Because IIt's a cute book about a widow who owns a yarn shop specializing in spinning, a small but diverse flock of fiber animals, and two Great Pyrenees up in Washington state. The book describes her day to day life, taking care of animals, feeding her divorced little brother, and then solving the mystery of the murdered town doctor. It seemed fairly reminiscent of Lilian Jackson Braun's "Cat Who" Mysteries, but for me, that a good thing as I liked them and Braun is now deceased (in Braun's stories there is a middle aged bachelor solving murders with the help of his two cats). Neither one is Dickens or Shakespear, but I did finish Grace's book in two days, both nights staying up past 2 am reading. It was a nice book with good plot twists, and despite an Amazon review that stated the murderer could be guessed within paragraphs of the character's introduction, I was still waffling between suspects for three fourths of the book.
Grace clearly knows her knitting and spinning. She included several large sections about either activity as Martha, the main character, was teaching a beginning spinning class throughout the story and recommended several real books to her fictional characters.
Grace is only one of many who write in this genre I am going to dub Knit Lit. There are several others, such as the Crabapple Yarn Mysteries by Jaime Marsman, Yarn Retreat Mysteries by Betty Hetchman, and Knitting Mysteries by Maggie Sefton to name a few. Not only do these books provide a cozy but compelling mystery, some even include a knitting pattern and/or a recipe. And of course there are others who write crochet and quilt themed mysteries.
From my point of view, sometimes you just need a light and easy book, a jell-o book as my mom would call it. Sometimes you want to be thinking about fiber without working your hands. These books are a great combination of the two.
How about you? Have you read anything good lately? Let me know, maybe we can read something together.
No comments:
Post a Comment