cover image The Wedding Shawl: A Seaside Knitters Mystery

The Wedding Shawl: A Seaside Knitters Mystery

Sally Goldenbaum. NAL/Obsidian, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-451-23319-6

The convincing interplay among the members of the Sea Harbor, Mass., knitting group offsets the run-of-the-mill detecting in Goldenbaum's fifth Seaside Knitters mystery (after 2010's A Holiday Yarn). One night at the local bookstore, mystery author Danny Brandley joins Izzy Chambers and friends, who convene every third Tuesday to knit and discuss mystery novels, to talk about writing. Brandley, after revealing that he draws his plots from real life, provides an example that hits close to home. Fifteen years earlier, the community was rattled by the death of high school graduate Harmony Farrow, who drowned in a quarry under circumstances that suggested foul play. An accidental eavesdropper directly connected to the Farrow case overhears the conversation. After another murder%E2%80%94that of hair stylist Tiffany Ciccolo%E2%80%94the cold case heats up. Once the culprit is identified, the characters rebound from the shock improbably quickly, even for a cozy. (May)