By Sadie Hartwell
Even a bourbon drinker enjoys a cup of cocoa from time to time.
This cozy mystery features knitters, a yarn store, a good mystery and a whisper of romance. Just the thing for light entertainment on a chilly day.
When a car crash takes the life of Josie Blair’s Great-Aunt Cora and leaves her Great-Uncle Eben Lloyd with a broken leg, she’s the only family member available to help care for him.
Besides making sure Uncle Eben is fed and gets to doctors’ appointments, Josie must gather eggs from his chickens and get them to the general store for sale. She also must liquidate Cora’s yarn store, Miss Marple Knits.
But scarcely has Josie flipped open her lap top to start recording Cora’s fiber inventory than she finds the dead body of Lillian Woodruff, buried in bundles of yarn in the back store room.
Who would want to kill the elderly woman? Is the competition in the Dorset Falls Charity Knitters Association that fierce? And how did anyone get into the locked shop?
The more Josie investigates, the more she begins to wonder whether Cora’s car accident was an accident after all.
Author Sadie Hartwell has crafted a classic cozy mystery, engaging enough to transport you away from winter grayness and pandemic isolation. Her descriptions of the lunches and snacks prepared by general store clerk and chef Lorna Fowler will make your mouth water. Curmudgeonly Uncle Eben and his bounding hound Jethro will make you smile. You’ll boo and hiss Diantha Humphries, the snobbish new president of the Charity Knitters Association and mother of Trey who once was Josie’s boyfriend.
Hartwell even brings the late Cora into the book as a woman and generous presence.
YARNED AND DANGEROUS is followed by A KNIT BEFORE DYING.
Hartwell includes some quick and simple knitting patterns at the end of the book.
About the Author: Sadie Hartwell
Growing up in northern New York State near the Canadian border, Sadie Hartwell read mystery books and did needlework to get through the long winters.
After graduating with a degree in history from St. Lawrence University, she worked as a waitress, handbag designer/manufacturer, office drone and freelance editor before becoming a full-time writer.
Sadie Hartwell also writes under the name Susannah Hardy. Her Greek to Me mysteries feature Georgie Nikolopatos, who manages the Bonaparte House, a Green restaurant and historic landmark in upstate New York.