I am so delighted today to provide a review for you at my blog stop for Thread Herrings (A Mainely Needlepoint Mystery) by Lea Wait on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour. Scroll down to enter your chance to win the Giveaway!
Thread Herrings (A Mainely Needlepoint Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
7th in Series
Kensington (October 30, 2018)
Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
ISBN-10: 149671671X
ISBN-13: 978-1496716712
Digital ASIN: B079KSZ92D
Angie’s first auction may turn out to be her last—when she bids on a coat of arms that someone would literally kill to possess . . .
Tagging along to an estate sale with her fellow Needlepointer, antiques shop owner Sarah Byrne, Angie Curtis impulsively bids on a tattered embroidery of a coat of arms. When she gets her prize back home to Haven Harbor, she discovers a document from 1757 behind the framed needlework—a claim for a child from a foundling hospital. Intrigued, Angie is determined to find the common thread between the child and the coat of arms.
Accepting her reporter friend Clem Walker’s invitation to talk about her find on the local TV news, Angie makes an appeal to anyone who might have information. Instead, both women receive death threats. When Clem is found shot to death in a parking lot, Angie fears her own life may be in jeopardy. She has to unravel this historical mystery—or she may be the next one going, going . . . gone . . .
This was my introduction to Lea Wait’s series and my first experience with the author and I must say it was an incredible journey! Ms. Wait really knows her antiques, the business, needlepoint, embroidery, and the remarkable history behind samplers and mourning art. The beginning of each chapter included an amazing recounting of a coat of arms embroidery (usually by a child), also noting some familial information including birth and death dates. I had no idea there was such a wealth of antiques out there that lovingly represents beautifully detailed pictograph ancestral histories.
Haven Harbor, Maine, protagonist Angie Curtis is invited by her antique shop owner buddy, Sarah Byrne, to accompany her to an auction. It will be her first experience with an auction and the author does a fine job of detailing procedures, standards, and setting up Angie to view and possibly bid on embroideries that would be perfect for her own Mainely Needlepoint shop. During the preview, Angie spies an embroidered coat of arms that catches her fancy, though heaven knows it’s in sad shape and easily won. It’s when Angie gets her prize home and removes the frame that she discovers a billet (receipt) for Charles from the London Foundling Hospital in 1757 on a lovingly embroidered ribbon. The billet is meant to match with the other half at the hospital in order to reclaim the child.
Granted, this is the seventh in the series, though I read it as a standalone, story-driven plot. Angie has no doubt been described in minute detail in previous books, along with her boyfriend Patrick, friend Sarah, and the members of the Mainely Needlepoint group who help to provide historical and genealogical information, including Ruth and her grandmother (the latter of whom raised her). A former classmate, Clem Walker, is a TV personality who persuades her to appeal to the public for information regarding the mysterious child, Charles, since the embroidery offers no further hints to the child or family. Fascinated, Angie begins to research and investigate.
Unfortunately, it isn’t long before they both receive death threats and shortly Clem is murdered and her grandmother’s new hubby injured when he attempts to move her car. Angie is forced into hiding on the advice of Pete Lambert, Haven Harbor’s Police Chief and State Police Officer (Homicide) Ethan Trask. She takes her kitty and finds a semi-safe harbor with Patrick and his kitty while she continues to quietly push for new information.
I must admit to being fascinated myself with the historical aspect of the well-plotted storyline. So many ways to glean information, but I’d have never thought it could have been preserved in this exquisite manner. The antagonist is worked out through persistent and dogged analysis and is not entirely a surprise, however, the motive and conclusion comes off a tad weak. While the motive wouldn’t make sense to a normal person, this person is obviously not.
Certainly an opening that grabs the interest quickly and manages to weave informative and educational tidbits into an engaging and well-developed plot. The Maine winter descriptions, while brutal, certainly lent an ambiance to the storyline. Patrick as a character is not as strong as Angie, as he continues to appeal to her to leave the investigation to the police. I received this ebook download from the publisher and NetGalley for this book tour and greatly appreciated the opportunity to read and review. I thoroughly enjoyed the well-researched history and heartily recommend to any who participates in needlework or crafting of any kind. (Though I still knit and crochet, it’s been a LONG time since I’ve done any needlepointing or embroidery!). Will also interest any who read cozy mysteries, suspense, and women sleuths. I’m looking forward to Book 8!
Sign up for your chance to win one of (3) Print Copies of Thread Herrings (A Mainely Needlepoint Mystery) by Lea Wait in this Rafflecopter giveaway.
Lea Wait lives on the coast of Maine. A fourth-generation antique dealer and the author of the Agatha-nominated Antique Print Mystery series, she loves all things antiques and Maine. She also writes historical novels for young people set in (where else?) nineteenth-century Maine. Visit her at leawait.com.
Follow Lea on Facebook and GoodReads
Purchase Links – Amazon – B&N – Kobo
Thank you for visiting my stop on the tour and please visit the other stops listed below!
