Customer Reviews

Sins And Needles

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

i really looked forward to this installment of the needlework series--i thought the last two were very good.

the clever title is here, the tortuous plot is here (somewhat less plausible than previous plots in the series), but our sleuth is almost absent, and the rest of the 'regulars' have only walk-on parts.

the series hook, needlework of one kind or another, is present only in a gauzy fashion. almost all the important action takes place away from the shop and without the series detective involved. betsy devonshire steps in at nearly the last moment to reveal the culprit, after minimal clues start appearing to single him out.

there's a lot more padding in this outing than in most of the series--a whole page is devoted to reiterating the family relations, several pages are wasted on the series sleuth's imagining motives and means for all the suspects. there's also a tone of condescension in the description of the antiques that are part of the story--i found it hard to imagine the characters could be so ignorant.

the knitting pattern included, well, it would have been nice to have had at least a line drawing of it. a verbal description is not at all the same thing!

this book is for the reader who simply has to have every volume in a series. i'm giving mine to the library and crossing my fingers for the next book in the series, which i intend to buy used.

This is one of my favorite series, but after reading the reviews I opened it with some trepidation.

I think that it is as good as always: the complex plot, the dry humor, the mixed feelings of the characters. The characters are, as usual, well-developed. I hope that some of these characters will at least be featured as minor characters in future books. Characters who reappear, even if only intermittently, add to the fullness and reality of the author's universe. I kept promising myself to put it down at the end of the chapter, and ended up reading it through.

One of the things that I like about this book is that it does deal with people and their work, one of the most ignored themes in literature, except for artists and detectives. In this book, the characters discuss the realities of running one's own business. I was very amused in an earlier book when Betsy went from being a tenant complaining about the poor maintenance by a greedy landlord to being the landlord who had to pay for repairs. The people also have a relatively realistic view of money: they like having it, even if they wouldn't necessarily do almost anything to get it. I get very tired of books about wealthy people of leisure, or at least an oddly undemanding job, with an apparently inexhaustible private income.

In this book, except for Betsy and Godwin, the regular cast of characters make only cameo appearances. In itself, I don't find this a problem, although of course I want to see the regulars again, I thoroughly enjoyed these characters. I am a trifle disappointed that there wasn't a book between this one and the last with a subplot centering on Jill and her new baby, but I don't consider it to be a flaw of this book, per se.

The reviews make it clear that the gang is not all here; readers can choose for themselves.

I have to wonder if the writer forgot which series she is working on, as the Crewel World cast of characters in AWOL in this book. Instead, the investigator, and dominant character, is a cop we've never heard of from some other town, and the victim and suspects are mainly new, and extremely UNAPPEALING characters. (by the end of the book I was hoping they'd all kill one another off so we could be done with them).

I think the author should be flogged with a typewriter ribbon for giving Jill, who was pregnant last we knew, a one sentence cameo in this book with no mention of the baby. Betsy seems peripheral rather than central to the story, and what she does do is far too improbable for even mystery fiction.

I hope this book is quickly superseded by a better one, with the return of Excelsior's favorite characters.

addendum: reader beware: the reason I didn't find the info on Jill's baby the first time I read the book was because the book was missing a chapter - seems like there are some defective copies floating around. I still think the writer did an inadequate job of blending old and new characters in this book.

I have enjoyed this series of books and eagerly look forward to each new installment. But, I was a little disappointed with this new book. The story line took us away from the craft shop and into the life of one of Betsy's customers and her family. Betsy makes an appearance here and there, but the charm of the yarn store and her employee Godwin and the rest of the gang was missing. I also thought that the murder was too grisley and graphic for a "cozy" mystery book. I really appreciate it when a author can make a story interesting and pull me in, without the violence and gore that some mystery writer's resort to. But, I will continue to await the next book with anticipation and hope that the plot will return back to it's original format.

