Mother’s Day is coming up soon. Check out my Mother’s Day post for this year.
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.
I have just finished reading Monica Ferris’s Darned if You Do. I don’t think I have read any other books in the Needlcraft Mystery series. This is #17, but there was enough context and backstory that I was comfortable with the characters and small town and didn’t feel lost. This mystery had an interesting premise—a hoarder who was murdered before his sister could finish inventorying all of the junk and valuables he’d been forced to leave in his house when he was taken to the hospital after a tree came crashing through his roof. I was sorry to see the neurodivergent character killed. I think he would have made an interesting repeat character in future mysteries in the series.
The clues are given away a bit early. It was pretty obvious to me by 3/4 of the way through who the culprit was. But it was still fun to see how Betsy investigated the various mysteries to come to a conclusion, the characters and storyline were engaging enough that I didn’t feel cheated knowing who the murderer was.
“No, please. I don’t want . . . no people in my house.” The man’s voice was weak, but his desperate plea was clear.
Monica Ferris, Darned if You Do
The USA Today bestselling Needlecraft Mysteries have shown that when it comes to murder, Betsy Devonshire, owner of the Crewel World needlework shop, doesn’t mess around. But when a local hoarder is murdered, she’ll need all her wits to dig a new friend out of a heap of trouble…
After a tree falls on Tom Riordan’s house, landing him in the hospital, the police discover a mountain of junk piled high in his home. Locals in Excelsior, Minnesota—including Betsy and her Crewel World Monday Bunch—offer to help with the cleanup while Tom recuperates.
But when Tom is found murdered in his hospital bed, the sole heir to his property—his cousin Valentina—becomes the number one suspect. Betsy believes there’s more to the case than meets the eye, but finding clues to the killer’s identity in the clutter Tom left behind will be like looking for a needle in a haystack …
