"Cleverly crafted who-done-it."

CPA Kelly Flynn feels alone when she learns the stunning news that her beloved Aunt Helen, who raised her, was murdered in her home in what the police declared a "burglary gone bad. Kelly accompanied by her dog Carl heads home to Fort Connor, Colorado for the funeral and to deal with the estate. Her aunt's lawyer Mr. Chambers shocks her with the fact that frugal Helen borrowed $20,000 against her home, but has no idea what she did with the money or why she needed it since it never went to Kelly. The accountant also sees other discrepancies with the official books on the case as she knows her feisty aunt would have put up a fight if it was a robbery; since she did not she knew her killer.

In town, her aunt's friends adopt Kelly and make her feel at home. They needle her into joining their knitting circle, which meets at Mimi Shafer's shop, the former barn of Kelly's aunt. As the circle converts her into a dye-in- the-wool scarf knitter, she investigates what happened to her aunt because the bottom line fails to add up correctly.

This is first stitch in a new needlepoint amateur sleuth tale starring a likable accountant and a host of eccentric townsfolk. The story line neatly knits together a murder pattern that the police failed to see. Amateur sleuth fans who appreciate Monica Ferris's Betsy Devonshire tales will want to read this Rocky Mountains' cleverly crafted who-done-it.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted June 8, 2005

Summary

Kelly Flynn never picked up a pair of knitting needles she liked—until she strolled into House of Lambspun. Now, in the first in a brand-new series, she learns how to knit one, purl two, and untangle the mystery behind her aunt's murder.

Kelly Flynn leaves her high-pressure financial career to return to her childhood home in Colorado's Rocky Mountains. Her beloved aunt's been murdered, and Kelly doesn't accept the police explanation of a "burglary gone bad." Too many details don't make sense. With help from new friends in the knitting shop next door, Kelly learns to knit a scrumptious scarf while she unravels the mystery behind her aunt's murder—and lures a killer out of hiding. . .