Jeanne Reviews: A Wicked Yarn by Emmie Caldwell

Lia Geiger enjoys working the Crandalburg Craft Fair, which is an ongoing crafter’s marketplace in a historic barn.  Lia is a knitter and she sells both her own creations and those of her fellow Ninth Street Knitters Club members.  It not only provides a little extra income, but is also a good outlet for all those who love to knit but need projects.  It’s also a nice social outlet for widow Lia, whose only child works in the city, and who only moved to Crandalburg a few years previously.

The smooth running of Lia’s world is thrown into turmoil when a man is discovered murdered at the Craft Fair.  Not only was he the ex-husband of the abrasive Belinda who manages the Craft Fair, but he had plans to buy the barn and raze it to the ground.  Lia knows that Belinda isn’t the most charming person, but Lia is sure that someone else is the murderer.

All she has to do is prove it.

This first in series book reminds me a great deal of Peggy Ehrhart’s Knit and Nibble mysteries, though with more activity and less meal preparation description.  This series moves along at a better pace and I give the author credit for starting with a stock unlikeable character and working to make her a more three dimensional person.  The plot was interesting and clues were well dispersed throughout the book; I am not a fan of the books that let the sleuth wander around and then provide a big information dump near the end to solve the mystery.  The standard cozy distractions were in play as Lia’s daughter decides to “take a few days off” from her job, leaving her mother to worry that the young woman may be giving up too easily on her chosen vocation. The knitting group is a good sounding board, composed of friendly, congenial people who occasionally offer clues or reasonable opinions. And yes, there is a cat.  Her name is Daphne, she is a Ragdoll --cover image aside-- and she is very sweet.

All in all, this was a very good start to a cozy series.  The second title just came out in December 2021.

A Wicked Yarn

Stitched in Crime