Monday, August 31, 2015

Threads of Evidence - Review

Threads of Evidence (Mainely Needlepointers #2) by Lea Wait - Amazon link
Rating: 4 Stars
Source: NetGalley

Description:  It's hard to imagine anything bad ever happening in picturesque Haven Harbor, Maine - until a famous face rolls into town and unthreads some very dark secrets...
Angie Curtis and the Mainely Needlepointers are all too familiar with the Gardener estate.  The crumbling Victorian mansion, known as "Aurora" has been sitting vacant for nearly twenty-five years and some say it's haunted by the ghost of Jasmine Gardener, the teenage girl who died there in 1970 under mysterious circumstances...
Harbor Haven is abuzz with excitement when Hollywood actress Skye West decides to buy Aurora and sell off its furnishings.  And Angie is intrigued when Skye asks her to appraise the estate's sizable collection of needlepoint pictures.  But the more she examines the pieces, the more they seem to point toward Jasmine's murder - and the murderer - and it's up to her to stitch the clues together.  (Goodreads)

Genre: Mystery

Why I Picked This Book:  I loved the first book in the series and can never resist a crumbling mansion and a 40 year old murder!

My Impression:  I really loved the first book in the series and I love that once again Wait has given us a mystery with connections to the past.  In this case the mystery was fascinating and I loved getting to poke around Aurora with Sarah and Angie.  The pace was good and it didn't feel like it was dragging or too slow at any point.  As for the mystery itself not only is it a case of whodunnit but also was there even a crime committed.  As the interviews proceed there are countless suspects but also plenty of reasons to think that it was just an accident.
It was fun to see Angie's life in Haven Harbor proceeding and her settling in more.  I liked seeing her grandmother though she is a much smaller part in this book.  Getting to meet more of the Harbor Haven residents was nice and I especially enjoyed seeing Dave, the science teacher with the poison garden again.
The only thing that didn't work for me was some of Angie's personality quirks.  She seems a little more immature and emotional than she did in the first book but what really didn't work for me was her drinking.  It wasn't that she was drinking it was the amount she TALKED about drinking.  It was a bit like being around a teenager who has recently gotten access to alcohol and talks about it all the time.  I'm hoping this doesn't become an issue in future books as there are some hints that she may have a problem.

Would I Read More of this Series/Author?: Definitely!  Can I go on and sign up for book 3?

Would I Recommend this Book?:  If you enjoy a cozy mystery this is a series not to be missed and if you have any interest in needlepoint at all I think you'll really love it.

Challenges Met?

10 comments:

  1. I'm not usually a cozy mystery fan but I do like series very much. Cool puns on the needlepoint theme - "threading" . That's clever. I do love a mystery.

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  2. Thanks for introducing me to a new cozy series...I'm always excited to find one.

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  3. Sounds really good - I am hopeless at picking the murder, just about always get it wrong! If I read a cozy mystery it is usually ones related to my interests because it makes them that much more fun.

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  4. Despite the drink talk and personality quirks, it sounds good. Maybe the library will have it.

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  5. This sounds like a fun little mystery. How old is Angie supposed to be?

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  6. I enjoyed this one but the drinking thing bothered me as well. It was just so weird compared to the first book, it was like were did all this drinking and talking about drinking come from. :( But I am ready for book three! :)

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  7. I love needlepoint ;) The series looks good and who could resist a picturesque harbor in Maine ? Great review, Katherine !

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  8. Oh, that is unfortunate that the main character changed like that. I hope the next book returns things. That would annoy me, although the mystery/crime sounds interesting.

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  9. Glad you have yet another cozy mystery series you want to devour. :)
    The alcohol thing is something that can turn me off. Unless it is a book centering around addiction or really part of the characters story, I can't handle when alcohol becomes something the character always has to bring back to. It's like you said, it's a teenager thinking that everything revolves around having a drink. :/
    Happy reading!
    Brittany @ This is the Story of My(Reading) Life

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