plaguedbyquilt

The latest novel in the national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mystery series

Yarn shop owner Kath Rutledge is at a historic farm in Blue Plum, Tennessee, volunteering for the high school program Hands on History. But when a long-buried murder is uncovered on the property, Kath needs help from Geneva the ghost to solve a crime that time forgot….

Kath and her needlework group TGIF (Thank Goodness It’s Fiber) are preparing to teach a workshop at the Holston Homeplace Living History Farm, but their lesson in crazy quilts is no match for the crazy antics of the assistant director, Phillip Bell. Hamming it up with equal parts history and histrionics, Phillip leads an archaeological dig of the farm’s original dump site—until one student stops the show by uncovering some human bones.

When a full skeleton is later excavated, Kath can’t help but wonder if it’s somehow connected to Geneva, the ghost who haunts her shop, and whom she met at this very site. After Phillip is found dead, it’s up to Kath to thread the clues together before someone else becomes history.

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For fans of: Sheila Connolly

Kath Rutledge and her needlework group have volunteered to teach a workshop out at the Holston Homeplace Living History Farm. Their class is just one of many being offered as part of the Hands on History program, but they’re confident their crazy quilts will steal the show – until the archaeology workshop uncovers a skeleton in the farm’s garbage pit and the farm’s assistant director, Phillip Bell, turns up dead. Whose bones did the students dig up, and did Phillip’s murder have anything to do with the discovery? Kath and company are convinced local law enforcement doesn’t have what it takes to sew up either investigation, so they take it upon themselves to solve both mysteries and save the day.

Plagued by Quilt is the fourth of Molly MacRae’s Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries. I was a big fan of the first three books in this series, but I’m sorry to say that MacRae’s latest just doesn’t stack up. Unsolved puzzles and unanswered questions abound, yet inexplicably, very little happens during the first two hundred pages of this tale. MacRae’s prose is pretty, but largely lacks purpose. She spends too much time detailing the ordinary and the everyday. The book is chock full of pointless subterfuge – random people withholding random information for no discernable reason. And none of Plagued by Quilt’s conflict feels earned.

While I adore Geneva (the spirit who haunts Kath and her yarn shop) and am usually quite amused by her ghostly melodrama, most of the meltdowns she suffers in this book are arbitrary and over the top. I love Kath’s so-antagonistic-it-must-secretly-be-love relationship with Deputy Cole “Clod” Dunbar, but their confrontations in Plagued by Quilt seem forced and artificial – like they’re both just reaching for things to fight about. The frequent spats between Kath and coworker Ardis feel manufactured and out of place. Even the shop’s cat snubs Kath at one point. I’m all in favor of using interpersonal friction as a means to build tension and forward plot, but what MacRae’s doing here feels like fictional filibustering.

If Plagued by Quilt were about half as long, I think Molly MacRae would really have something; the final third of the book is great, and the ending is fantastic – emotional, action-packed, and replete with reveals. As it stands, though, I’m not entirely sure the payoff is worth the slog it takes to get there.

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Reviewed by Kat

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