Knit One Kill Two

This is the first in the Knitting Mysteries by Maggie Sefton

Kelly Flynn, accountant and financial planner, returns to the small town in Colorado where she was raised to bury her murdered aunt and see to the estate. While trying to settle her aunt's finances, she discovers a large loan that was taken out without Kelly's knowledge. Kelly gets involved with her aunt's knitting friends, who help give her insight into the life her aunt lived in recent years.

The mystery in this cozy is first-rate. Sefton had me guessing pretty much up to the end. There was also a pretty hefty body count, given that it is a cozy. The main characters—the ones integral to solving the crime—are quite well-written. There are a ton of characters, and I see now why my critique group complains about that. They can be hard to sort out.

Which leads to picking nits. Many of the knitting store regulars are interchangeable. That is until I realized that they fall into the different female stereotypes: The Party Girl, The Tomboy/Athlete, The Homemaker, The Dithery Old Lady, The Imperious Old Lady, etc. And Kelly always seems to be a step behind the reader, which can get annoying. I like to be neck and neck with the protagonist.

Some of the knitting scenes seem off to me, but that just be how I was taught to knit. I don't work on one sleeve at a time--it's easy to end up with different length sleeves that way. My teacher had me use two balls of yard and knit both sleeves together on the same needle. Most people probably won’t care.

This was truly a fun read. I've since read the next five books in the series (those reviews to follow). There are two more in hardcover. Since this writer is on a budget, I’ll have to wait until the paperback versions come out. Something to look forward to.