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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780425175118
ISBN number: 0425175111
Label: Berkley
Manufacturer: Berkley
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 256
Printing Date: July 01, 2000
Publishing house: Berkley
Release Date: July 10, 2000
Sale Popularity Level: 97852
Studio: Berkley
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
When a damaged tapestry is discovered in a small-town church closet, needleworkers join to stitch together the clues which lead to a crafty crime.
'Entertaining...Fans of Jessica Fletcher will devour this book.'-Rendezvous
3rd Needlecraft Mystery-includes a free cross-stitch pattern!
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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The story was interesting but a bit long. It would have made a good short story.
Rated by buyers -
This was the very first Needlecraft Mystery that I figured out before the book was halfway done. While it's still well-written and entertaining, I did find it a bit transparent (and, at the same time, confusing!). There were a lot of new characters introduced, and I had trouble keeping them and their stories straight. All the same, a great read.
Rated by buyers 
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This is my second book in the series, and I think I liked it better than the very first that I read (Cutwork). This is definitely a women's mystery (or men who do needle crafts). Set around Christmas time in frozen Minnesota, the plot involves an incomplete and mildewed tapestry found in a church. The tapestry was clearly the work of the previous rector's wife -- she died of a heart attack and didn't finish it -- and he suffered a severe stroke and is in a nursing home. Betsy, who has inherited a needlecraft store in this cozy little Minnesota town (you can really picture it from the descriptions), is asked to contribute some wool to complete it. When she goes to inspect it, she notices some unusual details that intrigue her.
Shortly afterwords, Betsy ends up stuck in a ditch -- is it an accident? If not, what's going on?
I look forward to reading more in this series. This was a book that whenever I had to put it down and go to work, I looked forward to getting back to.
Rated by buyers -
It's the Christmas Season and everything should be cheery. Betsy Devonshire is still recovering from the murder of her sister Margot and is trying to get into the Holiday mood by immersing herself in her work at Crewel World, the needlecraft shop that Margot had left her. She also left Betsy several million dollars, but the estate is still being settled.
Things are really buzzing a Trinity Episcopal Church, where renovations are underway. Hidden away in a room, they come across a huge tapestry that had been completed by Lucy Abrams, wife of the former rector, Keane.
Just before retiring, Keane had collapsed from a major stroke and Lucy had a fatal stroke as she tried to help him up from the floor. The current rector of the church, John Rettger is thinking about naming a room after the Keane, who now resides in a nursing home, unable to move or communicate.
It's decided that along with naming a room after Keane, they will restore the tapestry and hang it on the wall as a tribute to the late Lucy. Betsy volunteers to donate all the supplies necessary to repair the tapestry and while looking it over, (Worrying because she hadn't anticipated there would be so much work, or that it was so big), she notices little icons sewn onto the tapestry. Betsy wonders if they have some meaning and copies several of them down and borrows a book of Icons for John Rettger to try and decipher them.
Deciphering icons doesn't seem as important when Betsy has an accident while driving in a blizzard and having to spend the night in a freezing car, where she learns the important lesson of why people in Minnesota always have a survival kit in their car. When it's discovered that the brake line was cut, Betsy starts to worry, and then when she suffers arsenic poisoning and her building catches on fire, she begins to wonder if someone is trying to kill her.
There's no lack of suspects. Maybe Joe Mickels has decided to get her out of the building once and for all. Then there's Hal "The Pig" Norman, Betsy's ex-husband, whose last coed girlfriend turned him into the college and he's now jobless and homeless and swears undying love for Betsy and really, really wants to get back together with her. Does the fact that she is about to inherit millions have anything to do with it, and what about the will she had written shortly after their marriage where she left everything to him. Was that still valid.
Or did it have something to do with the tapestry? Especially when all Betsy's notes and then the tapestry itself disappears. Would she be able to solve this mystery before she finally ends up dead?
Highlights:
The supporting characters are wonderful Jill Cross & Mike Malloy, who are police officers. The Tuesday Bunch - a group of needle crafters, who get together on Monday's in Crewel World to do needlework. Even Joe Mickel is likeable.
Goodwin - her full time employee who knows everyone and everything and has an obnoxious boyfriend John.
Hal "The Pig" arriving at Betsy apartment with a Christmas Tree. (I was reading this part at break and couldn't quit laughing. My office mates thought I was nuts).
Lowlights:
The mystery. No murder. The reason behind the attempts on Betsy's life are lame. There was no reason for anyone to know the mystery that was trying to be hidden and a few words to Betsy would have stopped everything. It just seemed ridiculous.
But I enjoyed the book right up to the ridiculous ending, so it's not a waste of time.
Have already started Unraveled Sleeve.
Rated by buyers -
This book is appealing to stitchers, but not so much for real mystery fans. It's a passable book, not totally predictable, but in some areas seems a bit forced. Still, as big fan of needlework, it's always exciting for me to read about it, particularly to see it combined with a cozy mystery.
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