Dyeing Wishes by Molly MacRae

First Line: "Where are the lambs?" Ernestine asked when she and I caught up to the rest of our group at the pasture fence.

Kath Rutledge and other TGIF (Thank Goodness It's Fiber) group members are visiting Cloud Hollow Farm to learn more about the techniques of dyeing. Before the classes start, the women gather by the pasture fence to look at the ewes and lambs, but all they can see are sheep rumps-- the sheep are much more interested in something else. When Kath treks over to investigate, she finds two bodies under a tree, and one of the bodies is someone they all know. With the police convinced that it's a murder-suicide, Kath's friends encourage her to do her own investigating-- even Geneva, Kath's television-addicted ghost who lives in her attic. 

Molly MacRae's Haunted Yarn Shop cozy series is one that I've fast learned to enjoy for its cast of characters, its humor, and its primary setting of a yarn shop in which I can browse to my heart's content without obliterating my budget.

Yes, the mystery part is solid, but oh how MacRae's characters shine! She's assembled a cast that should fuel the series for quite a while. In the first book I tended to think Geneva the ghost was a pain in the neck that dragged the book down a bit, but although she's still a pill in Dyeing Wishes, she starts taking an interest in something other than herself and I began to soften towards her. Geneva drives Kath batty with her constant references to television programs, so Kath decides to wean her away from the boob tube-- and her solution will make any reader laugh and want to give Kath a high five.

Another thing I enjoy so much in these books is the wordplay-- for example, when Deputy Cole Dunbar refers to the Friday Fast and Furious knitting group as "the frantic and flabbergasted." MacRae slips these into the story stealthily, so beware: drink at your own peril.

If I have any little quibble at all with this book, I'd like to have seen more fiber in the storyline-- and I'm talking fabric, not food. If you're in the mood for interesting characters and a mystery laced with humor, I recommend heading down to Tennessee to visit with Kath Rutledge at her shop, the Weaver's Cat.

Dyeing Wishes by Molly MacRae

ISBN: 9780451239563

Obsidian © 2013

Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages

Cozy Mystery, #2 Haunted Yarn Shop mystery

Rating: B+

Source: Purchased at The Poisoned Pen 

Last Wool and Testament by Molly MacRae

First Line: It wasn't how I'd planned to spend my thirty-ninth birthday, driving like a crazed woman from Richmond, Virginia, to a cemetery in the mountains of east Tennessee.

Kath Rutledge, textile preservationist for the state of Illinois, is driving like a crazed woman because she's trying not to miss the funeral of her beloved grandmother, Ivy McClellan. She almost doesn't make it, thanks to Cole Dunbar, who unfortunately is the type of police officer anyone would dearly love to punch in the nose.

After the funeral, Kath goes to her grandmother's popular fiber and fabric shop, the Weaver's Cat, where many of Ivy's friends have gathered to honor her memory. Most of those attending belong to a group of fiber and needlework artists known as TGIF (Thank Goodness It's Fiber). Afterwards Kath goes to her grandmother's cottage, fully expecting to stay there while she wraps up Ivy's affairs. However, the locks have been changed. It seems that Ivy didn't own her home, and the new owner has it locked up tighter than a drum until he gets the rent he's owed. Or so he says.

An acquaintance gives Kath an alternate place to stay, and it's not until the next day that she learns that the previous tenant, Emmett Cobb, was murdered-- and Kath's grandmother is the prime suspect. Even though this cake doesn't need any icing, Kath gets it anyway: the cabin where she's staying has another occupant-- a gloomy ghost who is just as motivated as Kath when it comes to finding Emmett Cobb's killer.

Life in a small town in east Tennessee is lovingly described in Last Wool and Testament, as are its residents. MacRae has the perfect setting and a wonderful cast for her new series, and if you aren't exactly a fan of paranormal mysteries, feel free to give this one a try anyway. The paranormal angle is done with a very light touch, and the ghost is more of a monumental pain in the neck than she is otherworldly.

I enjoyed myself becoming acquainted with the cast of characters (well... with the exception of Cole Dunbar; I really did want to punch that guy in the nose),  and my candidate for whodunit changed from time to time until close to the end when one character's behavior set off my inner alarm system.

I savored all the information about textiles throughout the book, and although I normally ignore patterns or recipes in the backs of cozy mysteries, I have to admit that-- although the knitting pattern for a baby/toddler's hat didn't do much for me, the recipe for  Rosemary Watermelon Lemonade made my taste buds sit up and beg.

Good setting, good characters, good food... and fiber and fabric, too. Last Wool and Testament is a wonderful beginning to a new series.

Last Wool and Testament by Molly MacRae

ISBN: 9780451237828

Signet © 2012

Mass Market Paperback, 352 pages

Cozy Mystery, #1 Haunted Yarn Shop

Rating: B+

Source: Purchased at The Poisoned Pen