Publishers have suggested that the cozy Embroidery Murder series by Amanda Lee, has the potential to keep readers itching and stitching for more, and they’re probably correct in that assumption.

The Quick and the Thread is the first book published in 2010 in this series – the last is Better Off Thread published in 2016.  There are eight other books in this cozy mystery series where the key classic components of a mystery novel are maintained – suspense, misdirection, intrigue, along with a degree of criminality yet most violence is taken off-stage.  The cozy genre also includes an amateur sleuth, such as our embroidery shop owner.

So setting the story in a newly opened embroidery store in a small town where everyone knows everyone else makes a perfect setting to kick-start this series – and our amateur sleuth/heroine is the shop owner Marcy Singer.

Finding a body in her storeroom the morning after the grand opening celebration for her store leads Marcy to investigate to help clear herself as a suspect.

And the clues begin with a cryptic message etched into the storeroom wall with a tapestry needle.

Small-town personalities come into play, friendships are tested, and there’s just a smidgeon of romance.

Embroidery features in this fairly fast-paced novel, making it an entertaining read.

Amanda Lee is a pseudonym used by the celebrated mystery writer Gayle Trent, to pen the cozy mystery series named The Embroidery Mystery series.

Published by New American Library, a division of Penguin Group, New York, 2010, the book is also available on Kindle.