Thread End - Amanda Lee

Thread End

An Embroidery Mystery

Amanda Lee

Obsidian

 

Mystery

 

 

The tiny coastal Oregon town of Tallulah Falls has scored a coup:  their museum will be hosting the Padgett Collection, a group of textiles collected over the lifetime of Mr. Padgett.  Along with a high-profile exhibit comes high-profile security.  Also in attendance – apart from the many locals, both expert and amateur – will be a billionaire art collector, an FBI agent, and an art thief who was once an art history professor.  The FBI agent got a tip about the art thief’s being there, since the one piece of art the thief stole was from the aforementioned billionaire.  So that should make for some interesting conversation during cocktail hour.

 

The opening of the exhibit goes off without a hitch.  The following morning, Marcy Singer is performing the glamorous task of taking out the garbage in the alley behind her store.  First she sees what she thinks much be a kilim carpet from last night’s exhibit.  Looking for closely, she sees that the rolled-up carpet contains the body of a man.  It’s Dr. Vandehey, the art thief.  He’d been shot and rolled up in one of the kilim rugs from the display.  

 

Marcy is quickly eliminated as a suspect, but there are plenty more in the area. Word quickly spreads that the Collection was stolen from the museum during the night, too.  It could be that he was killed by his partner (or partners) in that crime for any number of reasons.  The billionaire, who seems a little volatile, could still be carrying a grudge.  Even the new, young curator of the museum has a motive.

 

Despite the fact that the alley behind her shop is a crime scene (again,) Marcy continues with business as usual in her needlework shop, The Seven Year Stitch.  She deals with customers, teaches classes, and gets to have lunch almost daily with her boyfriend, Ted Nash, the local detective, to discuss the case and suspects. Over the course of the story, little scraps of information drop here and there; pieces of the puzzle.  The resolution itself, however, is fairly awkward.  It involves odd leaps of logic by Marcy, then the sudden appearance and immediate confession of the Bad Guy.  The facts make sense, though, and it’s all worth it for the Epilogue.

 

Rating: 6

June 2014

ISBN# 978-0-451-46739-3 (paperback)

 

Previous Titles:
THE QUICK AND THE THREAD

STITCH ME DEADLY

THREAD RECKONING

THE LONG STITCH GOOD NIGHT

THREAD ON ARRIVAL

CROSS-STITCH BEFORE DYING