This week for Fiber Arts Fiction Friday we turn again to Arlene Sachitano’s Harriet Truman/Loose Threads Mystery series with the second book: Quilter’s Knot.
Synopsis (Story Details Below, But No Major Spoilers)
Harriet Truman has finally decided to stay in Foggy Point, Washington for good and run the quilt longarming business that her Aunt Beth gave to her. Embracing her new home, she signs up to join the other members of the Loose Threads quilters at a weeklong quilt camp held nearby at the Angel Harbor Folk Art School.
The Loose Threads quilters arrive at the school and one of their first activities is viewing an exhibition that features work by one of their own members, Lauren. However, Aunt Beth recognizes Lauren’s quilt designs from a gallery she visited in Europe during her recent cruise trip! Lauren insists that her work is her own and that the founder and teacher of the school, Selestina Bainbridge, is the one committing the plagiarism and fraud. Lauren insists that Harriet get involved with solving the mystery of the copied quilt and clearing Lauren’s name.
Although an excellent fiber artist and teacher, Selestina is a hard woman to like. She’s mean to her students from the get-go and doesn’t appear to have a kind word for anyone. Despite her dislike of Selestina, Harriet is shocked and saddened when she is undertaken by an illness right in the middle of a quilting class! Although she’s taken to the hospital right away, Selestina dies. Although it first looks like a heart attack, it’s soon revealed that poison killed Selestina.
Lauren quickly becomes one of the prime suspects of the Angel Harbor police force due in part to her outspoken dislike of Selestina and her open accusations of plagiarism. Again, she insists that Harriet be the one to help prove her innocence for both the murder of Selestina and the rightful creator of the quilt design.
As in the first book, Quilt as Desired, Harriet has no shortage of men who are interested in her affections! Aiden Jalbert, the veterinarian who has recently returned to Foggy Point, just happens to be in Angel Harbor to conduct a spay-and-neuter veterinary clinic. He invites Harriet out to dinner one night but then stands her up, leaving Tom Bainbridge to swoop in and take Harriet out to dinner on his own. As the only son of Selestina, his life is also wrapped up in the Angel Harbor Folk Art School.
Harriet and her friends continue to run into danger at every turn. Harriet must be on to something related to either the plagiarism or Selena’s murder, but she doesn’t know what that could be! Aiden is run off the road by someone who believes Harriet was in the car with him, and she is trapped in a building that appears to be on fire. Although Harriet escapes unharmed, it’s clear that someone was trying to hurt her. Meanwhile, Lauren has disappeared and is hiding from the police, leaving Harriet wondering if she’ll be able to solve this mystery in time to keep her and her friends safe!
My Review
I quite enjoyed this second book in the Harriet Truman/Loose Threads Mystery series! It was nice to see Harriet really start to settle into her new home and get to know the women of the Loose Threads quilters better. I also loved the setting of the Angel Harbor Folk Art School, and went straight to my computer to research real-life quilting and folk-art schools!
I also liked that this book touched on a serious issue that happens more often than we realize in the quilting world: plagiarism. Although it’s true that many “traditional” quilting blocks will look the same no matter who makes them, this story emphasizes that each and every quilter can bring her own unique talents and techniques to truly make a quilt her own. There is no need to copy the work of another to try and get ahead, we just have to tap into the pool of talent that we each have.
Final Thoughts
Quilter’s Knot was another delightful quilting fiction read. I loved getting to know more about Harriet and really enjoyed the setting of the folk art school. I’m looking forward to continuing to read the next 11 books in this fun series!
Want to grab your own copy of Quilter’s Knot? Find it on Amazon here.
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