This series is a long running mystery series focused around a group of knitters who all go to the same local yarn store (LYS). This series follows the long honored tradition of mystery novels having a central character who will be the throughline of the books. There is an ongoing background story that moves a little each book as a background plot.
It seems like it’s easy enough to start anywhere and the story will give enough information about the background plot for the reader not to get lost. The only caveat to this is that there are a LOT of background characters and it can be overwhelming to wrap your head around the first book in the series if you aren’t starting at book one. I’ve made a character list you can find here. Being able to start at any of the books reminds me of comics where you can jump in mid run and the comics will fill you in with the information you need to get the gist of things.
This book does focus around a death but I wouldn’t call it strictly a murder mystery. It doesn’t have all the trappings that I associate with that genre, though I am no expert on it.
The main character doesn’t go about sleuthing, do detective/police legwork, crime scene investigations, interfacing with the police/detective, etc.
The book will spend the first 50 pages setting up characters and background plot before there is a murder and the rest of the book will intertwine the background plot and the mystery
If you love hearing drama and gossip without being involved this is the book series for you. Almost all of the events are one person being a nexus of information in the knitting circle and telling other people/getting new information and passing it along
This is weird because this was written during a time where phone calls and texts were common. I’m surprised that all of this gossip is going on face to face
If you ever need to talk to the police don't follow the book's advice of “if you tell them the truth during a murder investigation you’ll be fine”. Please exercise your right to legal representation. I could go into detail about this but please use your legal protections.
There are a TON of characters and you won’t get any details about their physical appearance; this makes it quite difficult to visualize them at first. For the most part all of the characters are a vibe to me/a feeling more than what they look like. Thankfully, Sefton gives them all varied enough personalities, quirks, careers, mannerism, and speech patterns that it keeps them as distinct.
You may need to keep notes about who all the characters are and how they relate because there are probably about 20 active cast members
I wonder how inept the police are? There were multiple people at the scene of the crime (3 people and the deceased). The main culprit has a motive and at no point does the cast wonder what the forensic evidence was between her and the murder weapon.
The events between the death and the killer being found aren’t relevant to the actual murder storyline.
You are definitely reading the book for the journey and not it’s destination
The main plot points are:
Kelly buying the canyon property
Introduces the vandalism plot line
Kelly/Steve’s relationship development
Steven’s old town projects
Talks about his company
Megan dating problems
Introduces Marty
Mimi and Burt starting to date
Curt (recent widow) having interest in Jayleen (divorced)
Murder of Derek
Grief and pregnancy of Lucy (spinning instructor)
Along with having no idea how people look I have no idea how old any of the characters are. I can only tell which characters are older than Kelly because she’ll mention it.
Based on Kelly’ profession and capital assets I can estimate tht she’s in her 4-s but it’s never explicitly stated.
Just accept that the zoning of this area is wild
Kelly’s cottage is walking distance across the street from the yarn shop which is connected internally to a coffee shop/diner set up.
What is the exact nature of the two shops? I have no idea. Do they function as two entities that work together for expenses and profits or are they separate?
It was a nice, quick, and smooth read. It definitely has an appeal but I don’t know if I’d widely recommend it. Definitely a good library pick up but I don’t think I’d purchase copies to keep it at home.
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