A Stitch before Dying-Anne Canadeo

A Stitch before Dying
Anne Canadeo
Gallery (Pocket), Dec 28 2010, $15.00
ISBN: 9781439191392

Maggie Messina owns the Black Sheep Knitting Shop. She and four of her friends formed the Black Sheep Knitters as each loves to knit and think of the shop as their refuge where they can focus peacefully on their past-time.

Maggie is invited to provide a knitting seminar at the exclusive Crystal Lake Inn in the Berkshires. For diverse reasons, her four Black Sheep Knitters accompany her to the inn as they each look forward to knitting at the new age spa run by self help aficionado Dr. Max Flemming. On an overnight camping trip, Dana and Lucy attend the new age evening, when a murder occurs. The police question everyone but discover the victim Curtiss Hill was a reporter. He lied when he said he worked for a travel guide, but instead was an investigative reporter for Expose a muckraking tabloid that reports embarrassing items about celebs. They later learn the hut where the kill happened is normally occupied by Dr. Max. The Black Sheep Knitters assume the flamboyant owner was the intended victim and seek motives from that assumption.

This charming cozy will entertain those readers who relish eccentric character driven mysteries. There are three viable suspects who wanted Max dead as the Knitters stitch the case together one clue at a time. Fast-paced, fans will root for the fearsome fab five as they investigate who murdered Curtis in the third Black Sheep Knitter’s amateur sleuth (see Knit, Purl and Die).

Harriet Klausner