Betty Hechtman: Crochet Mystery Series

Today, as part of my very long-running series on highly recommended Cozy Mystery reader suggestions, I’ll be discussing Hooked on Murder, the first in Betty Hechtman‘s Crotchet Mystery Series.

Molly Pink is the events planner for a local bookstore. When the novel opens, she is going to return a set of crochet hooks to Ellen Sheridan’s house, which had been left behind at the bookstore after a crochet group meeting held at the bookstore.

One of my favorite elements of this book is that it literally opens with the crime – the very first scene is Molly finding the body, a very nice contrast to many Cozies, which can sometimes take a very significant portion of the page count to reach the point where it really becomes a ‘mystery’. Come to think of it, it’s actually a rare opener in any era of mysteries – though very welcome in this case! As I’m sure I have mentioned many times, I definitely like it when a book emphasizes the ‘mystery’ part of ‘Cozy Mysteries’, and starting with the murder discovery on page one certainly does that!

There are definitely a number of other unusual elements to this story as well, making it feel almost like a middle-of-series entry instead of the first. For one thing, Molly is already dating tall/dark/handsome police detective Barry, though the relationship isn’t going well. and has been well-established at her current employment for some time at the beginning of the novel. I actually found myself checking to make sure I had started at the right entry in the series at one point!

Molly is also a bit older than most Cozy sleuths, which now seem to generally trend toward the younger side – 30s-ish feeling like a fairly good recent average. Instead, Molly is older, in her late 40s, a somewhat-recent widow with grown children.

Another unusual element is that Molly doesn’t start the novel as an avid enthusiast of the featured hobby. Instead, she has an interest in crochet, but has never learned how, and only becomes really introduced to it during the course of the novel.

All told, if you’re looking for a “modern Cozy” that bucks many of the “modern Cozy” trends, including having a more mystery-first approach, I recommend picking up Hooked On Murder!

PS: For crochet or cooking enthusiasts, there are several additions at the end of the book – a crochet pattern and several recipes, in this case.

As always, if you want to read more of these brief discussions of some of the more popular Cozy Mystery Series that I’ve written in the past, you can find them at the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page.