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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
The 10th book in this cosy mystery series sees amateur sleuth (and needlecraft store owner) Betsy Devonshire trying to unravel some long-buried family secrets. After Edith Hanratty, an eighty-something heiress is discovered murdered with a knitting needle embedded in her brain, it appears that several members of the late woman's family stood to benefit financially from her death. Can Betsy put together the pieces of this crime once more? More importantly, can she prevent her friend Jan from being blamed for her aunts death?
A fun, light-hearted crime novel that I would recommend if you like non-so-typical plucky heroines and memorable small town settings. The town of Excelsior, Minnesota just sounds too cute for words. I also just love Betsy's grit and determination in helping her friends and solving these cases, and now even local POLICE turn to her for advice! Thankfully this book sees much less of cop Jill than previous reads, though this book also suffers from a severe lack of Godwin (my favourite character). Boo. Other new characters being well-written fortunately makes up for this oversight however, though initially there seemed a few too many family members and I thought I'd get confused as to who was who, but this was short-lived, much to my relief.
This is a good enjoyable series that really needs to be read and appreciated in its intended publication order- just to avoid any confusion as to who is who and what their relationships with one another are, though be warned that there are a couple of somewhat 'patchy' books earlier on. They're still good, just not as good as some of the more recent ones I have read. You also don't have to be an avid needle worker to `get' what is going on with any plot intricacies either- so don't let that put you off giving these books a try. Recommended.
A fun, light-hearted crime novel that I would recommend if you like non-so-typical plucky heroines and memorable small town settings. The town of Excelsior, Minnesota just sounds too cute for words. I also just love Betsy's grit and determination in helping her friends and solving these cases, and now even local POLICE turn to her for advice! Thankfully this book sees much less of cop Jill than previous reads, though this book also suffers from a severe lack of Godwin (my favourite character). Boo. Other new characters being well-written fortunately makes up for this oversight however, though initially there seemed a few too many family members and I thought I'd get confused as to who was who, but this was short-lived, much to my relief.
This is a good enjoyable series that really needs to be read and appreciated in its intended publication order- just to avoid any confusion as to who is who and what their relationships with one another are, though be warned that there are a couple of somewhat 'patchy' books earlier on. They're still good, just not as good as some of the more recent ones I have read. You also don't have to be an avid needle worker to `get' what is going on with any plot intricacies either- so don't let that put you off giving these books a try. Recommended.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
33 reviews
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
not her best
29 Jun 2006
Format:Hardcover
i really looked forward to this installment of the needlework series--i thought the last two were very good.
the clever title is here, the tortuous plot is here (somewhat less plausible than previous plots in the series), but our sleuth is almost absent, and the rest of the 'regulars' have only walk-on parts.
the series hook, needlework of one kind or another, is present only in a gauzy fashion. almost all the important action takes place away from the shop and without the series detective involved. betsy devonshire steps in at nearly the last moment to reveal the culprit, after minimal clues start appearing to single him out.
there's a lot more padding in this outing than in most of the series--a whole page is devoted to reiterating the family relations, several pages are wasted on the series sleuth's imagining motives and means for all the suspects. there's also a tone of condescension in the description of the antiques that are part of the story--i found it hard to imagine the characters could be so ignorant.
the knitting pattern included, well, it would have been nice to have had at least a line drawing of it. a verbal description is not at all the same thing!
this book is for the reader who simply has to have every volume in a series. i'm giving mine to the library and crossing my fingers for the next book in the series, which i intend to buy used.
the clever title is here, the tortuous plot is here (somewhat less plausible than previous plots in the series), but our sleuth is almost absent, and the rest of the 'regulars' have only walk-on parts.
the series hook, needlework of one kind or another, is present only in a gauzy fashion. almost all the important action takes place away from the shop and without the series detective involved. betsy devonshire steps in at nearly the last moment to reveal the culprit, after minimal clues start appearing to single him out.
there's a lot more padding in this outing than in most of the series--a whole page is devoted to reiterating the family relations, several pages are wasted on the series sleuth's imagining motives and means for all the suspects. there's also a tone of condescension in the description of the antiques that are part of the story--i found it hard to imagine the characters could be so ignorant.
the knitting pattern included, well, it would have been nice to have had at least a line drawing of it. a verbal description is not at all the same thing!
this book is for the reader who simply has to have every volume in a series. i'm giving mine to the library and crossing my fingers for the next book in the series, which i intend to buy used.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Another great entry in the series.