I've read all the books in this series and couldn't wait for this one to come out. However, I was very disappointed. Many in the main cast of characters were hardly mentioned-No Jill, No Monday Bunch, No Sophie. Betsy and Godwin are certainly not main characters in this book and they seem very flat. This book is missing all of the elements that made the earlier books in the series enjoyable. Did someone else write this book?

this is probably the best book so far. There was more detail and more suspense than some of the others. I really enjoyed this one. the last couple have left something to be desired but this one more than made up for it.
I think the whole story was much better written.
It almost felt like she had taken more time with Sins and Needles.
Good read.

I have read the entire series and the only word that comes to mind with Sins & Needles is lacking. Lacking in Betsy being present, the shop, favorite characters, subplots and where in the world is Sophie? I went crazy to buy a copy of this book. This series used to be one of my all time favorites. If indeed there is another book in this series, I'll wait to check it out from the library.

I'm not going to tell you the story, that's why you read books. I will tell you that having family in Excelsior, MN makes this series especially fun for me to read. I know most of the areas they are talking about although not as clearly as the writer does. I was pretty sure who the bad guy was going to be because everyone else didn't seem to have enough motive but it was fun getting to the end and there were some interesting turns. As always the new characters were fun to try to figure out and the old characters, nice to revisit. I didn't really want anyone to be the guilty party because they were mostly nice people but I was glad the villain was who it was. I wouldn't mind a follow up on this story because a family connection that was the center of the mystery held real promise. If you have enjoyed the other books in this series you will not be disappointed with this addition. There aren't deep or serious, just fun to read.

This is the first book in this series that I've read. I checked two of the books out of the library after someone recommended them in a review of Friday Night Knitting Club. I enjoyed the mystery although it seemed easy to solve. This is the first time I've ever been right about "whodunnit" so someone with a sharp mind for mysteries will probably be disappointed. But I did have a hard time putting it down, though.

Being a native Texan, one thing really irked me. The author clearly has no idea about Texas. (And after starting Crewel Yule, I don't think she knows much about the south in general.) Lucille said she lived in Houston and her husband worked at a hospital in Houston. When the police officer came to interview her, it said he got her "name, occupation and Dallas address". Then later when talking about a bad storm, she said it was worse "up the road in Oklahoma." Now, Oklahoma isn't too far from Dallas -- maybe a hundred miles -- but it's a fair bit from Houston. And Houston and Dallas are about 250 miles from each other and are hardly interchangeable. The cultures aren't even the same!

Also, Jan and Lucille talked about water skiing and Jan said she couldn't imagine a lake in Texas big enough for waterskiing or a river deep enough. There's plenty of lakes in Texas suitable for skiing. Not as many as Minnesota and many of them are man-made, but they are there. Not to mention, the ocean.

As a new reader I didn't know who were the regulars and what normally went on, so I didn't miss what other reviewers have commented on. There were a couple of instances where the writer assumed the reader knew the person, so it seemed that those were regulars. Also, Phil was in the beginning of the book, then he disappeared for so long when he showed up again, I didn't know who he was.

I did enjoy the book, though, and started a second one right away.

In Excelsior, Minnesota, the elderly and wealthy Edyth Hanraty, was apparently recently murdered. Most locals, especially the police, assume the eccentric multimillionaire was killed for her money; thus suspicion points towards Edyth's great niece, Jan, who is expected to inherit much of her fortune.

Betsy Devonshire knows Jan, who frequents her store Crewel World, a needlework shop. The shopkeeper cannot believe that the kind and caring Jan would murder her relative to inherit early though she admits greed is a strong motive and Jan had the opportunities. Betsy, who enjoys solving a mystery as much as being proprietor of Crewel World, begins to investigate in an effort to prove Jan is innocent. She quickly finds a host of other family suspects with the motives of greed and envy. Betsy looks closer at Jan's mother, uncle and a newcomer from Texas claiming to be the prime suspect's long missing sibling.

This is a terrific entry in one the better cozies on the market today as the suspects are fully developed so that the audience struggles to decide who would commit murder. The story line is fast-paced with Betsy doing what she does best, solving a homicide. Fans will appreciate her efforts as she embroiders the case one stitch at a time.

Harriet Klausner