This was the second entry in the Someday Quilts mystery series. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as its predecessor, The Lover's Knot, but it was still compelling and worth reading. The way Nell discovered the murderer was a bit strained and didn't quite make sense to me, but it was a happy enough resolution. I'm not totally pleased with the outcome for Nell and her sort-of boyfriend, Jesse, but I have a feeling that will be rectified in the next volume. ( )

This is not your ordinary craft-and-mystery book. O'Donohue takes the genre to respectable heights with interesting characters and a nicely moving pace. The sense of place that she leaves the reader with is well done.

No I haven't started drinking to excess...although....
This is actually a quilt pattern and the title of a terrific, new to me author, Clare O'Donohue, part of her cozy series, The Someday Quilts Mysteries. There is nothing like a cozy, and a quilt on a cold and windy night.

Nell Fitzgerald, aspiring artist, beginning quilter, and amateur sleuth, is stood up on her first date with Jesse DeWalt, Police Chief of Archers Rest, the small town where she has relocated and is living with her grandmother. Of course the the dead girl in the river might have something to do with it. Romance, murder and quilting don't sound like they would be a good match, but O'Donohue makes it work. I also learn a little about quilting, something I always wanted to learn, but never did.

A cozy mystery along the lines of the Teashop Mysteries, and the Coffee House Mysteries, this is a charming entry to the genre. Though I was pretty sure I knew who did it, the story was fun and fast paced. The characters, were believable, and I wanted to know what would happen next in their personal lives. I always think it's not the destination, it's the journey that counts.

If you find yourself getting chilly, curl up with a cozy Quilting Mystery, and it will warm you up!

I got this book at the Library! ( )

This is the second in the Someday Quilts series from Clare O’Donohue. In the first novel, after a failed engagement Nell Fitzgerald moves from her high pressure publishing job in New York to work in her grandmother’s quilt shop in Archer’s Rest and gets caught up in a murder. In the second book Nell is finally pursuing her dream to become an artist. She has enrolled in art classes under a famous artist, Oliver White. Oliver is not only a hit with the local art world, but also with Nell’s grandmother. Everything is going swimmingly until a series of murders bring up secrets from Oliver’s past. Nell’s need to protect her grandmother and stick her nose into everything gets her involved in the investigation to the detriment of her romance with the local sheriff. This book has everything from insights into art to a crack team of quilters turned amateur detectives. ( )

Art student Nell Fitzgerals is out to help solve the mystery of a woman murdered at her grandmothers back door.
Humor and complexity follow Nell and her quilting friends through a maze that leads them to more questions and puzzles while chasing clues.
I enjoyed the book, I think both quilters and mystery afficianados will too. ( )