Stitch Me Deadly is An Embroidery Mystery, a follow up to The Quick and the Thread. The author gives all the necessary background information to allow new readers to catch up with the characters.

Marcy Singer has moved from San Francisco and is spending her first winter in the small town of Tallulah Falls, Oregon. She owns Seven Year Stitch, an embroidery specialty shop. Her best friend Sadie MacKenzie owns a nearby coffee shop and café. Another important character in the book is Marcy’s mother Beverly, a movie industry costume designer who still lives in San Francisco, but visits Marcy often.

We learn Marcy was dumped by her fiancé a year ago and Sadie has fixed her up with Todd Calloway, owner of a local craft brewery. Marcy and Todd are casually dating, but Marcy is also attracted to Ted Nash, a detective she met when a previous suspicious death occurred at her shop.

The book opens on a rainy January day. Louisa Ralston, an elderly customer comes into Marcy’s shop and shows her an antique embroidered sampler and then asks Marcy for help finding “ivy”. Before Marcy can ask what she means, Mrs. Ralston collapses and doesn’t recover. While it first appears the elderly woman died of natural causes, police soon discover she was given a drug to induce a heart attack. It’s murder, and Marcy soon becomes a suspect. She begins her own investigation to clear her name, not trusting the local police to find the real murderer. She also does some research to try to explain Mrs. Ralston’s last words.

Stich Me Deadly is quick, fun read with an interesting mystery. With the clues from the author, I was able to correctly guess the identity of the murderer, but not all the twists and turns the story takes. Therefore, the book was enjoyable and kept my interest until the very end. There were a couple of “loose threads” that weren’t tied up at the end of the book, and that was a little frustrating.

The strength of the book is the potential triangle between Marcy, Todd, and Ted. It’s interesting and refreshing, since both seem to be truly nice guys and good matches for Marcy, unlike in some series when it’s obvious to everyone but the heroine that one guy is by far the better choice.

For the most part, I like the character of Marcy. She shows she is determined and brave enough to leave her hometown and start a business on her own in a new state. However, there are a few times when she seems immature. For example, from Marcy’s early descriptions of her mother, I was expecting to meet a bossy, domineering woman. However, seeing Beverly in action with Marcy and other characters, I really admire her take-charge attitude. She supports her daughter in a loving way, without being too pushy, so Marcy’s complaints about her mom seem like the exaggerated gripes of a teenager. Later in the book, Marcy appears either very naïve or very careless in her interactions with some of the characters on her short list of murder suspects. Meeting suspects alone and believing total strangers’ stories about who they are without ever asking for an ID or business card is not wise when you’re tracking down a murderer!

The book is the most fun when Marcy is conducting the actual investigation. She often gets help from her mom or Ted, and either pair makes a good detecting duo. On the other hand, for someone who is supposed to be her best friend, I don’t think Sadie is very supportive of Marcy. Maybe it’s because Sadie is dealing with some issues of her own, but I can’t see them happily working on cases together. Sadie comes across as a bit childish, pouting because Marcy is interested in Ted along with Todd, Sadie’s choice for her friend. I prefer Beverly or Ted as a partner for Marcy’s investigations. Both Beverly and Ted seem to bring out the best in Marcy’s detective skills and help to make this book a great choice for a rainy (or snowy) day inside. While this series is lighter in tone, fans of Debbie Macomber’s Blossom Street series will enjoy Stitch Me Deadly.

Reviewed by: Christine K.