Monkey Wrench

March 15, 2012
A quilt-shop owner's ideas for promoting her shop and helping an employee involve her in a case of murder. In the first time since her mother's death, Dewey Pellicano's totally revamped quilt shop, QP, has been invited to participate in the annual Quilter's Crawl, several days of special events at a number of California quilt shops that draw visitors from long distances. But things are not going as smoothly as she'd like. Her bathroom makeover is not done, her best employee Vangie is busy with college and Pearl, her recently widowed quilting teacher, is acting strangely. Dewey and Vangie have come up with a plan to use Twitter to publicize the event, but when Vangie's boyfriend, who's been in a pro-drug rally, dies in her car, Dewey finds herself, not for the first time, in the middle of a murder investigation. Nor are all the quilt shop owners happy with the Twitter idea. When a quilter drops dead in a big crowd at one of the featured shops, Dewey gets the blame. Although Dewey doesn't see her boyfriend Buster as often as either of them would like, his experience as a police officer assigned to the drug task force comes in handy when she learns that both Vangie and Pearl may be innocently entangled in an illicit drug ring. Her attempts to get her friends out of trouble make her a target for murder. Thayer's pleasant latest (Old Maid's Puzzle, 2008, etc.) offers its curious heroine a touch of romance and several puzzles to solve, and adds quilting tips for the like-minded.

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May 1, 2012

Dewey Pellicano continues to transform her late mother's quilt shop, making her own mark with contemporary trends. She's worried about her employees, college student Vangie and part-time instructor Pearl, who is newly widowed and floundering with old age. When Vangie's shady boyfriend ends up dead of an overdose, Vangie calls Dewey for help. At the same time, Pearl hires a part-time caretaker through a campus-advertised service that sounds too good to be true. It is, because the students are using their senior clientele as a front for a prescription pill mill. When another death occurs, Dewey senses a pattern, and she's not about to let it go any further. VERDICT This engaging and thought-provoking fourth entry (after Ocean Waves) in Thayer's excellent quilting series is an easy-to-recommend cozy with its likeable characters, loyal cop boyfriend, and community of quilters. The author effectively weaves in the different generations and moves her story into the surrounding San Jose region. Share with those who like Earlene Fowler for the quilting and college town setting and Joanna Campbell Slan for spunky heroines willing to help women in need.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2012
Shop owner Dewey Pellicano is ready to launch a Quilter's Crawl in her fourth adventure. Her assistant, Vangie, has been largely absent lately, what with new classes and a boyfriend. Recently widowed quilting teacher Pearl has been out of sorts until she invites a college student, GrandSon, to live with her and do chores. When Vangie's boyfriend and a quilter are both killed from drug overdoses, Dewey starts asking questions, but with her attention diverted, she makes lots of mistakes in running her shop and in trying to help her friends. Readers of this consistently involving series will care as much about those issues as they do about the mystery and will enjoy the subtle quilting details even if they do not quilt themselves. The smoothly written blend of cast, plot, and craft is reminiscent of Joanna Campbell Slan's scrapbooking series, also from Midnight Ink.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)