Tour Participants:
November 1 – The Avid Reader – REVIEW
November 1 – Cozy Up With Kathy -SPOTLIGHT, EXCERPT
November 2 – Teresa Trent Author Blog – SPOTLIGHT
November 2 – A Wytch’s Book Review Blog – REVIEW
November 3 – The Power of Words – REVIEW
November 3 – FUONLYKNEW – REVIEW
November 3 – Mysteries with Character – SPOTLIGHT
November 4 – Lisa Ks Book Reviews – REVIEW, EXCERPT
November 5 – Here’s How It Happened – SPOTLIGHT, EXCERPT
November 5 – The Montana Bookaholic – SPOTLIGHT, EXCERPT
November 6 – Rosepoint Publishing – REVIEW
November 6 – StoreyBook Reviews – SPOTLIGHT, EXCERPT
November 7 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW
November 7 – Christa Reads and Writes – REVIEW
November 1 – The Avid Reader – REVIEW
November 1 – Cozy Up With Kathy -SPOTLIGHT, EXCERPT
November 2 – Teresa Trent Author Blog – SPOTLIGHT
November 2 – A Wytch’s Book Review Blog – REVIEW
November 3 – The Power of Words – REVIEW
November 3 – FUONLYKNEW – REVIEW
November 3 – Mysteries with Character – SPOTLIGHT
November 4 – Lisa Ks Book Reviews – REVIEW, EXCERPT
November 5 – Here’s How It Happened – SPOTLIGHT, EXCERPT
November 5 – The Montana Bookaholic – SPOTLIGHT, EXCERPT
November 6 – Rosepoint Publishing – REVIEW
November 6 – StoreyBook Reviews – SPOTLIGHT, EXCERPT
November 7 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW
November 7 – Christa Reads and Writes – REVIEW 
Thanks to Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours for the opportunity to read and review this cozy mystery!
©2018 V Williams 
A native of Tempe, Arizona, 
What a delightful and unique cozy mystery! Of course, I always enjoy a paranormal twist to the plot and this one proved a distinctive one at that. Apparently a 1940’s PI Jack Shepard was killed in the very bookstore in which the widowed protagonist Penelope Thornton-McClure joined her Aunt Sadie as co-owner. Jack Shepard totally exudes the part of a “hard-boiled” private investigator replete with period vernacular. I’ve discussed the “hard-boiled” genre previously that incorporates the noir element to novels popular in the late forties and fifties. It’s easy to conjure Humphrey Bogart in the part, though perhaps Jack has been tempered just a tad by Penelope (Pen) as she introduces her modern-day sensitivities to Jack.
Carmela Bertrand and her bff Ava Gruiex are watching the Pluvius parade when the King Neptune float suddenly goes wonky and explodes almost in front of them. Among the krewe members on the float are her ex-hubby, Shamus Meechum, who is thrown clear but survives. One of the members who did not is krewe captain Hughes Wilder. He was close to the blast and also ingests glitter–not a good thing and no one was able to save him. It doesn’t take long before Carmela’s possibly betrothed Detective First Grade Edgar Babcock arrives on the scene and takes over, cautioning Carmela to stay out of it. Of course, knowing this is a cozy, there is no way for that to happen, especially since now it’s perceived Shamus may be a person of interest. Shamus pushes for her to clear his name while Babcock is adamant she not get involved.
Laura Childs is the New York Times bestselling author of the 
Mollie Cox Bryan is the author of the Cumberland Creek Scrapbooking mystery series and the Cora Crafts mystery series. She is also author of two cookbooks, the regional bestseller Mrs. Rowe’s Little Book of Southern Pies and Mrs. Rowe’s Restaurant Cookbook: A Lifetime of Recipes from the Shenandoah Valley. An award-winning journalist and poet, she currently blogs, cooks, and scrapbooks in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia with her husband and two daughters. Scrapbook of Secrets was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Novel. Visit her on the web at molliecoxbryan.com.
Camellia Beach, SC is definitely heating up. It’s August and the baby sea turtle nests are set to start hatching under the watchful eyes of the local sea turtle rescue volunteers. Charity Penn, owner of the Chocolate Box, is excited to join her best buddy, Althea, to watch for the hatching. Unfortunately, they end up in the crossfire of some deadly shooting, wounding Penn, and sending Jody Dalton to jail for the murder of Cassidy Jones. Jody is caught, dead to rights (so to speak) with not one but two smoking guns. Open and shut case, right? Sure looks that way, but Jody is the mother of Gavin, the son of her new heartthrob, Harley Dalton, and she promises Gavin she’ll have her mother out of jail before school starts. Uh oh…
Carrie Singleton just celebrated her 30th birthday and is feeling pretty good about herself being back in a small town near her favorite great-aunt Harriet and uncle, a boyfriend, Dylan, who also functions as her landlord for her comfortable little cottage, and a peach of a new job with the local Clover Ridge CT Library where she is now head of Programs and Events. She has a kitty, Smoky Joe, who adopted her and a ghost named Evelyn Havers, who haunts the library and is only visible to herself and her young cousin. It’s that time before Christmas when the grey skies turn to snow and the streets and storefronts are decorated with lights and themes, and joyous Christmas jingles emanate from public speaker systems.
Rosepoint Publishing 