Genre:

It’s summer in Sea Harbor, Massachusetts, and while tourists flock to the beautiful cottages by the sea, trouble brews for the Seaside Knitters. While one gets tangled up with a precocious relative, another stands accused of casting a local resident off on a permanent vacation.

As Izzy Chambers and the Seaside Knitters prepare Izzy’s yarn studio for the tourist season, fellow knitter Birdie Favazza has her hands full with a skeleton emerging from the family closet.

But it’s Cass Halloran, the lobsterwoman, whose life is most in shambles as summer begins. Not only is her business suffering financial hardships, but Finnegan, an old friend and fellow fisherman, is being pressured by the town to sell his seaside property—an unkempt and eyesore area near Canary Cove. And it’s Cass who stumbles over the body of the old fisherman, covered with leaves and sea grass, and wearing the yellow fleece vest she once made him. When, in a surprising turn of events, Cass unwittingly becomes a suspect in his murder, the knitters rally to protect their dear friend.

Soon the Seaside Knitters will discover that casting their net for a killer is tricky business indeed. They’ll have to keep their wits about them as they piece together the clues, working to catch a killer before one of their own winds up knitting behind bars.

Review

Summer has returned to the tiny coastal town of Sea Harbor, Massachusetts, and with it, the tourists.  But while outsiders may flock to Sea Harbor to get away from it all, Nell Endicott and the town’s other residents are finding life in their little corner of the world anything but peaceful.  Everyone’s in an uproar over the fact that curmudgeonly fisherman “Finn” Finnegan has let his prime parcel of oceanfront property go to seed.  Not only has Finn’s rundown home become an eyesore, but the land around it, with its un-mowed grass and random assortment of rusting and rotting tools, has become an accident waiting to happen.  The old man steadfastly refuses to clean up or sell, though, so what can they do?

Then Finn’s found dead in his yard, the apparent victim of foul play, and the townspeople find themselves wondering if one of their own finally snapped and decided to take matters into his or her own hands.  Could someone from Sea Harbor actually be capable of committing murder over a piece of real estate?  The possibility seems too terrible to contemplate, but what other cause would somebody have to kill a harmless old man in cold blood?

I don’t knit, and I’m not usually a big fan of schmaltz and sentimentality in crime fiction, but for some reason, Sally Goldenbaum’s Seaside Knitters Mysteries just have my number.  A Fatal Fleece is the sixth installment in the series, and as with the tales that came before it, I loved every single page.  The joy with which Goldenbaum writes is infectious; her books – this one, included – are like literary hugs.  She writes about knitting with such poetry and affection that if even the least artistic and dexterous among you doesn’t find yourself filled with the urge to pick up a skein of yarn and a pair of knitting needles, there’s a good chance you’re dead inside.  And her descriptions are so lush and vivid and the sense of atmosphere she creates is so strong that when you crack open the spine of a Seaside Knitters Mystery, it’s almost like stepping into a warm, sunny, ocean-scented summer day.

You might think a book that fits the above description would be dull and boring – all feel-good and no flash – but you’d be wrong.  The plot of A Fatal Fleece is intricate and multi-faceted, the pace is surprisingly quick, and the mystery is clever, unpredictable, and chock full of red herrings.

Goldenbaum’s character work is startlingly good, as well.  She completely nails the New England attitude, mindset, and speech pattern – things to which I’m quite sensitive (being a native Mainer), but which few writers can pull off.  Nell is a strong, caring, and thoroughly relatable heroine.  The other members of her knitting circle – lobsterwoman Cass Halloran, yarn shop proprietress Izzy Chambers, and retiree Birdie Favazza – are compelling characters in their own right, and are the kinds of women you’d be lucky to call friends.  Even Finn, cantankerous and stubborn though he is, has surprising depth and nuance, and by the time the book is done, you’ll find yourself quite invested in seeing his killer brought to justice.

In desperate need of a vacation, but just don’t have the time or money?  Pick up A Fatal Fleece and let Sally Goldenbaum transport you to the Massachusetts shore; you’ll find wind, waves, sunshine, good friends, and good food – and unlike the rest of New England in the summertime, there’s nary a tourist or t-shirt shop to be found.

Reviewed by Kat N.

READERS COMMENTS