Seams Like Murder is the first book in The Sewing Studio Mystery series by Dorothy Howell.

Abbey has been suspended from her job in Los Angles and has decided to head to Hideaway Grove to spend time with her Aunt Sarah. Sarah runs Sarah’s Sweet’s, known for delicious cookies and cakes. Abbey drops by the store, and Sarah suggests that Abbey head over to her house, get cleaned up, and maybe a nap. First, Abbey is helping her aunt take the trash to the dumpster when she hears a loud noise and a woman scream. They head for the screaming woman, Earline, commenting that a car hit Iris Duncan, the new librarian in town, and kept on going. Sheriff Grumman comes to investigate and determines that it was an accident, not murder, as Earling claimed. Later, Grumman shows up and questions Abbey some more. Grumman ends up impounding Abbey’s car, as it matches the description of the vehicle that killed Iris. Later that day, she is introduced to Deputy Sheriff Zack McKenna, who refuses to offer Abbey any information on the investigation. Naturally, he tells her not to get involved and to leave the investigation to the police.

Abbey soon realizes that to get her car back and clear her name, she must conduct her own investigation. Reportedly Iris had been seeing a man in the alley. Maybe he wanted to break off their relationship and decided to run her down. Abbey also learns that Iris was not as well-liked as some thought. She needs to look into Miss Merriweather, an eighty-year-old who drives through town recklessly and has a white car. There are others that she needs to look into.

A subplot to the book involves a room in the cookie shop that Sarah’s friend Gretchen used as a sewing room to make pillowcase dresses. These dresses were being sent to Africa for young girls. Gretchen had to leave to care for her sick daughter and grandchildren. Everybody is pushing Abbey to take over making the dresses. But Abbey remembers, all too well, her attempt to make a skirt one summer during her teen years.

Instructions and tips for sewing pillowcase dresses are also included in the book. ( )

I received an advance copy via NetGalley.

This cozy mystery is set in the fictional California town of Hideaway Hollow, an owl-obsessed small town packed with gossip and primed for murder. Abbey visited her baker aunt there during her childhood summers, but now has rolled up in town, fleeing Los Angeles and an embarrassing incident at work that's left her mortified. Upon arrival, she encounters a hit and run accident that leaves a local librarian dead. When her car's bumper dent makes her a suspect and causes her vehicle to be taken by the police, she busies her days trying to solve the suspicious death so she can leave--and in the meantime is embroiled in small town gossip and volunteer work.

The set up is great, but the execution didn't click for me. So many of the major aspects of the mystery felt forced. The way Abbey is regarded as a suspect doesn't make sense to me as a reader or even to anyone in the book, but managed to trap her in town. She doesn't do anything to try to get her old job back--that situation escalates on its own. She doesn't even want to start the sewing studio, but is horned into it by busybodies who ignored every word she said. I felt more frustrated as I read, and didn't feel satisfied at the end when my prime suspect from the start ended up being guilty. ( )

Seams Like Murder by Dorothy Howell is the debut of A Sewing Studio Mystery series. I found the story easy to read. While we get to know some details about our main character, I felt the others lacked development. The story is told in the first person which has readers privy to all of Abbey’s thoughts (the job in LA, bakery smells good, when will she get her car back, and the hunky deputy sheriff is so cute). The pacing of the story picks up late in the second half when Abbey begins questioning people. The whodunit was straightforward. A woman is run over in an alley. Sheriff Grumman believes it is an accident despite the statement from the eyewitness. He does believe her when she tells him it was a white car which has him focusing on Abbey’s car. I found this baffling since she was new to town, did not know the victim, and was inside the bakery at the time of the incident. The rude and idiotic Sheriff Grumman then impounds Abbey’s car without a warrant (I know it is fiction but come on). Identifying the killer is a cinch. There might as well as been a neon arrow with killer on it pointing at the person. The why was easy to deduce. Abbey went around asking questions. All the pieces come together for Abbey in the end. I did feel there was a little too much romance. I wish the author had let Abbey and Zach (the deputy sheriff) become friends and then as the series progresses work towards romance. Instead, Abbey finds him attractive, her heart beats faster at the sight of him, his touch sends zings through her system, and so on. There is some repetition as well as some mild foul language. There was a lot of focus on pillowcase dresses which were being made for children in Africa (Little Dresses for Africa). It was interesting learning about the cause and how the dresses are assembled. There are instructions and tips at the end of the book. Seams Like Murder is a crafty cozy with a plowed down librarian, a disagreeable sheriff, scrumptious cookies, a sewing studio, a confiscated car, a striking deputy sheriff, darling dresses, and a fun festival. ( )

small-business, small-town, charity, sewing, law-enforcement, amateur-sleuth, romantic, relatives, new-series, new-skills, cozy-mystery, murder, murder-investigation, friendship****

Abbey's job in LA tanks suddenly and she abruptly moves to the small town where she visited her aunt as a child. On the first day, they find the body of the new librarian after a hit and run. Abbey's car is impounded as suspect, she meets the hunky deputy, and the sleuthing begins. Looks like a good start to a new series!
I requested and received a free e-book copy from Kensington Books/Kensington Cozies via NetGalley. Thank you ( )