Strangers on a Skein

Canadeo’s pleasing 12th knitting mystery (after 2019’s Hounds of the Basket Stitch) finds Maggie Messina, the owner of the Black Sheep & Company knitting shop in Plum Harbor, Mass., and her fellow knitters helping Phoebe , the shop’s assistant manager, organize her own stall at the town’s Farmers’ and Crafts Market. Phoebe is nervous about her first solo venture into retail and a little creeped out that the vacancy came about because farmer Jimmy Hooper, a longtime vendor at the market, died by suicide. It also doesn’t help that her former beau, Harry McSweeney (aka Harry the Potter), has set up his ceramics stall opposite her location. The market seems to be a hive of grudges and petty wranglings, and Phoebe becomes the victim of heinous pranks. When it turns out Jimmy was murdered and another vendor dies, the knitters band together to do what they do best (besides knitting, that is): investigate. The sufficiently complicated plot unfolds at a steady pace. Series fans will be over the moon at the long-awaited wedding that concludes this entry. Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary. (Nov.)