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 former high school counsellor, middle-child peacemaker, and current curator of lots of squishy/fuzzy goodness at my granddad’s little yarn store. Temporary assistant. Until I decide what to do with the rest my life. There’s only one knotty problem to untangle first. The knife sticking out of the most unpopular man in town, and the police detective trying to pin the murder on the donkey—otherwise known as my younger brother. With a pair mischievous cats determined to be underfoot and a craft group of Serial Knitters and Happy Hookers wanting the inside scoop, a girl could lose her mind. And if the killer has their way, maybe even my life…
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:
Knitted and Knifed is the first book in Tracey Drew‘s (AKA Tracey Alvarez) new cozy mystery series, the Knitty Kitty Mysteries. It’s a single-POV story about newly-single Tessa, who has (temporarily? Maybe…) left the big city to move in with her grandfather to help him run the business that he had started with his recently deceased wife, a yarn shop called Unraveled. Along with the business, she has also sort-of inherited her nan’s two cats, Kit and Pearl, who are exactly as troublesome (and adorable!) as cats can be, even when they don’t have the run of a yarn shop. 😉
It’s actually her nan’s cats that accidentally(?) get Tessa embroiled in her first–but given that this is a series, undoubtedly not her last–murder mystery. They also may or may not have a hand in bringing her to the attention of not one, but two attractive men in town–local bar owner Oliver, and police detective Eric (the one who is *technically* charged with solving the crime and who doesn’t really think he needs her help).
The focus here is definitely on the mystery, though, and the direction that Tessa will take her life in going forward. Fingers crossed that Ms Drew doesn’t go the route of the Stephanie Plum series here, and eventually *does* have Tessa make a choice if romance is indeed in her future. We don’t see enough of either gentlemen here to really develop a preference (yet!), but I trust that we–and Tessa!–eventually will.
This was a fun read, and I enjoyed trying to solve the mystery alongside Tessa, Kit, and Pearl. I don’t tend to read a lot of cozy mysteries, but between the quirky heroine and the antics of her two cats (not to mention the promise of a possible romance), I definitely will look for more of this series going forward!
Rating: 4 stars / A-
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.