Customer Reviews

By Hook or by Crook (A Crochet Mystery)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the third book in a series about Molly Pink, a forty-something-year-old widow who works in a bookstore and has a passion for crocheting. She also happens to find herself at murder scenes and ends up becoming a rather good amateur detective. Each book centers around a murder mystery that Molly--with help from her friends in the bookstore's crochet group--unravels. Molly has an assortment of quirky friends and relatives who are highly entertaining.

I loved this book! It's a purely entertaining read--nothing heavy. There's a lot of humor, a mystery that you can try to resolve along with Molly (I was only partially successful), a lot of unexpected and funny twists and turns, a sprinkling of romance, and crocheting. You don't need to crochet in order to enjoy the story, but if you crochet or knit, it will enhance the experience. There are also "Hollywood" references and action that takes place in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, and Catalina, California.

Molly feels like a good friend, and I highly enjoy her escapades. She is very giving and caring, and has a sense of justice and fairness that thankfully no one can shake.

Highly recommended for a fun read. Warning: It's hard to put the book down. The action starts with the first sentence.

It's not necessary to read the books in the series in order. Each one stands on its own and fills you in on any details from previous books that you need to know.

I read the Kindle version, and it is formatted nicely with a functional Table of Contents. The book includes two crochet patterns and a recipe (which is high in fat and cholesterol--eek!).

Happy reading!

I am thoroughly hooked on Molly Pink and her crew of Tarzana Hookers. This book was so enjoyable that I didn't want it to end. I loved the way the clues were doled out gradually and judiciously, with a sprinkle of red herring and a smidgen of clever concealment. I'm already hanging by a thread waiting for the next one in this series. I'll be like a little kid with her nose to bookstore window, waiting for the next Molly Pink book to hit the shelves ~

A widow in her forties following the sudden unexpected death of her husband, Molly Pink has made a new life for herself. She is the events coordinator and community relations specialist for Shedd & Royal Books. Molly is also one of the Tarzana Hookers, a group of crochet advocates who give their work to the less fortunate. Finally Molly has been an amateur sleuth who has solved homicide cases (see DEAD MEN DON'T CROCHET).

Molly is unaware that when she finds a paper bag on the table used by the Tarzana Hookers to sell their products in order to raise money for charity, that she will be involved in solving another murder. Inside the bag is a letter of regret and guilt, and a ctochet panel with pictures that Molly assumes is a message from the crochet creator. The note implies the author made a terrible mistake years ago and desperately needs to set things right. After some inquiries, Molly concludes that socialite Mary Beth Wilson made the crochet panel piece. When she goes to see the woman, she finds her corpse instead lying in her bed with a box of apple maripan on the night stand. Molly believes Mary Beth was poisoned; the autopsy confirms her theory. She continues her investigation seeking to set right what Mary Beth tried to do before she was murdered. Someone is warning her to quit her investigation; that person sends her warnings and "gifts" which mean back off or she will be next.

Molly is a feisty obstinate person who when shemakes up her mind to do something, no one, not even a killer, can get her to stop until she achieves her objective. There is plenty of action in this entertaining amateur sleuth due to the fully developed cast, especially the heroine and her Tarzana Hookers. Readers will understand what it is like to suffer from grief and not know what to do in terms of male relationships . Fans will admire Molly as she affirms that though you mourn your loss and miss your mate, there remains a fulfilling life if you go for it.

