A Stitch Before Dying Review

Stitching it together . . .

The Black Sheep Knitters: a fivesome with a knack for knitting—and for solving crimes.

hen Maggie Messina, owner of the Black Sheep Knitting Shop, is invited to give knitting workshops at a Berkshires spa resort, she manages to negotiate a cottage that fits all five of the Black Sheep for what promises to be a weekend of knitting bliss. But while the friends are expert at counting stitches, they haven’t counted on murder.

Guests and staff at the Crystal Lake Inn are as varied as a mixed bag of yarn, but most colorful is certainly the owner, charismatic self-help guru and former psychiatrist Dr. Max Flemming. The doctor may have told all in a revealing autobiography, but from his ex-wife to the widow of his former business partner—both employees at the inn—Max seems mired in shad­ows from his past. And when a killer strikes during a mountaintop retreat, the Black Sheep wonder what the good doctor might be hiding.

The police seem to be following the wrong thread. But while Maggie’s workshops have given the knitters a unique view of the tensions at the little inn, can they make sense of a crime that is as complexly stranded as a Fair Isle sweater? When the killer murders a second time, the Black Sheep won­der if they’ve dropped a stitch and put themselves in mortal danger. . . .

My Take:  This is a solid cross between chick lit and cozy mystery.  It is one in a series of books using the same characters who keep having the bad luck to trip into trouble and eventually solve crimes.  The books do not rely on previous stories to support the current book.  Each mystery stands alone and re-introduces each of the five distinct women.  

This book is a quick weekender book.  It takes little concentration.  Clues are provided via dialogue both spoken and internal.  I guessed who the murderer was very easily.  But then my pick died.  It's a fun read (even though people keep dying) and an excellent break from the books that require too much of my brain power.  Not that it's a book for stupid people, mind you.  It's just a book that can be interrupted periodically to answer the incessant "Mom!" voices without losing the flow of the story.