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Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Book Review: A Wicked Yarn by Emmie Caldwell (Craft Fair Knitters Mysteries #1)

Stars: 4 out of 5
Pros: Good mystery, likable characters
Cons: Lia’s relationship with Belinda didn’t ring true for me
The Bottom Line:
Developer’s death
Begins to impact craft fair
First book starts things well




This Debut is a Good Yarn

At one point, I decided I was going to try to go all of December without starting any new series.  I really crack myself up some times.  A Wicked Yarn is the second new series I started this month.  Since is it from Emmie Caldwell, aka Mary Ellen Hughes, it was an easy decision to start this series.  I’m glad I did.

After her husband dies, Lia Geiger has decided to start her life over again in Crandalsburg, Pennsylvania.  It’s still close enough that she can see her old friends, but it is helping her find a fresh start to her life.  Part of that is spending her weekends selling knitting projects she and her friends have completed at the Crandalsburg Craft Fair, run by her best friend Belinda.

Mother’s Day weekend should prove to be a busy weekend, but things are cut short when Lia shows up on Sunday morning to find Belinda standing over the dead body of her ex-husband.  The man had been at the craft fair the day before talking about buying the barn where the craft fair is held in order to tear it down to build something bigger, better, and newer.  With Belinda as an obvious suspect, attendance takes a huge dive.  Lia decides she has to not only clear her friend but help save the craft fair.  Can she find the truth?

Because the victim was really threatening the entire craft fair, Lia has plenty of suspects to sift through, and as she goes along, she begins to find suspects some unrelated to the craft fair as well.  I enjoyed watching her try to figure out what was really happening.  I didn’t figure it out until she did, and the climax was very suspenseful.

My biggest problem with the book is actually Lia’s relationship with Belinda.  We are told several times that they are best friends, but I just didn’t get that sense.  I know Belinda is going through a lot in this book, and I get how her personality is impacting how she deals with that, but I still struggled with their relationship.

On the other hand, Lia does have some wonderful friends.  While she hasn’t been in her new town long, she is quickly making some good friends, and I loved those relationships.  Her young adult daughter is a major character, and their relationship was fantastic.  The group of friends she regularly knits with are good, although there is definitely room for them to grow in future books.  That’s just a factor of how much page time they get.  Naturally, the suspects are strong as well, which helped keep me guessing.

Since I enjoyed the cast, I’m definitely looking forward to returning to see what trouble Lia can find next.  If you want to end the year with a fun debut, be sure to get A Wicked Yarn.

 

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.

1 comment:

  1. With so many good series it's so hard not to start a new one! So many books, so little time...

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