Skein of the Crime

April 19, 2010
Sefton's somber eighth knitting mystery to feature Fort Connor, Colo., financial consultant Kelly Flynn (after 2009's Dropped Dead Stitch
) gets off to a slow start, but gradually picks up steam. While Kelly's romance with her longtime architect boyfriend, Steve Townsend, suffers, she helps her IT consultant friend, Megan Smith, plan Megan's upcoming wedding and teach a House of Lambspun knitting class. When Holly Kaiser, a college student who had been dating the son of a Lambspun knitting teacher, dies of a drug overdose, Kelly once again turns amateur sleuth. The more Kelly learns about Holly, who was far too fond of Ecstasy, the more she suspects the fatal overdose was no accident. The action builds to an intriguing cliffhanger. Directions for a braided knit scarf and a carrot cake recipe are a bonus.

June 1, 2010

A CPA adds sleuthing to her hobbies of softball and knitting as she probes the drug-related death of a troubled young woman.

Ever since the night Holly Kaiser wandered into her backyard, stoned out of her gourd, Kelly Flynn (Dropped Dead Stitch, 2009, etc.) has hoped Holly's life would improve. For a while it looks as if she'll get her wish. Holly becomes a regular at House of Lambspun, where her med student boyfriend Tommy Macenroe's mother Barbara gives classes and owner Mimi Shafer offers motherly guidance to all. But soon Holly's found on the river trail, dead of an overdose of pain pills. Kelly takes time from untangling alpaca rancher Jayleen Swinson's finances and helping softball teammate Megan Smith find a wedding dress devoid of ruffles, lace or tulle to find out who gave Holly the fatal opiates. She asks Tommy's childhood friend Patty, who's still taking classes at the university, to check out the Fort Connor party scene. Patty reports a fight between Holly and Rachel Gebbard, Tommy's former girlfriend, the night of Holly's death. She also accuses Holly of cheating on Tommy with a mystery man named Eddie. As the intrigue grows, Kelly's relationship with live-in boyfriend Steve Townsend, whose real-estate projects are in the tank since the economy soured, unravels faster than a sweater with a dropped stitch.

Sefton's latest cozy is more a fair isle than a tweed, as booze, clues and wedding-bell blues alternate rather than blend with the domestic drama.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

May 1, 2010
Its autumn in Fort Connor, Colorado, which means the knitters are working in overdrive at the House of Lambspun knit shop. Kelly Flynn lives next door and is happy to help out shop owner Maggie with classes. But when a special young friend of Maggies is found dead, Kelly wants to find out why a girl who was trying to get her life together ran out of time. Eagle-eyed readers may spot the murderer early on, but Sefton still manages to neatly wrap her yarn around a mystery. An upset in Kellys personal life adds a nice twist.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)