Carol Ann Martin

Della Wright has switched homes with her childhood friend Matthew, due to a scandal at her workplace where she was once suspected of embezzling but was cleared when it was discovered that the culprit was in actuality her boss. She's decided to pursue her dream of a weaving studio where she will also sell her wares. But in order to get it off the ground, her first step is in offering classes.

The people who show up are an assorted group who seem interested. She discovers that one of them - David Swanson - has no desire to learn to weave, but is doing so as part of community service, and they're making baby blankets for charity. She also learns he's a real estate agent, which comes in handy when she finds out things didn't work out as planned for Matthew and he's returning home.

When David is showing her a place she's interested in, they come across the reason for his community service: Jeremy, a man he'd recently had an argument with. To make it worse, the man is with David's ex-wife, part of the reason for the argument. They leave abruptly, and later on David asks her if she's still interested in seeing the building. When Della agrees and they enter the apartment above the store they both get a surprise: Jeremy's body, covered in blood. In her haste to leave Della takes a tumble and sprains her ankle.

While the police think David is the murderer, Della's not so sure and offers up the help of Matthew and resolves to find the killer. But in doing so will she be endangering her own life or the life of someone she cares about?...

I enjoyed this book to an extent, but there were some things that stopped me. For instance: Della sprains her ankle and the head cop Mike tells another officer to take her to the hospital. Why? There was an ambulance right there for Jeremy that they didn't need when it was discovered he was dead - but they send it away. Wouldn't it have been easier just to send her in the ambulance?

Secondly, she was a financial adviser but is lacking in cash. Why didn't she have a savings account? I really tire of reading these books where the protagonist always has a nice career but never has any money. Why is she broke? It doesn't make any sense. Was she dumping all her cash into her condo? Why keep the job if you're only making enough to make ends meet? (She's not working at a convenience store; she has a career that should pay a decent wage - just once I'd like to read a book where the woman actually knows how to manage money and has a healthy bank account when she starts a new business). It actually doesn't make any sense to start a new business if you don't have any money, if you think about it.

Then there's the fact that she likes Matthew and Matthew likes her. They're 35 and 37 years old, but are pussyfooting around like teenagers. They have romantic feelings but won't act on them and it comes off as rather ridiculous and because of this misunderstandings ensue.

Also because of this Matthew moves in with Jenny (temporarily, I gather). Supposedly it was pivotal to the plot point, but it didn't have to be. Things could have progressed exactly the same with him living in his own house. I do recall that he mentioned Della should stay in his spare bedroom anyway, so it didn't make sense to me.

Aside from this, I also didn't get a feeling about the type of person Della was or what she or Matthew looked like. The author made a point of describing everyone coming to the weaving class, but all we learned about Della is that she's short. There's nothing about her personality to make anyone connect with her, either. She doesn't cook which seems odd since she's in her thirties; I mean, honestly, why do all these women never know how to cook? They should at least be able to make the basics - meat loaf, pork chops, roasts, etc.; those are not difficult things to do. No one is expecting them to make Bouillabaisse.

As you can see, I wasn't enthralled by the characters, but it wasn't a terrible book, either. It was fairly on the average scale. I'm hoping the next in the series will be better. In the end, when the murderer was discovered, it seemed rather ho-hum; it was a different conclusion than the usual which is the reason I give it three stars.… (altro)

This first in a new series started off really strong, and I thought "yay!" a new series to get excited about. But from there - well, it sort of fell apart. Not completely - it was still a good enough read, but not nearly as good as it's potential.

First, the setting is excellent; small town, at the base of the blue ridge mountains. Most of the action takes place in only two places, so there's not much of a mind map setup, but it wasn't really missed and didn't detract from the story.

Next, the characters. We start with a charity weaving night that introduces us to the main characters and coincidentally, the suspects. I really liked the female dynamic and was all set for a good 'friendship' setup for the series. But Della spends most of the book talking down to her "closest" new friend, Jenny, someone who believes she can read aura's and tarot. Della treats her as a bit of a silly child because of this, and it hurts the book. Della was supposed to have been a Financial Analyst in her previous life, but seems to have no money of her own and needs to take advice from the men in her life about her own financial decisions. Plus, I was over hearing about the damn high heels. Marnie is introduced as a bit of a shrew, but then becomes likeable as the book progresses. And the final female character, Dolores, is portrayed as a nasty, scheming piece of work until the last third of the book where she becomes a bit of a hero in the piece. ?!?! And finally, Michael - the childhood friend/love interest: He is an Ass!!!! One minute he's talking to Della like she's a child and constantly nagging at her and the next, he's blushing and running away from her at the slightest provocation. WTF??? Total turn-off. All-in-all, the characters felt all over the place, I never knew how I was meant to feel about any of them (except Michael, whom I'm sure I am meant to like but really, I'd just like to kick him in the jewels...)

Finally, the plot. Very well done and wow, way to keep me completely distracted with lots of suspects and red herrings and then shock me at the end. Totally didn't have a clue until Della did. Excellent!

Not sure I'll read the next one or not - though I'll admit to finding the weaving bits very interesting. I'll have to see how I feel once the next book comes out.… (altro)

60 pages in and this book falls in the category of "life's too short and my TBR pile is too high". I haven't even gotten to the murder yet, but these characters are so unlikeable I find myself hoping for a mass lynching.

Della, the MC, starts off by calling Jane, her best friend, flaky because she believes in ESP and tarot and talks about how she wants to roll her eyes over Jane's "feelings". Della's love interest (who's also supposed to be her best friend since childhood) makes snide comments about how high her heels are, how bad a cook she is, and makes cracks about how she has to stick her nose into everything and "investigate".

I suspect the author is trying for snarky camaraderie but she's failing rather badly - I love snark and sarcasm, but this feels like a group of frenemies instead of the scooby gang. Disrespectful and unkind.

The first book in this series, Looming Murder started off so well, I remember being really excited about having another great series to look forward to. It all went downhill in the last part of that book, but I had my fingers crossed it was just a first-book-blip. Nope. Tapestry of Lies is worse, and if I'm hoping one of the MC's is the murder victim, it's time to walk away.… (altro)