Fleece Navidad
A
Knitting Mystery with Kelly Flynn
Maggie
Sefton
Berkley Prime Crime (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-425-22360-4 (0425223604)
ISBN-13: 978-0-425-22360-4 (9780425223604)
Publication Date: September 2008
List Price: $23.95
Synopsis (from
the publisher): It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas for the
knitters of Fort Connor, Colorado, who are furiously working on their
holiday projects. Juliet, the town's "little brown wren" librarian, is
known for her beautiful handmade Christmas capes, and she has extra
reason to be joyful this year-she's in love. But as soon as she finds
happiness, death finds her.
Suspicion falls on a newcomer to the knitting group, but Kelly Flynn
and the rest of the crew aren't convinced of this person's guilt. It's
up to them to separate the true lion from the lambs- before someone
else gets fleeced ...
Review: Maggie Sefton’s, Fleece Navidad,
the newest novel in her Knitting Mysteries series is about as feel-good
a cosy as you can get. First, it’s got all of the trappings of a
customary cosy and then it’s additionally swathed with the
comfortable traditions of Christmastime. Right from the artwork of its
cover and the word play of its title, it’s a perfect read either
while waiting for Christmas to arrive or when snuggling down after the
turkey dinner has been devoured.
A former certified public accountant with a Washington, D.C. firm,
Kelly Flynn relocated to Fort Connor, Colorado two years ago where she
now lives with her boyfriend, has a stable of clients for her day job,
volunteers to knit “hats for the homeless” with the
knitters group at the House of Lambspun, and dabbles with crime as an
amateur sleuth. Against the background of her previous cases that get
mentioned in the story, she’s now called upon to unravel the
mystery of a murder, this time a hit and run in the middle of the
night. The victim is the town librarian who has just become engaged to
a retired university professor. The prime suspect is a newcomer to
town, a vivacious woman quickly labelled, “the Merry
Widow,” because of the deaths of her three previous husbands
under suspicious circumstances. Also a suitor for the professor’s
affections, he dumps her the same day his fiancée is killed in
the hit and run.
As circumstantial evidence mounts and the townsfolk rally to support or
accuse the Widow, they happily gossip, knit, weave, and bake as the
sights, sounds, smells and tastes of Christmas permeate the pages of
Sefton’s book. But while they merrily go about their activities,
the troubled Widow is stalked by the daughter of her last husband who
has tracked her from Sarasota to Fort Connor, claiming the philandering
Widow killed her father and stole a car and a credit card belonging to
a neighbour lady who has since died.
For Kelly, the mysteries surrounding the Merry Widow become early
Christmas presents for her Sherlockian soul as she scurries around
town, from the knitters’ club to meetings with a mentoring ex-cop
to interviews with suspects and bystanders. Between times she and a
girlfriend corral a bunch of unruly kids into a modernized, upbeat
version of a Christmas pageant at St. Mark’s Catholic Church that
has everybody rolling in the aisles as a baby and a performing lamb
steal the show. It’s a rewarding performance for Kelly and almost
as good as unravelling the mystery of who was pulling the wool over
everyone’s eyes before she needled the murderer into a confession.
As a bonus to an enjoyable read, Sefton has included a 17-page section
of “Holiday Knitting Patterns” followed by nine pages of
recipes for holiday treats for a Merry Christmas and a Felice Navidad.
Special thanks to M. Wayne Cunningham (mw_cunningham@telus.net) for contributing his review of Fleece Navidad and to Penguin Group for providing a copy of the book for the review.
Review
Copyright © 2008 — M. Wayne Cunningham
— All
Rights Reserved
Reprinted with Permission
Have you read Fleece Navidad? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series ...
Knit One, Kill
Two
Berkley Prime Crime (Mass Market Paperback), June 2005
ISBN-10: 0-425-20359-X (042520359X)
ISBN-13: 978-0-425-20359-0 (9780425203590)
Needled to Death
Berkley Prime Crime (Mass Market Paperback), December 2005
ISBN-10: 0-425-20706-4 (0425207064)
ISBN-13: 978-0-425-20706-2 (9780425207062)
A Deadly Yarn
Berkley Prime Crime (Mass Market Paperback), August 2006
ISBN-10: 0-425-20707-2 (0425207072)
ISBN-13: 978-0-425-20707-9 (9780425207079)
A Killer Stitch
Berkley Prime Crime (Hardcover), May 2007
ISBN-10: 0-425-21520-2 (0425215202)
ISBN-13: 978-0-425-21520-3 (9780425215203)
Dyer Consequences
Berkley Prime Crime (Hardcover), June 2008
ISBN-10: 0-425-21933-X (042521933X)
ISBN-13: 978-0-425-21933-1 (9780425219331)
Fleece Navidad
Berkley Prime Crime (Hardcover), September 2008
ISBN-10: 0-425-22360-4 (0425223604)
ISBN-13: 978-0-425-22360-4 (9780425223604)
Omnimystery keywords for Fleece Navidad ...
Location(s) referenced: Colorado.
