Moon Spinners: A Seaside Knitters Mystery [Hardcover]

Sally Goldenbaum (Author)

Book Description

Series: SEASIDE KNITTERS MYSTERY | Publication Date: April 27, 2010

Stitch and sleuth in the third delightful knitting mystery from the author of Patterns in the Sand.

In the quaint fishing village of Sea Harbor, Massachusetts, the Seaside Knitters are always looking for a new project. Their latest is helping their friend Gracie Santos open the Lazy Lobster and Soup Café on Pelican Pier. But they get sidetracked when Gracie's aunt Sophia goes flying off the cliff in her red Ferrari-and it was no accident. As gossip builds, and rumors circulate, the Seaside Knitters must stitch together the clues if they're to understand a killer's strange pattern.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Goldenbaum's delightful third knitting mystery (after 2009's Patterns in the Sand), Izzy Chambers, proprietor of the Seaside Knitting Studio, and assorted knitting group friends gather for dinner at the Sea Harbor Yacht Club in Sea Harbor, Mass., to celebrate fund-raising efforts for the new community center and park. Special thanks are due two local construction companies, Santos and Delaney, which have been working together despite the uneasy relationship between the two families. The sudden appearance of drunken Julianne Santos, who threatens her brother, Alphonso, with a beer bottle, interrupts the dinner. Gracie, Julianne's daughter and the estranged wife of Joey Delaney, wishes she, Gracie, could disappear like Alice down the rabbit hole. Later that night, Alphonso's aloof, beautiful Argentinean wife drives her Ferrari off a cliff. Tampered brakes signal murder. Well-drawn characters and an intriguing plot lift this well above the average cozy. (May)
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From Booklist

The third installment in the Seaside Knitters series may have readers wondering why dead bodies keep turning up in the idyllic Massachusetts fishing village and art colony where the action takes place. This time the corpse belongs to patrician Sophia Santos, whose Ferrari has gone off a cliff. Although billed as a knitting mystery, there’s more detecting than purling going on here (though a hat pattern is included). The cast is overly large (and names confusingly close, e.g., Ella and Stella), but the knitters—including wise Nell, her niece and knit-shop owner Izzy, and octogenerian Birdie—make for an appealing and comfortably cozy coterie of sleuths. --Ilene Cooper

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: NAL Hardcover; 1 edition (April 27, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451229886
• ISBN-13: 978-0451229885
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #373,920 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MOON SPINNERS, April 27, 2010

By 

Lori Caswell "dollycas" (FALL RIVER, WI) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Moon Spinners: A Seaside Knitters Mystery (Hardcover)

The ocean breezes, sandy beaches and the moon glistening over the waves means we are back in Sea Harbor, Massachusetts, for this third installment of Sally Goldenbaum's Seaside Mystery Series.

The Moon Spinners are at work, "imagine the women of ancient Celtic myth pulling the silvery strands of light from the sky and winding it on distaffs until weeks later the waning moon would disappear completely, leaving the world wrapped in a blanket of total darkness, the tides quieter, creatures safe from the hunter."*

The Seaside Knitters are attending a fundraiser to build a new community center. Two building companies are working together on the project even though the families can't stand each other. The party is interrupted by the drunken ex-wife of one of the builders who also happens to be a sister of the other. This little interruption causes one lovely socialite to leave the party early.

At the same time Sam Perry is scuba diving at Devil's Cove with some friends. It is his first night dive and as he emerges from the water he sees the moon hanging so low that he could almost reach up and touch it. It looks almost eerie, Sam, never without his camera, turns it up toward the night sky, but his attention is quickly drawn to a car moving much to fast down the curvy road that outlines the edge of Devil's Cove. The other divers surfacing around him notice the car's headlights and they all watch in horror as it misses the curve and flies through the air across the moon and falls to the rocky shore below. Later we learn the brake lines on the car had been cut which means, it was no accident, but MURDER.

The Seaside Knitters spring into action to try to find the killer, but the clues do not knit together easily, many loose ends cause their theories to unravel, there is something they are all missing, the one thread that will stitch everything together.


Each book in the series gets better and better. The characters are like old friends, and their friendship keeps them together through thick and thin. It doesn't matter if you are young or old, male or female, this group that meets every Friday night for food, drinks and fellowship will always be there for each other, and they welcome new people with ease. Yes, there is a mystery to solve and the plot is tight, but these stories are more about the friendship to me. It would be wonderful if we all could have a fantastic group of friends like this tightly knit group in Sea Harbor. I hope there are more books in the series, I anxiously await another visit to this seaside village.

*excerpt from book



Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Obsidian, an imprint of The New American Library, a division of Penguin Publishing. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 : "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This will keep you away from your knitting for awhile..., July 12, 2010

By 

Linda J. Houchard "Love blooms" (Ohio) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Moon Spinners: A Seaside Knitters Mystery (Hardcover)

Nice group of knitters involved in solving this mystery. Lots of reference to knitting and good characters in the story.

Mystery itself leaves a little to be desired, but that makes it more believable that this group of women could become involved in the solving of it.

Pleasant read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I want to move to Sea Harbor, Mass., May 11, 2010

By 

Jacquelyn Bailey (Ft. Washington, MD) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Moon Spinners: A Seaside Knitters Mystery (Hardcover)

I mean it. I want to eat the seafood. I want to shop in the arts and crafts stores. I want to visit Izzy's yarn store and fondle the yarn. I especially want to go to Ben and Nell Endicott's Friday night dinners on their deck! THE MOON SPINNERS was a worthy entry to a wonderful series. I kept going back and forth--this person did it! No, that person! No, somebody else entirely! I figured it out at just about the same time as Nell did, which is a credit to Sally Goldenbaum's clue-planting skills. Since I can't move to Sea Harbor, all I can do is wait for the next book in the series. Write faster, Sally! Write faster!