Double Knit Murders

Double Knit Murders is actually two books in one, the first two books of the Knitting Mysteries by Maggie Sefton, "Knit One, Kill Two" and "Needled to Death". They were ok reads, a lot could be worked on, but when it came down to it, they were entertaining.

Knit One Kill Two has the main character, Kelly, coming to a small town in Colorado because her aunt who practically raised her had been murdered. Kelly has to settle affairs but doesn't believe that the vagabond caught running from her aunt's house is the actual killer so she decides to do some investigating on her own. She also spends time at the Knitting shop down the street where her aunt had frequented and finds herself drawn in by the wonderful yarns and maybe even being convinced to try knitting again. She makes some friends, discovers leads on the case, b ut must find out who the killer is before she becomes a target herself.

Needled to Death brings back Kelly and her knitting friends when another knitter, who owns an alpaca breeding operation is murdered. Once again, Kelly is on the case trying to desperately figured out who murdered their friend. When the friends daughter is also murdered, the case becomes even worse. And there's so many suspects, all with good motives. While trying to do all this Kelly finds a new found love of knitting scarves as well.

The characters are all rather unbelievable in these books. Especially when it comes to grief. In the 2nd book, Kelly is the first to find the body of her friend, yet she analyzes all the aspects of the crime and I don't think she sheds one tear or barely feels morose. That's pretty cold-hearted when its your friend. She also seems to jump into crime and figure out things a little too easy with a little too much assistance. But I suppose it wouldn't be a cozy mystery if she couldn't do those things. The other characters don't get as much face time but I find myself liking some of them more than I do Kelly. Except her potential love interest, like Kelly, I found him annoying.

For plots they are pretty standard. People get murdered, someone who doesn't really have any business doing so investigates. But they are entertaining and each have their own variations and twists. I did like all the descriptions on the knitting and the yarn shop. Made me want to go break out my knitting needles. And they thoughtfully included patterns and recipes in the book as well so its useful too. The writing is easy to read although she does get overly fond of adjectives at time. When in the yarn shop this is great, but everywhere else it doesn't have as much charm.

Not a bad set of reads but I won't go rushing out to buy her books. I might get them if they came to me in a used bookshelf or through a friend.

Double Knit Murders
Copyright 2010
437 pages

Review by M. Reynard 2011