OLD MAID’S PUZZLE

A computer expert turned quilt-shop owner fights for the survival of her store.

Dewey Pellicano inherited Quilter Paradiso from her mother (Wild Goose Chase, 2008)—much to the dismay of her sister-in-law Kym, who thinks she could do a better job and is willing to sabotage Dewey to prove it. The bottom line is plunging toward red when Dewey gets a lucky break. Quilter Paradiso is about to be featured on a national TV show right before a huge 20th-anniversary sale that will make or break the store. On the domestic front, Dewey’s romance with an old family friend, police detective Buster Healy, is complicated by Buster’s determination to abstain from sex until they get to know each other better. Her mother’s coterie of quilting buddies help out any way they can, even trying to teach Dewey to quilt, but tension between her two old friends Gussie and Celeste over a likely con artist becomes another source of anxiety. All these problems are eclipsed when a man’s found dead in the alley behind the store. In addition to preparing for the big sale, fending off Kym’s disastrous ideas and helping her mother’s old pals, Dewey must now solve a murder.

An enjoyable piece of fluff.