5 Aug 2006
Format:Hardcover
This is one of my favorite series, but after reading the reviews I opened it with some trepidation.
I think that it is as good as always: the complex plot, the dry humor, the mixed feelings of the characters. The characters are, as usual, well-developed. I hope that some of these characters will at least be featured as minor characters in future books. Characters who reappear, even if only intermittently, add to the fullness and reality of the author's universe. I kept promising myself to put it down at the end of the chapter, and ended up reading it through.
One of the things that I like about this book is that it does deal with people and their work, one of the most ignored themes in literature, except for artists and detectives. In this book, the characters discuss the realities of running one's own business. I was very amused in an earlier book when Betsy went from being a tenant complaining about the poor maintenance by a greedy landlord to being the landlord who had to pay for repairs. The people also have a relatively realistic view of money: they like having it, even if they wouldn't necessarily do almost anything to get it. I get very tired of books about wealthy people of leisure, or at least an oddly undemanding job, with an apparently inexhaustible private income.
In this book, except for Betsy and Godwin, the regular cast of characters make only cameo appearances. In itself, I don't find this a problem, although of course I want to see the regulars again, I thoroughly enjoyed these characters. I am a trifle disappointed that there wasn't a book between this one and the last with a subplot centering on Jill and her new baby, but I don't consider it to be a flaw of this book, per se.
The reviews make it clear that the gang is not all here; readers can choose for themselves.
I think that it is as good as always: the complex plot, the dry humor, the mixed feelings of the characters. The characters are, as usual, well-developed. I hope that some of these characters will at least be featured as minor characters in future books. Characters who reappear, even if only intermittently, add to the fullness and reality of the author's universe. I kept promising myself to put it down at the end of the chapter, and ended up reading it through.
One of the things that I like about this book is that it does deal with people and their work, one of the most ignored themes in literature, except for artists and detectives. In this book, the characters discuss the realities of running one's own business. I was very amused in an earlier book when Betsy went from being a tenant complaining about the poor maintenance by a greedy landlord to being the landlord who had to pay for repairs. The people also have a relatively realistic view of money: they like having it, even if they wouldn't necessarily do almost anything to get it. I get very tired of books about wealthy people of leisure, or at least an oddly undemanding job, with an apparently inexhaustible private income.
In this book, except for Betsy and Godwin, the regular cast of characters make only cameo appearances. In itself, I don't find this a problem, although of course I want to see the regulars again, I thoroughly enjoyed these characters. I am a trifle disappointed that there wasn't a book between this one and the last with a subplot centering on Jill and her new baby, but I don't consider it to be a flaw of this book, per se.
The reviews make it clear that the gang is not all here; readers can choose for themselves.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
what a disappointment!
30 Jun 2006
Format:Hardcover
I have to wonder if the writer forgot which series she is working on, as the Crewel World cast of characters in AWOL in this book. Instead, the investigator, and dominant character, is a cop we've never heard of from some other town, and the victim and suspects are mainly new, and extremely UNAPPEALING characters. (by the end of the book I was hoping they'd all kill one another off so we could be done with them).
I think the author should be flogged with a typewriter ribbon for giving Jill, who was pregnant last we knew, a one sentence cameo in this book with no mention of the baby. Betsy seems peripheral rather than central to the story, and what she does do is far too improbable for even mystery fiction.
I hope this book is quickly superseded by a better one, with the return of Excelsior's favorite characters.
addendum: reader beware: the reason I didn't find the info on Jill's baby the first time I read the book was because the book was missing a chapter - seems like there are some defective copies floating around. I still think the writer did an inadequate job of blending old and new characters in this book.
I think the author should be flogged with a typewriter ribbon for giving Jill, who was pregnant last we knew, a one sentence cameo in this book with no mention of the baby. Betsy seems peripheral rather than central to the story, and what she does do is far too improbable for even mystery fiction.
I hope this book is quickly superseded by a better one, with the return of Excelsior's favorite characters.
addendum: reader beware: the reason I didn't find the info on Jill's baby the first time I read the book was because the book was missing a chapter - seems like there are some defective copies floating around. I still think the writer did an inadequate job of blending old and new characters in this book.
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