Customer Reviews

A Killer Stitch (Knitting Mysteries, No. 4)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

As a casual knitter myself, I received the first book in this series as a gift. In general they are light, fun mysteries with a nod to those of us who delight in the colors and textures of yarn....

But this one was weak.... the story, the writing... all very sophomoric. I felt like I was reading the work of a high school class. .... and I was NOT expecting great literature.

If this series is to continue, it will have to improve significantly....

Kelly Flynn is fitting into her new life in Fort Connor, Colorado. She's now running her own accounting business, joined a local ball team, helped to solve a couple of crimes, found some kindred spirits and friends, fell in love with fiber, and started learning to knit. Somehow she also acquired a steady male date in Steve Townsen. But she hasn't managed to buy the canyon property she fell in love with. Christmas is approaching and projects need to be finished. But, Kelly can't turn down a plea for help when Jennifer's friend is accused of murdering Derek Cooper. The problem is Lucy Adair, a teacher at House of Lambspun the local fiber mecca, was dating Derek and she's carrying his child. How to find the truth when it could that the truth could tear apart some of her friendships -- and the clues aren't adding up.

As Kelly starts to look into the murder she finds that there are very few people who knew Derek who didn't have a motive for killing him, and it's comes down to opportunity. But, she's distracted when she learns that the buyer for the canyon land she wanted has put it back up for sale and she puts in another bid. Tensions rise and the police turn up the pressure on their likely suspect.

One of the nice benefits of a continuing series of well-fleshed out characters is that you get updates on what's happening in their lives. So, in the midst of Kelly investigating the murder, we find that maybe Burt and Mimi seem to be spending time together. That everyone has noticed that Kelley and Steve are courting. And that life goes on for Curt Stackhouse who recently lost his wife to cancer. That there may be more to café owner Pete than meets the eye.

With each book the plots are getting a bit more convoluted and we're starting to see a surer touch of weaving in the threads of continuing side plots that may play out in a future book or books. While we have a satisfactory ending to this story, there are now threads that I hope will get picked up and played out when next we visit Kelly and her friends.

I started out enjoying these books because they were light reading, but I think I'm done. I am really wondering if this series is meant for young girls. I agree with other reviewers that there are amateurish writing quirks like inane dialogue, police professionals who seem ineffective or stupid, and an overuse of the coffee crutch. I just had to write my own review, though, when nobody seemed to mention the ridiculous repetition of the word "frothy"! It seems like I saw some form of it at least 20 times in this book, sometimes multiple times in the same paragraph. I got so annoyed I about stabbed my Kindle with my knitting needle.

My book arrived in better than expected condition and in a timely manner. There was nothing, I felt, omitted from the book listing. Very satisfied.

Fast service will order from this business again. Thank you. I like the author and this series.

I enjoyed book 4, but not as good as the others. It had some where I was tired of hearing about Kelly and her coffee issues if you have read the series so far there was no need to over do it in this book. Over all it was a good read and some part where funny. I will continue on with the series as everyone knows or should know in a series there are going to be one or two books not as good as the others. It was nice to see more of Kelly and Steve's relationship and some new characters as well.

This is a great series of knitting murder mysteries. Nice and light and with a sense of humor. Nice development, too.