Happy Friday, and more importantly, happy Fiber Arts Fiction Friday! This week we’re returning to Tallulah Falls, Oregon, and Marcy Singer’s embroidery shop, The Seven Year Stitch. Stitch Me Deadly is the second book in this embroidery mystery series from Amanda Lee.
Synopsis (Story Details Below, But No Major Spoilers)
Marcy Singer’s embroidery shop is continuing to flourish and grow, despite its troubled start when the former tenant was found dead in the storeroom. However, trouble has once again found its way back to the shop when an elderly woman (Louise Ralston) visits the shop with an unusual embroidery sampler and then suddenly collapses to the floor! Marcy calls for the paramedics immediately, but it’s too late for Mrs. Ralson and she dies at the hospital.
The detectives working the case, including one of Mary’s beaus, Ted Nash, rule the death a homicide and immediately start investigating. As is always the case with an unexpected death, everyone’s a suspect, including Marcy. The police search her store and her home, finding a bottle of pills that match the what they found in Mrs. Ralston’s stomach. Marcy denies knowing anything about the pills, but she remains at the top of their suspect list.
Marcy throws on her own detective hat, determined to clear her good name. She discovers that her mother left the pills in her guest room during a recent visit, having picked them up inadvertently from one of her celebrity movie design clients. Marcy has to convince the police that is just a coincidence, and that she had nothing to do with either the pills or the murder of Mrs. Ralston.
She also continues to work towards unraveling the mystery of the embroidery sampler that Mrs. Ralston carried into the shop on the day of her untimely death. Who or what was the “ivy” that Mrs. Ralston spoke of, and why was the quote on the sampler clearly picked out and a new one added? One thing is for sure; there’s more than meets the eye with the sampler and its history.
My Review
I enjoyed this second book in this embroidery mystery series! While there were a few points where the story felt like it wasn’t moving forward quickly, the plot lines did wrap up and come to a satisfying conclusion by the end of the novel. In this novel, we continue to get to know the other residents of Tallulah Falls better, including the two men competing for Marcy’s attention: Ted and Todd. I expect that as the series continues, we’ll get to know more of the residents; especially those who have businesses nearby The Seven Year Sttich in in downtown Tallulah Falls!
Final Thoughts
Stitch Me Deadly was a fast and light read that continued to keep the embroidery shop at the front and center of the story. Even when the plot seemed to stagnate, the characters kept me interested in pushing forward through the novel. I ended the book ready to dive into the next one, Thread Reckoning, to see what adventures Marcy faces next!
Ready to dive into Stitch Me Deadly? Grab your copy on Amazon here.
Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.
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