SKEIN OF THE CRIME

A CPA adds sleuthing to her hobbies of softball and knitting as she probes the drug-related death of a troubled young woman.

Ever since the night Holly Kaiser wandered into her backyard, stoned out of her gourd, Kelly Flynn (Dropped Dead Stitch, 2009, etc.) has hoped Holly’s life would improve. For a while it looks as if she’ll get her wish. Holly becomes a regular at House of Lambspun, where her med student boyfriend Tommy Macenroe’s mother Barbara gives classes and owner Mimi Shafer offers motherly guidance to all. But soon Holly’s found on the river trail, dead of an overdose of pain pills. Kelly takes time from untangling alpaca rancher Jayleen Swinson’s finances and helping softball teammate Megan Smith find a wedding dress devoid of ruffles, lace or tulle to find out who gave Holly the fatal opiates. She asks Tommy’s childhood friend Patty, who’s still taking classes at the university, to check out the Fort Connor party scene. Patty reports a fight between Holly and Rachel Gebbard, Tommy’s former girlfriend, the night of Holly’s death. She also accuses Holly of cheating on Tommy with a mystery man named Eddie. As the intrigue grows, Kelly’s relationship with live-in boyfriend Steve Townsend, whose real-estate projects are in the tank since the economy soured, unravels faster than a sweater with a dropped stitch.

Sefton’s latest cozy is more a fair isle than a tweed, as booze, clues and wedding-bell blues alternate rather than blend with the domestic drama.