A Murderous Yarn

I have been reading this series in order, and so far, this is my least favorite of the series. Why? Because there is hardly any of the needlework I love, and too much about antique cars. I found the car stuff to be interesting, but it is not really why I read this series. I read it to learn more about needlework and to enjoy a nice mystery. I felt that the mystery was too easily solved for me. I figured it out right away and wondered why Betsy was so slow to pick up on things. And since book 4, where she was still reluctant to get involved, she now seems anxious to work on mysteries. I am hoping book 6 goes back to a needlework focus.

Okay, I must confess, I knew who the murderer was, but learning about all the old cars was so much fun, I kept reading! I was familiar with Maxwells, but a 17 foot vintage Renault and why the driver's section was so small? good info, and while we are in trivia, the 2 reasons that Ford made his cars black? (One was that black paint dried faster, for the other, read the book!) If you are at all interested in that hobby, you'll find it intriguing. ;]

Betsy stared; Godwin inhaled sharply. It was an impressionistic painting of a city in a blizzard. The snow blew thickly around the buildings and people, blurring their outlines and the shape of a tall plinth in the center of a square . But the picture wasn't a painting. It was a highly detailed piece of cross-stitching.
The owner of Crewel World, Betsy, gets involved in antiques cars when a friend buys 1912 Stanley Steamer. A steam car takes 20 minutes or more to start. This mystery introduces you to a lot of great old cars like Model Ts, Maxwells, Wintons & Oldsmobiles. Interesting hobby but it requires a lot of money & time. I'd like the old cars but have no interest in being a mechanic.

The author also wrote Sister Frevisse books show more under the name of Margaret Frazier. show less

Sorry as I am to say this, this is the second in a row of my knitting mysteries (the other one being a Sefton book) that don't have anything to do with needlecrafts. It gets short shrift in this one, and for me, the immediate drop in interest level was really noticeable. I don't find mysteries very engaging, so what I'm really there for is the yarn porn. When the books don't have it, it's hard to slog through them. This one didn't. While fixing up antique cars isn't a half-bad hobby and all, it ain't needlecrafts.

Cozy little mystery, reminiscent of Alexander McCall Smith's work. A lot of needlecraft things thrown in, including ORTs (I had no idea that the left over thread ends had a name!) Betsy, the owner of the local needlecraft shop, sponsors a car in the antique car race. But during the race, a driver is killed & it's not by accident. Soon Betsy's sleuthing skills are called upon.

These are all nice little cozy mysteries, set in a small town in Minnesota. Betsy Devonshire inherited a needlecraft shop when her sister was murdered and she keeps getting pulled into mysteries.
In this one, Betsy's friend Jill's fiance has bought a Stanley Steamer, but it comes with a mystery, of course! The murderer was pretty easily guessable, but as with the needlework, Ferris has done her homework on classic cars. Interesting information if you're into that kind of thing.

Betsy Devonshire may own a needlepoint shop but she is no stranger to solving murder mysteries!

This time she finds herself sponsoring her friend and his Stanley Steamer in an antique auto rally. That isn't too bad until one of the drivers turns up dead on the side of the road under his car. The mystery is that he didn't die in the fire that fried his car...it was the bullet to the chest that did him in.

The dead man's widow asks Betsy to look into it, as the two ladies spent time together at the time of the man's death. Or did they? Things become more interesting when the oldest son tells Betsy to stay out of his father's death and other siblings want her to continue.

Some help comes from her Stanley Steamer friend as he is one of the show more local cops, along with her best friend Jill. A little inside information helps to clear up some of the mystery.

This is a cozy mystery that hums along at a nice pace. show less