A Killer Stitch (Knitting Mysteries, No. 4) [Hardcover]

Maggie Sefton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2007

Now in hardcover-the fast-growing mystery series featuring Kelly Flynn and her knitting circle!

The House of Lambspun has been bombarded for the holidays. Then an alpaca sheep rancher is found dead in Bellevue Canyon-and knitter and sometime-sleuth Kelly Flynn quickly puts Yuletide frivolities aside.

With the deceased's reputation for loving and leaving the ladies of Fort Connor, many women had a motive to kill him. Kelly also finds herself linked to the prime suspect, a former lover of the wealthy playboy rancher. Charged with keeping both spinner and spurned from going over the edge, Kelly will discover more than a few secrets tangled on this triad's bobbin.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When womanizing Derek Cooper, a Fort Collins, Colo., rancher, is killed by a blow to the head near the start of Sefton's entertaining if flawed fourth knitting mystery (after 2006's A Deadly Yarn), her first in hardcover, for once it looks as if knitter-cum-accountant-cum-sleuth Kelly Flynn, who doesn't know the deceased, won't get involved. But it turns out that one of Kelly's pals is close friends with a prime suspect, Cooper's ex, and Kelly offers her detecting skills in an attempt to track down the real killer. Readers will enjoy visiting with Kelly and her knitting buddies, who, in their carefree way, resemble the cast of Friends. Unfortunately, awkward dialogue, such as a conversation about whether Kelly is comfortable kissing her boyfriend, strikes a false note. Still, knitting devotees will enjoy this crafty cozy. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The third in the Knitting Mystery series once again features CPA and novice knitter Kelly Flynn, who sleuths around Fort Connor, Colorado, where she has found both a surrogate family and land on which to build her dream house. Sefton offers an acceptable mystery this time--finding out who killed a local double-dealing ladies' man--while twisting in plenty of details about knitting and spinning. Unfortunately, Sefton is guilty of a couple of extremely annoying literary tics: too many characters are introduced without enough description to keep them straight, and, worse, they do altogether too much grinning, smiling, and laughing (several times per page, in fact). Still, knitters will be pleased to add Sefton's series, now four installments strong, to their knitting-related fiction shelf (along with Kate Jacobs' chick-littish Friday Night Knitting Club, 2007). And, perhaps best of all, a nice pattern for a cable scarf ends the book. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: Berkley; 1ST edition (May 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425215202
• ISBN-13: 978-0425215203
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #190,962 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Maggie Sefton grew up in Northern Virginia and received her Bachelor's degree in English Literature & Journalism. After working as a CPA and a real estate broker, she now enjoys the satisfaction and challenge of creating worlds on paper.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This book is redundant, June 15, 2007

By 

M. Scheller "Equestrian" (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Killer Stitch (Knitting Mysteries, No. 4) (Hardcover)

I have enjoyed the past Kintting Mysteries, but this book is nothing but redundant writing. EVERYDAY Kelly goes to the cafe, gets coffee (enough with the coffee references), takes out her knitting, puts her knitting away, feels the yarn for sale and goes back to her accounts. This character needs to grow to keep the series going. A character needs to do more than drink coffee, talk about coffee, and offer friends coffee to be enjoyable. Kelly would be more upset if the coffee went missing, than if it was one of her friends. Lets get back to being a mystery. I will read the next book in the series, but if it is the same old thing that will be the last.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another fun entry in this series, May 6, 2007

By 

Coppertop (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Killer Stitch (Knitting Mysteries, No. 4) (Hardcover)

I've enjoyed the first three books in this light cozy mystery series and this one continued the trend. Kelly and her friends are still enjoyable and fun to spend some time with.

Kelly has now settled into a consulting business and life in Colorado permanently. A rancher is murdered who has been involved with a spinning teacher at Kelly's knitting store hangout. While she doesn't plan to get involved at first, she is soon entangled because Jennifer knows the obvious suspect and thinks she's innocent. I actually thought this was a pretty obvious mystery - I had figured out the murderer quite early. Since Kelly really didn't know the suspects or the victim, it made also the investigation run a little sluggishly. It wasn't a bad plot, though.

We finally seem to be getting a little movement in Kelly's relationship with Steve and hopefully this will continue. We also seem to have a new interest for Megan and there are several other budding romances.

This book seems to be set up for the next book as much as its own book (anyone know what it will be or when it will be publisehd?) as Kelly is working to buy land (Geri Norbert's place from Needled to Death), but the end really seems to intimdate she'll have major problems with the new land.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good title for a cozy mystery, June 4, 2007

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Killer Stitch (Knitting Mysteries, No. 4) (Hardcover)

Kelly Flynn is settling in nicely in Fort Connor, Colorado. She loves the mountains, her career as a freelance accountant, and her friends and fellow knitters (and spinners) at the House of Lambspun, owned by motherly Mimi Shafer.

Spinning class teacher Lucy Adair is devastated by the murder of her new boyfriend, Derek Cooper. It turns out he had many women--and a few men--who might have wanted him dead. There was old girlfriend Diane, a heavy drinker who had been furious with him recently, and the man who had been promised an investment, and then Derek pulled out at the last minute and laughed.

Kelly's good friend Jennifer asks for her help in saving Diane from her drinking, and from despair. She lied to the police and now it is catching up to her. It seems she was the last person to see Derek alive. Or was she? Was there another car coming up the road to Derek's place when she left? Was there a car parked nearby? Poor Lucy is unusually devastated by this murder, and she has several secrets, shared with her close friend Ellen. Kelly is able to tease out the truth, winding up the case with calm good sense and the help of her many friends.

This novel is the epitome of the cozy mystery--warm and soft knitting wools, good food, and great friends. You will long to make a visit to the House of Lambspun, take a class, have some hot chocolate and maybe some chocolate mint fudge. You can have some of the fudge because the recipe is in the back of the book, along with a scarf pattern.

Author Sefton fell in love with knitting late in life, discovering a store that sounds very much like House of Lambspun, and soon after the characters for these mysteries came into her life.

Armchair Interviews says: A cozy mystery for knitters or non-knitters alike.