The Stitching Hour - Amanda Lee
The Stitching Hour
An Embroidery Mystery
Amanda Lee
Obsidian
Mystery
Halloween in the little town of Tallulah Falls, Oregon,
usually means a G-rated haunted house at the public library. It’s their best fund-raising event of the
year. But this year, something new has
come to town. The Horror Emporium has
opened in the store next door to Seven Year Stitch, Marcy Singer’s needlework
shop. They’ll only be open in the
evenings for the month of October, but Marcy teaches classes three nights a
week and isn’t looking forward to interruptions from next door. She’s also busy getting ready for her
one-year anniversary party at the shop and preparing for a visit from her
mother, Beverly.
The Atwoods, the flamboyant couple running this new attraction,
announce that there will be a sort of open house for neighboring shop owners
before the Emporium officially opens for business. To celebrate, there’s a party, catered by the
nearby coffee shop; and manned, with very little enthusiasm, by Keira, one of
the coffee shop waitresses. As the group
of shop owners starts the tour, the first room on the tour is the Lair of the
Serpent, featuring real snakes. The rest
of the attraction consists of a series of actors and effects that make the
experience fairly realistic. As they
exit, they see a female form, crumpled on the sidewalk. Most think this is a last scare. Instead, it’s Keira, lying on the ground,
with a pair of wounds to her neck.
Marcy feels unaccountably sad for Keira. Although they hadn’t known each other well,
they had a bit of history. When Marcy
first arrived in town, the two women had briefly been interested in the same
guy. Although that’s long past, Keira
held a grudge. She was a generally
unhappy person, it seems. But who would
want to kill her? Was she the intended
victim, or just a victim of opportunity?
Before Marcy gets very far in her investigation, a family emergency
almost derails everything.
Keira has been a very secondary character since the
beginning of the series (see list below.)
The fact that the reader is learning so much background about her only
after her death pretty much puts the reader in Marcy’s shoes. No one is any one thing; and Keira was more
complex than Marcy thought. Getting to
the bottom of this mystery requires some input from almost everyone in the cast
of characters. The solution comes about
fairly abruptly, but it makes sense and ties up the loose ends nicely. Beverly’s visit adds an extra dimension to
the story, as usual. And I continue to
wish for a shop just like Seven Year Stitch near me.
Rating: 7
November 2015
ISBN# 978-0-451-47384-4 (paperback)
posted by Deborah Hern @ 8:31 AM
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