Buried In Quilts: A Joan Spencer Mystery (Joan Spencer Mysteries) [Paperback]

Sara Hoskinson Frommer (Author)

Book Description

Series: Joan Spencer Mysteries | Publication Date: November 2, 2000

Joan Spencer and the Oliver Civic Symphony are rehearsing The Unanswered Question when Joan finds a body. If you like quilts, music, and low-key mystery, this one will please. Deadly Pleasures

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Frommer's second mystery (after Murder in C Major) offers an entertaining family-centered murder investigation while examining the importance of quilts as a means of understanding women's history. Amateur sleuth and widow Joan Spencer, manager of the Oliver, Ind., Civic Symphony, helps her group prepare to play for the opening of the city's annual quilt show with her hands full and her heart heavy. The demanding chairman of the quilt show, Mary Sue Ellett, has become even more difficult since the death of her mother, Edna, a woman whom Joan had admired. Mary Sue wants to mount a special showing of Edna's quilts, though her brother and sister are more interested in their mother's missing will, which they fear has cut them from their inheritance in favor of a cousin who had been living with and caring for the deceased. Joan tries to sidestep the family's arguments but must endure listening to one heated discussion while hanging quilts for the show. The next day she finds Mary Sue's dead body under a pile of quilts pulled from the display. Along with her estranged daughter and a cop friend, Joan becomes entangled in the Ellett family squabbles-and helps to spot the killer.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

No sooner has old Edna Ellett, of Oliver, Ind., died of the flu than her relatives gather to squabble over her estate, from the big- ticket items like the house she shared with cousin Kitty Graf to the quilt she left unfinished. Violist Joan Spencer, who knew Edna from her volunteer work at the local senior center, watches from afar as Edna's overbearing daughter, Mary Sue, dutifully described as good- hearted by innocent acquaintances, tries to outmaneuver her smarmy brother, Leon, and her long-suffering sister, Alice, for a line on their mother's vanished will. As Mary Sue is marshaling the forces for the Alcorn County Quilt Show, however, she's unceremoniously killed, and Joan, whose orchestra has been engaged to play for the show, suddenly finds herself thrown together again with her infuriatingly inconstant beau, Lt. Fred Lundquist, to find the killer and the still- missing will. As if the Elletts weren't enough of a handful--Leon even wants to date Joan--she also has to deal with the thief who's been stealing computer chips from campus computers, and the thief (the same one?) who's made off with her daughter Rebecca's bravely individual entry in the quilt show. Despite some nifty last-minute twists that enliven a moribund plot, the substitution of quilting for the musical background of Murder in C Major (1986) is likely to discourage more readers than it attracts. And such indiscriminate traffic in felonies only reminds you that too many quilters spoil the cloth. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 252 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (November 2, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595143067
• ISBN-13: 978-0595143061
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #919,027 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the cleverst traditional mysteries I've read., October 23, 1999

By 

Barbara Petry (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Buried in Quilts (Hardcover)

Buried in Quilts is one of those wonderful new breed of mysteries that allows you to see inside another world, in this case a small town in Indiana, and inside other people, too. It's not just about a murder, or quilts, the town or the people; the book is a wonderful quilt itself, weaving all the separate pieces into a marvelous whole. I think what I liked best is that the clues to the murder were right there for everyone to see. I don't know a thing about quilting and when the book reached its conclusion I found myself saying, "I should have figured that out!" There was a twist that caught me fair and square. I recommend this book very highly!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great read--even for non-quilters, July 20, 2009

By 

K. Anderson "andersox" (Aliso Viejo, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Buried In Quilts: A Joan Spencer Mystery (Joan Spencer Mysteries) (Paperback)

I picked up this book on the recommendation of another Amazon reviewer--and I'm glad I did. I thoroughly enjoyed "Buried in Quilts." The mystery is very good. The author gives enough teasing clues so that a clever reader could solve the mystery but does not make the solution so obvious that it spoils the suspense.

The book has just enough characters to make the book interesting but not so many that it is difficult to follow.

And, although I'm not a musician or quilter, the author provided enough information to give me an intriguing glimpse into each subject. In fact, it broadened my understanding and appreciation for handmade quilts.

Now, I'm off to the library to find more books in this series that are out-of-print.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Read, June 11, 2009

By 

D. Griffin "dargriff" (Wesley Chapel, FL) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Buried In Quilts: A Joan Spencer Mystery (Joan Spencer Mysteries) (Paperback)

Works for both quilters and just mystery readers. I like the writing style and would consider the author again. good one!