Mother's Day should be a cinch for the good folks of the Crandalsburg Craft Fair, and knitting enthusiast Lia Geiger has a good feeling about this year's yield. But things quickly get knotty when Lia's daughter announces she's quit her job and Lia finds herself tangled up in the murder of her best friend's ex-husband. While Belinda's alibi quickly gets her off the hook, nasty rumors spread throughout Crandalsburg that shroud the entire fair in suspicion.
Could the vendors be responsible for the murder of a man hell-bent on unraveling the fair just days before his death? Lia and her crafty group of Ninth Street Knitters must put down their needles to gather clues and save the crafting community they've grown to love.
ASIN: B086J727VQ
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: December 29, 2020
Print length: 300 pages
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My Review:
Lia Geiger has started a new life in Crandalsburg, PA after the untimely death of her husband Tom. She's part of a knitting group who has a booth at the Crandalsburg Craft Fair. Everyone is especially excited for the weekend, since it's near Mother's Day and everyone will be looking for gifts. That is, until events take place that threaten the sustainability of the craft fair. Lia's best friend, Belinda, is the craft fair manager. When Belinda's ex-husband is murdered, the rumors fly and the craft fair becomes enveloped in scandal. Lia wants to help her friend and save her livelihood, thus beginning her amateur sleuthing adventure, involving her knitting group as necessary. Lia also has a daughter visiting, who is have a career crisis.
A Wicked Yarn is the first book in the Craft Fair Knitters mystery series by Emmie Caldwell. Lia is a likeable character who wants nothing more than the best for her daughter, Hayley and to help her friend, Belinda. She works hard at both, but I found the relationship between Lia and Belinda a bit unlikely. Had there been a bit more backstory on their friendship I may have jumped on the bandwagon but Belinda's personality did not mesh well with Lia's. Then again, people have become friends despite such extreme differences in personality. Other than that, the characters are enjoyable.
The book has a strong plot, believable mystery, and fantastic setting. My mom and I used to have a craft booth in a local craft building just outside of Flint, MI for many years. I was taken back to that time in my life and I enjoyed the memories the story invoked. Thankfully there weren't any murders to contend with during our tenure. We only pulled our items out of the space when the building was sold and the craft sections turned in a new furniture store. We were pretty bummed.
The path to revealing the murder, although kind of slow-going, was well thought out. The author provided several viable suspects, keeping me guessing almost until the end. I figured out who the murderer was prior to Lia's revelation, but it didn't detract from the mystery. One thing that really impressed me about A Wicked Yarn was how smart Lia was while sleuthing. She didn't put herself into needlessly dangerous situations nor did she dance the gray line of legality. I look forward to the next book in the series.
Thank you Berkley for the review copy.
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