Threaded for Trouble
Threadville Mystery #2
Janet Bolin

Berkley Prime Crime
June 2012/ 978-0-425-25132-4
Mystery/Cozy/Amateur Sleuth
Amazon

Reviewed by Laura Hinds

In Stitches is a needlework shop in the heart of Threadville, Pennsylvania, a cozy town with thriving handcraft shops, friendly people, and a charming atmosphere. Willow Vanderling, the proprietor of In Stitches, is content in her adopted town full of friends and a bus load of tourists/shoppers a day. There isn't much crime in Threadville, but when there is crime, it's a doozy.

The winner of a national sewing completion is awarded a Chandler Champion sewing and embroidery machine, with the ceremony taking place at Willow's shop. Winner Darlene Coddlefield is triumphant in her victory, but not for long. Sometime after the machine is set up at her house, and the obnoxious Chandler representative has shown her how to use it, Darlene is killed. The question of whether it was an accident or murder is resolved in short order, but whodunit is not. With clues as tangled as a ball of yarn, Willow sets out to solve the mystery.

Events unfold to further confuse things as emotions and fires burn in Threadville. Whose temper flared high enough to kill, and who is setting the dry fields afire? It's a good thing that Willow and her pal Haylee are training to be volunteer firefighters; especially because the murdered Darlene Coddlefield was the wife of the Fire Chief.

Janet Bolin embroiders this book with just the right mix of crime and humor. The characters who live in town, including Haylee and her three mothers, the Chief of Police, and of course, Willow's beloved dogs, Sally-Forth and Tally-Ho, are as delightful as they were in the debut novel, Dire Threads. There is a charming eccentricity about them that is hard to resist.

If you are a cozy mystery fan, who enjoys crafty-mysteries with more than a dash of hilarity thrown in you won't want to miss this book.