Customer Reviews

Bits and Pieces (Five Star First Edition Mystery)

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This is a cozy mystery set in Arizona. The ladies of the St. Rose Quilting Bee sit around quilting and try to solve the latest mystery that has fallen in their lap. (Reminds me of Miss Marple.) One of the ladies, Clare, comes in and announces she has seen Kenny Upland at a local store. Kenny went missing a few months before at the same time as his house burned down with his wife and kids in it.

Clare, one of the quilting bee members and rather ditzy, is determined to prove him innocent even if her own life is put in danger which it is at one point. Maggie Browne, one of the other members and more serious minded, has her doubts as to his innocence but she keeps an open mind. Then other things begin to happen...a gas explosion and an attempted murder.

Things move a little slow but since this is a cozy, it is the way they should move. You feel like you are right there with the ladies and are rooting for them all the way. They have their own ways of finding out information (Miss Marple style). The ending was a complete surprise too. A wonderful series and a great author!

This is the third in the St. Rose Quilting Bee Mysteries by Annette Mahon and the first that I have read. Working on quilts for their church's bazaar they have time to talk so when one of their members, Claire declares that the Keith Upland ,who is missing and a chief suspect in his family's death, is innocent they get pulled in. Keith, a soldier who is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, is believed to have caused the explosion of his home that killed his wife and two daughters. He saves Clare in a car accident and on hearing his story she believes him.Maggie, Clare's dear friend is not sure of Keith's innocence and just wants to keep Clare safe. Some members of the quilting bee also waver but they agree to help investigate.

Mahon writes an interesting cozy centered around the friendships these women have made as they work on quilts for their church. You see the interworkings of a small town and how everyone knows each other. There is also a feel for the relationships these women have forged through the years of growing up in the same church. If you like Miss Marple type mysteries, you will enjoy this one.

In Scottsdale, Arizona, an explosion in their home kills Kate Upland and her five-year-old twin daughters. The police believe Kate's husband, an Iraq veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, killed his family as Kenny is an explosives expert.

Six months later, Senior Guild elderly quilter Clare Patterson sees Kenny featured on TV's Wanted Criminals and knows him from St. Rose bazaars when he and his three females would attend; now she recognizes him at a Big-mart. Clare calls her St. Rose quilting friend Maggie Browne while following Kenny as he leaves town. When Clare crashes near his rustic hideaway, Kenny rescues her. He persuades her he may suffer from PTSD, but would never harm his family.

The third St. Rose Quilting Bee cozy (see A Phantom Death and An Ominous Death) is an interesting mystery that starts with a whisper, but never gets much louder as the action is limited for the most part. The cast is solid especially the lead trio of Maggie, Clare and Kenny as he pleads his defense to the two women that he did not kill his family. Although more a character study of a PTSD veteran than a whodunit (if not him), fans will enjoy Kenny making a case that he is innocent.

Harriet Klausner