptials for ages.  But at the reception, things go amiss when the groom ends up dancing with the Grim Reaper.

To make matters worse, the bride's mother is found holding the murder weapon -- and, as a reality show star, she's happy to fuel the resulting media frenzy.  Molly agrees to open her home so Thursday, the distraught bride, can have some peace from the paparazzi.  But when it's revealed that she and her groom were on shaky ground, Thursday takes the spotlight as the prime suspect.

Now Molly and the Hookers must quickly stitch together unrelated clues and high-profile suspects -- before a killer strikes again...

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Molly Pink is a widow who works as events coordinator for a local bookstore and cafe҆.  She also belongs to their crochet group, the Tarzana Hookers.  But when she's invited to the home of attorney Mason Fields for his daughter's wedding reception, she expects it to be like any other wedding.  Not one with a dead body.  A dead body of the groom -- with the mother of the bride standing over him with the murder weapon in her hand, and the bride with murder on her hands and gown.

Now Mason has asked Molly's help in proving both his ex-wife and daughter innocent of killing Jonah Kingsley.  It doesn't help that Thursday wants to stay with Molly instead of her father or mother, and refuses to show any emotion regarding the death.  Still, Molly's soft heart allows her to do so, and she becomes even more embroiled in Mason's family than she ever expected.

Meanwhile, her ex-boyfriend, homicide detective Barry Greenberg, is investigating the murder and also trying to win Molly back.  He's become what she wanted, but trying to show her he can change and spend time with her instead of being at his job 24/7.  It's causing problems with her investigating the murder quietly.

Then there's Adele, who's in a serious relationship with traffic cop Eric Humphries.  His mother is in town, and following Adele around.  Adele has toned down her outrageous outfits, and is watching what she is saying.  But worse yet, Eric's mother is pushing a weight-loss drink on her that Adele doesn't want, but still takes...until she can't stand it.  With a crochet-bomber putting odd pieces on items around the bookstore, Eric is convinced it's Adele and wants her to stop.  So Adele asks for Molly's help in finding the 'bomber.'

Now Molly has more on her plate than she ever wanted.  When she starts finding clues, she can't tell either Mason or Barry until she has definite evidence, because she doesn't know who the guilty party is and doesn't want to upset anyone.  Just her and her best friend Dinah are sharing information, and neither one knows where it's going.  But a chance encounter opens Molly's eyes to the truth, and this time it might be too late...

I enjoyed this book as much as any of the others in the series, and perhaps we're finally going to have a resolution that gets Molly's head back where it's supposed to be so she can do her job without depending on the Hookers to do all the work.  Oh, well.  We will see.

The one thing I don't care for in this series is that we're given very little, if any, clues to the murderer so we have nothing to guess at and are inevitably wrong.  At least scatter some clues throughout the book so we have a chance.

Other than that, the mystery was done well and the writing was good, with descriptions along the way that helped in placing the story.  I liked the character of Thursday and hope that she will be in future books, while I also hope Jaimee disappears (no offense, but she's a horrible person).  She's greedy and self-centered, and not in the way CeeCee is self-centered.  Adele is quite toned down in this book, and I never minded her awful clothing, but her awful attitude toward everyone else was always quite grating.  At least we were given a reprieve here.

But when the murderer is discovered, it was rather sad; although I felt the reason for the murder was insane.  I would love to state my reasoning on that, but it would probably give it all away, so I can't.  At any rate, the series is a decent one, so I will probably read the next to see where it goes.



More on Betty Hechtman's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/h/betty-hechtman/

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