Harriet Klausner

I am not done with it yet but I had to search out the reveiws to see if my opinion is shared. First, I am an avid crocheter and while I haven't (Yet) used thread, I DO know that , when someone's stitches are too small or "tight" (as the author phrased it), you go to a larger hook. I do NOT understand this choosing a smaller hook thing-that makes NO sense crochet-wise. And you wouldn't take a small hook and "poke it through the stitches to loosen them." You would just frog what you had stitched and start over w/a LARGER HOOK.
Second: I agree with another reviewer here that a lot of these characters ARE "strange." However, we ARE talking California!
Finally (for now): the entire circus of Molly always stepping in to it everywhere , latest example being her antics on Catalina, THEN coming home to the total circus of her histrionic mother and the supposed encounter her dad had with her BF, AND the BF's "revelatioN" at the latest of nightly DELI dinners, well it is starting to take on a circus atmosphere. This kind of goofy stuff happens in Life, but NOT all at once. No matter how hapless or silly or unlucky a person you are. I understand this is a book not an anthology of years of Molly's life, but it's really not too beleiveable.
***Edited upon finishing the book:
DEFINITELY silly. In fact, a few times in the final couple of chapters,I actually groaned and said "Ah-Come ON!!!". I rarely ever say things out loud when reading a book, but this was too , too much. I can only hope that the author was TRYING to write a *Slapstick* comedy. With a BIT of "mystery" thrown in . Oh, and I wonder if she really crochets (see paragraph above). The entire filet crochet "piece" this woman carried around w/her (til the late chapters), is bizarre. The woman who supposedly made the piece (who we do not get to know in the book), didn't strike me,from anecdotes,as someone shall we say - gifted enough intellectually - to come up with all those VERY ESOTERIC "clues."
This fell almost totally flat with me; again maybe because I had just come off reading a VG cozy, then a "Good" cozy--so this FAIR one was...Meh. Don't spend your money on this.

I love this series. It is light- hearted and funny with a twist of romance and mystery. The crafter in me doesn't know whether to read or crochet! Perhpas because I am partial to croachet over knitting, I prefer these over the Maggie Sefton knitting mystery series. Enjoy!

ENJOYED THIS BOOK AS MUCH AS HER PREVIOUS BOOKS,IT KEPT YOU TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHO HAD DONE THE DIRTY DEED.LOOK FORWARD TO MORE CROCHET MYSTRIES.

Molly Pink can't seem to stay away from a murder investigation. While the Tarzana Hookers are selling their crochet items at a fundraiser for the state park, they find a bag left on their table. Inside they find a diary entry from 20 years ago, a note with a tone of regret, and a beautiful piece of filet crochet filled with clues in the form of symbols.

Determined to return the bag to its rightful owner, Molly and the rest of the Hookers, start trying to figure out what each symbol means. But when Molly shows up at the home of the woman she believes is the owner of the bag, she finds the woman dead. Luckily, this time she isn't considered a suspect. What starts off looking like an accidental death, turns into a case of murder - by poison. Now Molly is more determined than ever to find out the story of its owner, as well as figure out who killed her, regardless of the warnings to stay away.

All of the old characters from the previous books are back, along with a few new faces. Including Camille, the super rich daughter & wife of the producer of CeeCee's show, who is doing what her life coach says, and trying to act like the "little people".

I love how even in this third outing of this series, Adele still holds a grudge against Molly for taking the job she wanted. To top it all off, Molly's parents have taken over her house for rehearsals for her mothers singing group reunion. And Molly continues to struggle with her feelings for both Barry and Mason. This is a well crafted mystery that gets unraveled one strand at a time, leading to the unfolding of a murderer I never even considered.

Another cozy mystery, and as such, very cozy! But not wildly entertaining at the same time. I found this to be a good, but average book.

Molly and her crotchet group seem to find themselves in the middle of investigations all the time. Or at least Molly does. So when a mysterious filet crochet piece shows up at a fundraiser they're doing, with an even more mysterious letter, its hard to tell whats going on. But then the one person they think it leads to winds up dead and its up to Molly to figure out the clues and the killer, before they are able to harm her. Add in a mixed up dating life and a troublesome mother visiting, and Molly's got a lot going on.

Molly was an ok character. She seems to harbor a lot of animosity for some other characters though, but then again I haven't read the previous books so maybe there's a reason. Her crotchet friends are nice, but with the exception of Dinah not really a huge part of the book. Which is surprising since it kind of revolves around the crochet group. I also didn't think the bad guy was very scary either. So very tame characters all around.

I like how they used the filet crotchet piece to be the clue to the mystery, but aside from that it wasn't very original. It actually was kind of predictable with the exception of who the bad guy was. Which I suppose is good and left a bit of the element of surprise. The writing was easy to read, and comforting as often these types of mysteries are.

An easy read that's good for when you need a quick book on hand.

By Hook or By Crook
Copyright 2009
261 pages

Review by M. Reynard 2011

I have enjoyed this book very much and I will be ordering more from this author. I have already passed it on to the others in our book exchange.

I loved this book. I love this author. I can't wait for the next one. Its always a plus to have free patterns at the end. Its not that many crochet mysteries out there.