Murder, She Knit

Murder She Knit is a solid first in a delightful new cozy mystery series with its own unique pattern for knitting, kittens, and mystery. The characters are well-rounded and very likable and the mystery is complex enough to have kept this reader guessing well into the night. Pamela works at home as an editor for the magazine, Fiber Craft, and has been widowed for about five years. She is the founder of Knit and Nibbles, a group that meets weekly to enjoy friendship, knitting, crocheting, and nibbling snacks from the host of the week. Pamela’s best friend, Bettina, crochets. Roland is the only guy, a corporate attorney advised by his doctor to take up a hobby so he could relax. Other members include Nell, who knits small animals for children at the women’s shelter, Jean, who with her husband live in the “second grandest” home in Arborville, NJ, and Karen, whose husband teaches at the nearby college. While out shopping, Pamela runs into a friend she hasn’t seen for several years. Amy has just moved down the street; she had worked in the firm where Pamela’s late husband was an architect. Amy now heads the School of Professional Arts at Wendelstaff College. Pamela invites her to Knit and Nibbles that she is hosting at her home this week. The group came and went, but Amy didn’t arrive. Pamela looked in her yard for the food dish of Catrina, a stray kitten she has been feeding. Spotting something, she goes to get the dish, but to her horror, she finds a body partially in her hedge. Amy did make it to Pamela’s, but was murdered – with a knitting needle – in her yard. Pamela wants to find who murdered her friend. The apartments where Amy lived is on her regular walking “route” where she finds treasures for her home amid the stuff renters leave behind. Several days into asking questions about Amy or that evening, she finds much more than she is looking for. When Pamela’s daughter, Penny, comes home for Thanksgiving, she greets a very hands-off kitten running by for meals, a mother who is looking for a killer, and a good-looking new neighbor that might be perfect for her mother. Pamela is a fascinating person, creative, supportive, and inquisitive. I enjoyed watching her and Bettina drive to Brooklyn or other parts of the City on adventures where they find fun things, such as the yarn Amy had used. Bettina is witty and knowledgeable; as a contributor to the weekly Arborville Advocate, she knows much about their town. Dorrie, Amy’s sister, is a very strange young woman. Knitters in the group each contribute to the whole; they have talents and ideas beyond the obvious, including those willing to try knitting elephant toys. I really liked this cozy! I liked was how tentatively Pamela feeds and spends time with Catrina that is very realistic. As is the variety of likable characters in the knitting group. The plot includes enough twists to keep the list of suspects vibrant, including Amy’s colleagues and students at Wendelstaff. One of the things I liked best about this mystery is that I couldn’t figure out whodunit! I followed a few red herrings, but simply get it right. The resolution was a complete surprise, and the end satisfying. I am looking for the next one in the series, and highly recommend this series debut. From a grateful heart: I received a copy of this from the publisher and NetGalley, and here is my honest review.

Bakori