A Fatal Fleece

I like knitting, in fact, I like knitting a lot and I like a lot of knitting.  But in addition to the act itself, I enjoy reading about knitting, be it in news feeds, blog posts, articles, on line, in print.  There are also a few good authors who work knitting into their genre of writing.  I wrote about Debbie Macomber, a prolific New York Times best seller several times over.  Her books at the start focused on the relationship women formed as they took a beginning knitting class, but over time she has written less and less about knitting and more and more about women´s relationships.  And as I indicated in the post I wrote, the formulaic style where there is always a happy ending can be repetitious.  So I have been on the look out for a different author.

Imagine my shock when in the staff pick section of my local library was this book.  (Someone has my kind of taste in novels, thanks Irene.)

A Fatal Fleece from my rather quick research seems to be one of eight books so far written by Sally Goldenbaun in what she calls ¨A Seaside Knitters Mystery Series¨.  Unlike Macomber´s setting on the west coast of Washington State, Goldenbaum´s setting are on the eastern coastal waters of Sea Harbor, Massachusetts.  Her cast of characters are a mixed group of friends and relatives who make up the Seaside Knitters.  There is Nell Endicott, the main character; her niece, Izzy Chambers, a former lawyer now owner of the local yarn shop; Izzy´s friend, Cass Halloran, a local lobster fisherman; and Birdie Favazza, described by the author as ¨Sea Harborś wealthy, wise, and generous silver-haired grande dame.¨  These four characters work in Miss Marple like ways to gather information from everyone and help the police solve not one but two murders in this particular book.

Knitting is relatively inconsequential, but the knitting group meetings are where details can be discussed to help move the story along.  These four woman see each other all the time to sleuth, gossip, and eat meals.  They seem to eat almost every lunch and dinner together, with a bottle or two of wine.  It is little wonder they have to clear their heads to thread all the clues together so often.  And somewhere between all of this rather large knitting projects are completed as well.  There is a knitting pattern at the end of this particular book for a child-sized knit hooded sweater.  So the title, the general premise and the knitting pattern must make it a knitting mystery novel.

The writing is done in such a way the repetition of the clues is not obvious.  (I find Macomber´s rehash of such information tedious.)  And the cliched well-to-do knitter is used to its fullest extent.  It seems only in a novel can someone quit a job as a lawyer, move to a small town and make a comfortable living running a yarn shop.  Reality often is not as rosy.  And how these woman get to details about the murder before the police is a bit confounding.  Putting all that aside I did find myself carving out more time to read as the book was ending.  It was important to figure out with the character who done it.  I look forward to Goldenbaum´s new book, A Finely Knit Murder, slated to be released in November 2015.  In the meantime I can try to catch up on her other seven novels.