Wanted: Cat mum to manage a yarn store, corral two curious cats, all the while being tangled up in murderous mayhem and mystery.
A smart woman would dump her cheating ex, move from the city, and give herself a chance for a well-deserved do-over. A smarter woman—smarter than me, anyway—wouldn’t jump out of that same frying pan and return to Cape Discovery, a seaside village where her family is the nuttiest of all the nut-ball residents.
I’m a high school counsellor turned new owner of Unraveled, my granddad’s yarn store in town. More exciting than a delivery of rainbow colored wool is the news of movie location scouts in the area, though not everyone believes all publicity is good publicity. Game on between landowners to secure such a lucrative deal.
I can’t help being caught up in movie fever, until I stumble onto one of those landowners, face down in a kitty litter tray. Deader than dead thanks to an unknown assailant. With dating disasters aplenty both online and in-real-life and a hitman on the loose, things couldn’t get much more murderously crazy in Cape Discovery. If only that were true…
Tessa Wakefield has her hands full juggling a cozy craft store, her crazy family, and two men who’d rather poke out their eyes than describe themselves as cute. Which they totally are. Cute, charismatic, and occasionally on her mind when she’s not stumbling over dead bodies and using her newfound sleuthing skills to track down murderers. Lucky she’s an excellent multi-tasker because digging beneath Cape Discovery’s surface can unearth secrets that kill.
Review:
This one was super cute! And I honestly had no idea whodunit until Tessa let us in on all the juicy deets in her own clumsy, unique way. Once she figured it out, all the pieces fell in place, but let’s just say it’s a darn good thing she’s the amateur sleuth who keeps finding dead bodies all over the place and not me. I don’t think I would have managed to make it out of book 1 alive, let alone book 3. 😉
Hanks and a Hitman is full of twists and turns–much like the fancy yarns Tessa sells in her shop–and I swear I’m starting to feel like all of her friends, family, and yarn store enthusiasts are my friends too. It’s darn fortunate that Ms Drew only kills off the unpleasant side characters in her capers! You don’t have to have read the other two (and a half) books to enjoy this one, but if you like cozy mysteries with quirky characters (have any interest in fiber crafts that’s a plus but not necessary–on a side note, does anyone want to join in my petition to ask the author to share the pattern for those flesh-colored…things that Natalie kept making here?) you’ll undoubtedly want to start from the first book. Just so you can get into the full will-she-or-won’t-she, Eric-or-Oliver drama from the start.
I know who has my vote. And fully trust that Ms Drew won’t draw that aspect of it out too long… (fingers crossed!)
Rating: 4 stars / A-
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.