Death by Killer Mop Doll

November 21, 2011
In Winston’s droll second cozy featuring crafts magazine editor Anastasia Pollack (after 2011’s Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun), Anastasia’s high-maintenance mother, who’s started dating Louis Beaumont, the producer of You Heard It Here First, persuades Anastasia, despite her initial opposition, to become a regular on the popular morning TV talk show, whose ratings are down. When someone sticks Lou with a knitting needle that pierces both one of Anastasia’s mop dolls and Lou’s heart, Anastasia once again turns sleuth. As Anastasia stumbles on more and more clues, she has to wonder whether her amateur detective skills are putting her in danger. The kooky characters, their laugh-out-loud banter, and the crazy plot may be more kitsch than crime caper, but readers who relish the offbeat will be rewarded. Agent: Denise Dumars at Ashley Grayson Literary Agency.

December 1, 2011
A weary widow with a bump of curiosity finds herself in big trouble. Crafts editor Anastasia Pollack's two teenage sons are the least of her problems. Her household also includes her much-married mother and her Bolshevik mother-in-law, who are constantly fighting. A parrot, a cat and a dog intensify the chaos. Since the death of her husband, a secret gambler who left her broke, the only bright spot in her life has been the hunky photographer who rents her garage apartment and occasionally cooks dinner. Things seem to be looking up when Anastasia's mother meets Lou, a wealthy TV producer who likes her idea of changing a sleazy tabloid show into a lifestyle remake program using the staff of American Woman magazine. Anastasia and her fellow editors are none too pleased to learn that they will have to do twice as much work for the same money—plus put up with the two nasty stars of the tabloid show and a muumuu-clad, whip-cracking assistant producer with ideas of her own. Things go from bad to worse when Lou is found stabbed with Anastasia's knitting needle. Anastasia, who's had some luck as a sleuth (Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, 2011, etc.), can't stop herself from investigating the murder, putting herself in danger from a coldly determined killer. Several crafts projects, oodles of laughs and an older, more centered version of Stephanie Plum.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

December 1, 2011

The editors of American Woman magazine, including crafts editor Anastasia, must take on additional responsibilities for a morning TV show. Then the producer (who happens to be engaged to Anastasia's widowed mother) is found dead on the set, with a knitting needle through his heart. Shortly thereafter, a disgruntled TV staffer is also attacked. All is not well on the set, and Anastasia can't help but snoop for clues. Her own household is just as chaotic, with her cantankerous mother-in-law, two sons, too-good-to-be-true tenant Zack, and myriad other problems connected with her late husband's swindling. If Anastasia can figure out who's mad enough to kill, she will rest easy. VERDICT This cozy is almost over the top, with a 30 Rock vibe, but Winston turns outs another lighthearted amateur investigation. Laden with one-liners, Anastasia's second outing (after Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun) points to a successful series in the works. Craft directions included.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2011
An overworked, underpaid crafts editor at a women's magazine, Anastasia Pollock has no peace at home, either. Widowed and left in deep debt by her husband, she must manage a household including her sons, a boarder, her mother and her cat, her mother-in-law and her dog, and a Shakespeare-quoting parrot. Her mother is recently engaged to an executive of the magazine's corporate owner, jubilant that he is pursuing her idea for a new reality TV show involving the magazine's editors. More work, no more pay for Anatasia, whose assignment for the pilot is to build a program around making mop dolls, a craft from an earlier decade (yes, there are instructions for making one). The show's crew, already tense from the new assignments, becomes suspicious when the rag doll samples are trashed; a Christmas angel mop doll, left at the scene, suggests an inside job. A few days later, the Valentine mop doll is found at the scene of a murder. Anastasia is a crafting Stephanie Plum, surrounded by characters sure to bring chuckles as she careens through the narrative, crossing paths with the detectives assigned to the case and snooping around to solve it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)