The next series I’m going to cover from the monthly most recommended mystery series is Lea Wait’s Mainely Needlepoint Mystery Series. Twisted Threads is the first book in this very popular series. Lea Wait writes both the Mainely Needlepoint Series and the Shadows Antique Print Mystery Series. (This link lists all the books from these two series.)

As you might guess from the series title, Twisted Threads, is set in a small fictional town on the coast of Maine, Haven Harbor. The story begins when Angie Curtis, a private investigator working in Arizona, receives a call from her grandmother telling her it is time to come home because her mother has been found. Angie’s mother disappeared almost 20 years earlier when Angie was almost ten. Now her body has been found and Angie returns to town after a ten-year (or so) absence.

Of course, Angie’s mother had been murdered. So Angie, trained as a private investigator, naturally wants to help solve the mystery of how her mom came to be killed.

While Angie was away, her grandmother’s needlepointing has turned into a sort of co-op business with Charlotte (her grandmother) arranging for custom work for Haven Harbor’s handful of needlepointers. Things had been going well with the Mainely Needlepoint group until a man convinced Charlotte to let him represent the group by gathering orders all around New England and collecting the earnings for them. This arrangement worked fine until the man stopped bringing the money around to Charlotte to distribute to the group.

So, Angie volunteers to find the man and see what she could do to retrieve what the group was owed. And, not long into the story, another murder occurs, giving Angie’s private investigator training a real workout!

Twisted Threads is a typical modern Cozy with a few somewhat unusual elements. Not too many Cozy Mystery sleuths carry a gun, for example. Angie is a bit on the harder side of Cozy sleuths with the suggestion that she has lived a relatively wild life (for a Cozy sleuth!) both before and after she left Haven Harbor. The town is full of interesting characters including a minister who has a large Ouija board collection which he uses on occasion. (Some readers may be bothered by the minister using a Ouija board.)

Another warning is in order. The book includes some references to pedophilia that happened years ago in the town. I know some Cozy readers do not want a Cozy to deal with such serious issues, but this one does.

Despite its more serious and hard-edged undertones, the book is a fast read and has a lot of Cozy elements. The story is set in an interesting small town on the coast of Maine. The characters are varied, and Angie’s grandmother is a three-dimensional character with some surprises of her own. And, there is hint of possible romance to come for Angie. And for many Cozy Mystery readers, the setting is particularly attractive!

P.S. If you’d like to see more highlights of some of the most recommended or popular Cozy Mystery authors/series, visit the Most Popular & Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.

Lately I’ve been going through some of the most recommended Cozy Mystery series among this site’s visitors. Some of the earlier posts on these topics covered the Kate Carlisle Bibliophile Series and the League of Literary Ladies Series by Kylie Logan. This time I’m focusing on Lorna Barrett‘s Booktown Mystery Series. As long time visitors might know, I’ve been lucky enough to have had the opportunity to interview Lorraine Bartlett (aka Lorna Barrett & L.L. Bartlett). (It was a WOW occasion in my life!)

So I finally got around to rereading Murder is Binding, the first book in Lorna Barrett’s Booktown series. This book is the introduction to Tricia Miles, owner of the Haven’t Got a Clue mystery bookstore, in the town of Stoneham, New Hampshire. Tricia is a big city former upper class woman who has moved to Stoneham following her amicable divorce >>> to start-up her dream shop, a mystery bookstore. (Something I’m sure a lot of us would love doing!)

Tricia opened her store on the main street area of small town Stoneham as part of an effort to revitalize the town’s flagging economy to help develop the town as a stop for local tour buses. She wasn’t the only one, though. There were others who follow suit and opened book-related shops as well. Unfortunately, not all the locals are pleased to have so many out of towners coming in to take over prominent real estate area >>> and this conflict is an important part of some of these early books, and part of the reason Tricia finds local law enforcement less than cooperative when she finds an unpleasant neighbor dead.

Tricia’s problems aren’t limited to dying neighbors though, as she also has to contend with her sister (Angelica) coming to town. Tricia and Angelica never got along terribly well as children, so Tricia is less than completely happy when Angelica’s stay turns out to be a more or less indefinite duration. Fortunately Angelica does turn out to give some helpful advice and help in getting to the bottom of the recent murder >>> including suggesting actually getting a lawyer, a completely reasonable step to consider when potentially faced with a serious murder charge!

Another interesting touch to this particular series is that since the protagonist is an unabashed fan of mystery novels, she also does often bring up other mystery authors that the reader might already read – or might be interested in reading afterward! And from the names that she lists, it does sound like Tricia might be a fan of Cozy Mysteries in particular…

If you’re interested in reading more of these brief revisits 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 on my site.

As some of you might know, I’ve been going through some of the most highly recommended Cozy Mystery series that have been frequently mentioned by visitors to the site. Today I’ll be discussing the first book in Kate Carlisle‘s Bibliophile Mystery Series, Homicide in Hardcover.

Generally speaking, like most Cozy readers, I really enjoy reading themed mysteries about topics that I enjoy in real life >>> themes I can relate to. (Some of the everyday things I enjoy are holidays, dogs and cats, needlework, ETC.) I also enjoy reading Cozies that involve professions I think of as “fun” >>> librarians would be a good example of this because the theme involves books, which I happen to love. The Bibliophile Series stars Brooklyn Wainwright, a professional book restorer >>> definitely a theme that interests me and that I don’t know anything about!

In this first book in the series, the sleuth, Brooklyn, investigates the murder of her mentor. While Homicide in Hardcover doesn’t go into huge amounts of technical detail on the restoration of a valuable copy of Goethe’s Faust, it does interject a very different tone that helps get a feeling for the character overall. In this case, because her work is very detail oriented and meticulous in nature, it helps define her character as being perhaps a bit more “logical” than some other Cozy Mystery protagonists, like an artist or a baker, who might be considered possessing of a more “creative” mindset.

I don’t want to give away too much of this series, so I’ll keep this brief: Brooklyn’s family and friends are some of the terrific aspects of the Bibliophile series. The dialogue between the characters is fun, so the “regulars” are sorely missed when Brooklyn leaves town to attend to her bookbinding professional commitments. Kate Carlisle is a good story-teller who provides enough red herrings and twists to keep the reader invested in the crimes Brooklyn solves.

Another particular highlight of the Homicide in Hardcover is its setting, San Francisco. San Francisco has a very definite atmosphere, particularly expressed through Brooklyn’s parents, who are a pair of aging hippies who still live out on a commune outside the city proper. Enough detail goes into the setting that it is no surprise that the author, Kate Carlisle, is herself a native Californian. It’s clear that she has a strong grasp of both the area and the sort of eccentric, cosmopolitan personalities that can be found there.

If you’re interested in seeing some of the other entries I’ve written on the other Cozy Mystery series I’ve written up before, they can be found at the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.