Quilt or Innocence
Elizabeth Craig


ISBN-10:
0451237331
ISBN-13: 978-0451237330
Publisher: Penguin Group
Line: Signet
Release Date: June 5, 2012
Pages: 304
Retail Price: 7.99




Genre:
Mystery
Rating:

As the newest member of the Village Quilters Guild, Beatrice has a lot of gossip to catch up on—especially with the Patchwork Cottage quilt shop about to close. It seems that Judith, the landlord everyone loves to hate, wants to raise the rent, despite being a quilter herself… But when Judith is found dead, the harmless gossip becomes an intricate patchwork of mischievous motives. And it’s up to Beatrice’s expert eye to decipher the pattern and catch the killer, before her life gets sewn up for good.

Series: Southern Quilting Mystery (Book 1)

Review

For fans of:  Elizabeth Lynn Casey

When retired museum curator and Southern folk-art expert Beatrice Coleman relocated from Atlanta, Georgia to the tiny North Carolina town of Dappled Hills, she was hoping to find some peace and quiet – maybe do some reading in her new hammock and spend some quality time with her daughter Piper.  She was not, however, expecting to have her life co-opted by her flaky next-door neighbor (and self-proclaimed new best friend), Meadow.  

Despite Beatrice’s repeated protests, Meadow’s bound and determined to turn her into a quilter, and it’s not long before Beatrice finds herself forced to attend to a village quilting bee.  Beatrice’s convinced she’ll feel like a fish out of water at the event, but much to her surprise, she actually enjoys herself – that is, until local gossip Judith shows up and picks a fight with practically everyone in the room.  There’s certainly no lost love for Judith amongst the citizens of Dappled Hills (and for good reason), so it’s not much of a surprise when the odious woman turns up dead; unfortunately, however, the fact that nearly everyone in town had a motive for her murder makes catching her killer that much more difficult.  It’s not easy to relax and enjoy one’s retirement when there’s a criminal on the loose (and honestly, Beatrice is kind of bored), so Dappled Hills’ newest resident decides to launch an investigation of her own.  Is she up to the task, or will her nosiness merely earn her a more permanent form of retirement?

Quilt or Innocence is the first in Elizabeth Craig’s new Southern Quilting Mystery series, and it’s a bit of a mixed bag.  I did enjoy the book overall, and do think it’s worth a read – especially if you’re a fan of crafting mysteries that fall on the cozier end of the spectrum.  But if you decide to pick up Quilt or Innocence, you should be aware that it ends much more strongly than it begins.  Truthfully, I didn’t find all that much to recommend in the first hundred pages or so.  The setup is artless, there’s a ton of awkward exposition, the pace is slow, what little drama there is feels manufactured, and there are large chunks of dialogue that just don’t ring true.  Add to that the fact that the supporting characters initially all run together (there are a freaking ton of them, and they all have names like Posey, Daisy, Amber, and Meadow) and that Beatrice starts out judgmental, stuffy, and just plain unlikable, and you have a book that you may be tempted to set down before you’ve reached the final page.

You shouldn’t give in to that temptation, though, because once Craig finishes putting things into place, her writing starts to click.  Some of her more minor characters remain pretty two-dimensional (Daisy, Posey, and Piper, in particular), but others that I initially found way too over-the-top (Meadow, for example, and the ancient, toothless, occasionally demented Miss Sissy) develop depth and nuance and turn into the sort of characters I’d buy sequels just to visit.   Beatrice, too, becomes a much nicer, more charismatic person once she grows accustomed to life in Dappled Hills, and is actually a fairly series-worthy heroine by the time the story is finished.  I did find both the mechanics of the murder and the final showdown to be a tad convoluted, but the mystery is solid, the victim is someone you’ll love to hate, and Craig provides an ample number of suspects with motive, means, and opportunity.   Plus, if you’re a fan of quilting, you’ll find plenty to like here; the author clearly knows a great deal about – and feels a great affection for – the craft, and it shines through in her writing.

Reviewed by Kat N.


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