Is There Danger in the Neighborhood?
I always enjoy it when an author finds a unique mystery plot. We’ve gotten that with several of the books in the Quilting Mysteries from Mary Marks, and Knot on Her Life is another one.
If you are new to the series, this is book seven, and if featuring Martha Rose and her family and friends. Naturally, given the hook for this series, Martha is a quilter, a hobby she has picked up after an early retirement due to health issues. While you could definitely jump in here, you might not get all the connections between the characters if you do. While some of the previous cases Martha has solved are mentioned, they are done without any spoilers.
Martha’s current quilting project is a baby blanket for her first grandchild, a girl due in a few weeks. However, she gets distracted when a little girl, Poppy, comes to the door. It turns out that Poppy is the new foster daughter of Martha’s neighbor, Sonia. Poppy is there because Sonia is seriously sick. She appears to have slipped into a diabetic coma despite how careful she is with her monitoring her health.
While Sonia recovers in the hospital, Poppy stays temporarily with Martha. As Martha gets to know the girl, she discovers that Poppy’s parents were murdered and the killer hasn’t been caught. Whilch makes Martha wonder if the killer might want to go after Poppy. If that’s the case, was Sonia’s health crisis an accident? Or is something more sinister going on?
See what I mean? We’ve got a strong mystery, but the setup is unique. Martha also gets involved in trying to find a permanent home for Poppy, meeting the girl’s family in the process. With all that story, there was plenty going on to keep my attention, and I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. I did figure out what was going on a little before Martha did, but I missed some of the clues she used to solve the case.
Unfortunately, the book does stumble a little at the end. There is a pretty big why that is never addressed. And there is one aspect of the ending that seems a bit harsh. It’s hard to explain without giving away spoilers, but I just didn’t feel like it needed to be there, or handled the way it was if it did need to be included. But maybe that’s just me.
Obviously, with this being book seven, I love the characters, and it was great to spend time with them again. One of the original characters is absent from this book, but we’ve met some new characters who are around to help fill in the gap. I was hoping one of them would be toned down a little, but I did like seeing her again anyway. The new characters and suspects are all strong and interesting as well.
Knot on Her Life is an entertaining mystery that should keep readers old and new turning pages until they find out exactly what is going on. If you haven’t read this book yet, you’ll be glad you picked it up.
Curl up with the rest of the Quilting Mysteries.
I'm slowly buying the books in this series and am really looking forward to reading it! Despite the gap issues this sounds like a good read.
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