Customer Reviews

Needled to Death (Knitting Mysteries, No. 2)

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

 

 

I had read the first book in this series and was delighted with this second offering. It was as cozy and fun as the first. Kelly's problems with knitting also made me feel good because I always have problems too! I like how the author is slowly setting Kelly up to be able to stay in Ft. Connors and setting up her relationship with Steve.
If you like cozy mysteries and knitting, this is definitely the book for you! Definitely a winning new series.

"Needled to Death" is the second offering in the Knitting mystery series by Colorado author Maggie Sefton. Set in the summer, a few months after accountant Kelly Flynn has arrived in Fort Connor to deal with her murdered aunt's estate, the mystery revolves around the death of Vickie Claymore, an alpaca rancher. Kelly and her friend Jennifer volunteered to escort a knitting tour group to visit Vickie's alpaca ranch, only to find Vickie's body in her ranch house with her throat cut. Kelly finds herself further involved in Vickie's affairs when she is hired by Vickie's daughter Debbie to help her prepare financial documents for her mother's estate.

Meanwhile, Kelly continues on her journey of learning to knit, with lots of cozy camaraderie with her knitting buddies at Fort Connor's House of Lambspun. Being an avid knitter myself, I really enjoyed reading of Kelly's growth in knitting. I enjoyed the information about alpace ranching woven into this tale. Also, Kelly and her friends take a trip to Wyoming to inspect the ranch which Kelly inherited from her cousin.

This book was a very quick read, and the continuing development of the character of Kelly and her friends kept my attention. The book was a cozy and enjoyable one to read, I was just a little disappointed in the lack of development of the mystery. I hope that the next book in this series has a bit more mystery to it.

I really do love all the knitting references and descriptions and I am a new knitter like Kelly. However, the plot is very thin and the author has not researched her facts well. Without giving too much away, one of the plot devices in this book is inheritance issues. A woman is killed and her not-quite-divorced husband will share the inheritance of her successful alpaca ranch with her daughter. It is mentioned that if the daughter dies, the husband who is the daughter's hated step-father would inherit everything. Unless Colorado's inheritance laws are a lot different from the rest of the U.S., there is no way he would inherit from her. 1. Since she hated him, she would not have left him anything in a will. 2. If she died without a will and had no husband and children, he would still not inherit because he was not really related to her. Her other relatives would benefit, not the stepdad. The character of Kelly is a difficult one to relate to. And I wish the author would write with a bit more subtlety. Every time a character makes a joke or is even sarcastic, the author beats you over the head with it to make sure you knew it was a joke.

This is a delightful, light mystery. The characters would make lovable real-life friends. The descriptions of the colors and textures of the yarns make me want to run out and learn how to knit just so I can experience the fun these characters have with their hobby.

Kelly Flynn volunteers to take a group of knitting tourists to visit Vickie Claymore's alpaca farm. Unfortunately when they arrive, she discovered Vickie dead on her original hand-woven rug.

Vickie's daughter Debbie hires Kelly to prepare financial documents for her mother's alpaca business for the attorney. As Kelly gets more involved in Vickie's business, she begins to dig deeper to find the killer.

Can she unmask the murderer without putting herself in his/her sites?

This is the second in this knitting mystery series. I have enjoyed both of them tremendously. I look forward to reading many more. The Colorado setting adds to the wonderful cozy mystery series. I really enjoy Kelly and the other women she knits with at the House of Lambspun. What a great cast of characters.

I highly recommend this book and series.

After reading the first book in this series, I was disappointed that there were burning questions concerning the status of the main character's life that were unanswered. So I ordered the second book, "Needled to Death" to find out what decisions she makes. Now I have finished reading book 2 and I still don't know! How long is the author going to string us along?

The series by Maggie Sefton on kniting mystery stories are a fun read, especially for kniters. I have read the first one, Knit One, Kill Two, and just finished this one, Needled to Death. I think they get better as the series continues. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

This is the second of the series featuring cpa Kelly, who continues to feel at home in her aunts cottage in northern CO. I love to knit and spin and really like these books as light reading. "Needled to Death" gave me some tense moments, due to thinking that Kelly really should have been looking over her shoulder more when alone, but the author did not choose to put her in the kind of danger I imagined.

Kelly Flynn is staying in Fort Connor, Colorado until she settles the estate of her late aunt and cousin. She was left a great deal of property and it may take months to settle the estate, and Kelly is beginning to think she may never leave. She is doing accounting work from her house, making friends, and enjoying learning how to knit. Since she is learning about different types of wools, she volunteers to take a group of tourists to visit Vickie Caymore's alpaca farm. To her shock, she finds Vickie's body. As the police investigate the murder, Kelly helps Vickie's daughter Debbie settle her financial matters. Debbie is convinced that her stepfather killed her mother because she was in the process of divorcing him, but he swears to Kelly he didn't do it and she begins to believe him. When the murderer strikes again, Kelly realizes she has to do what she can to stop the killer before someone else is killed.

While it had some good points, I found "Needled to Death" to be a disappointing mystery. For the most part, Kelly was a good heroine - still dealing with her aunt's death and trying to decide if she should stay in Colorado or go back to Washington, D.C. I loved her golf ball stealing dog, Carl. Her tentative romance with Steve was sweetly done. Some of the secondary characters such as Debbie, Jayleen, and Burt were well written. But much of the book was unbelievable. Kelly constantly worries about money, wondering whether she can afford to quit her D.C. job and work as a consultant in Colorado, yet she never seems to work instead spending her time knitting with her friends, drinking coffee, or playing softball. And considering the size of the estate her aunt left her, including a ranch in Wyoming with plenty of cattle, the constant fretting about money seemed overdone. The writing is sloppy - having characters named Burt and Curt confused me. As for the mystery itself, while the identity of the murderer may come as a surprise to readers, the second murder is so obviously telegraphed that readers will know which character is doomed long before the murder takes place. The book has some major editing issues - early in the book one of the suspects approaches Kelly at her cottage after she came home from Vickie's funeral, but at the end of the book she says he approached her while she was still at the funeral. That's sloppy writing and editing.

With some good editing and tighter writing "Needled to Death" could have been so much better.

The second entry into the series was as enjoyable as the first. As a fairly new knitter, its fun to follow along with Kelly as she learns to knit and discovers all the wonderful knitting fibers out there. All the information about Alpacas and fleece & spinning is quite enjoyable as well. Kelly's life is teasingly drawn out, but I love this because it leaves me wanting more. I love that the mystery involves characters set in situations that are different than I have read about before. Can't wait for the third one!~