A Crafter Quilts a Crime: A Handcrafted Mystery

Quinn’s energetic third Handcrafted mystery (after 2019’s A Crafter Hooks a Killer) opens on a January night in Heartsford, Wis., during the annual Fire and Ice event, when all the stores stay open until midnight. This year, Samantha “Sammy” Kane, owner of Community Craft, is holding a live mannequin contest in her shop window, but her plans go seriously awry when her first “mannequin,” Wanda Wadsworth, quietly dies in the display window, holding a quilt in her lap. Det. Liam Nash, the aloof widower whom Sammy really wants to know better, is on the case. But when Sammy, her cousin Heidi, and sister, Ellie, pay a condolence call on Wanda’s brother, Jackson, and notice that the design painted on his barn matches one of the blocks on Wanda’s quilt, they decide this is a case for S.H.E., the detective agency the three women formed in childhood. With a charming small-town setting, recipes, a crosswise romance, plucky amateur sleuths who can’t resist getting involved, and a lovable pooch, this book is just the ticket for lovers of crafting cozies. Agent: Sandy Harding, Spencerhill Assoc. (Feb.)