Thread and Buried

September 15, 2019
A film crew brings drama to a Maine town when the lothario director is killed on set in what's definitely either an accident or murder. Picturesque Haven Harbor has drawn a movie crew to film Harbor Heartbreak, and local needlepointer Angie Curtis has been tapped to help with the set design. Though she's not about to make a big deal about it, Angie's pretty sure she got the job through her boyfriend, Patrick West, whose mother, Skye, is a movie star slated for a big role in the film. Haven Harbor hasn't just been picked because it's pretty; it's also the original site for the maybe-true events of the story. Longtime resident Ruth Hopkins, who wrote the account the movie's based on before she learned that all the publishing dollars were in spicy romance novels, is on hand to help make her vision a reality. But the real driving force behind the film is director Marv Mason, who's put all his energy into ensuring the success of his stars, for example by showering the film's young lead actress, Cos Curran, with predatory romantic attention. Ick. Angie is on set one day when Marv is literally knocked off by a boom mic that pushes him backward off a rocky cliff. Though it's obvious that Marv wasn't well-loved, Angie wonders whether anyone hated him enough to kill him. Drawing on her background as a private eye and her experience solving crimes (Thread on Arrival, 2018, etc.), she questions the film's crew. She's certain the drama and death are coming from the outsiders, but which of them? Reading Wait's Maine-centric cozy is like watching a movie on TV versus going to the theater: fine but not must-see.

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November 15, 2019
Angie Curtis, owner of Mainely Needlepoint in coastal Haven Harbor, Maine, is helping to create two sets for the movie Harbor Heartbreak, starring Skye West, mother of Angie's boyfriend, Patrick. Early in the production, when volatile director Marv Mason is overseeing the adjustment of some sound equipment, he falls off some slippery rocks, tumbles into the ocean, and dies. It looks like a terrible accident, but some people blame Angie's young friend Leo for the incident. After the autopsy, police investigate Mason's death as a murder, concentrating their efforts on questioning Leo, which prompts Angie to conduct her own investigation. After interviewing multiple people, Angie gathers the suspects in one room, hoping for a confession in the manner of Agatha Christie. While each chapter opens with notes on a piece of needlework, this cozy, with its nicely described Maine setting and satisfying plot twists, relies more on the details of film production, rather than needlepoint, for its frame.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)