Mary Kruger, Died in the Wool

Died in the Wool

Mary Kruger

Pocket,

ISBN: 0743484738

In Freeport, Massachusetts, most if not all locals detest landlady Edith Perry. She makes her opinions on controversial issues known usually taking the most unpopular position; she informs her lease holders that she is raising their rent; finally she is developing property just outside of Freeport over the objections of most townsfolk.

The police are not shocked when someone murders Edith using purple yarn. The obvious prime suspect is divorced mother of one Ariadne Evans, owner of Ariadne's Web yarn store, who found the corpse in her establishment. Ariadne has the motive since Edith's rent increase could shut down her business; she had the means as her store contains all sorts of homespun yarns including the murder weapon; finally she had the opportunity as the homicide occurred when her shop was closed leaving her with no alibi. Though police detective John Pierce likes Ariadne, she knows she remains at the top of the suspect list so she begins to untangle the threads hoping to knit a new pattern that displays the killer's identity.

The author of the "Gilded Age" mysteries, Mary Kruger provides a fine amateur sleuth cozy starring a likable heroine and a fine detective who has just moved into the town. Ariadne, whose first reaction to finding the body is nice yarn around victim's neck, investigates the murder one thread at a time until she decides to become bait. Thus the audience receives a fine who-done-it though like John wonder why Ariadne, whose daughter Megan already suffers nightmares over her mom's involvement, would risk her life as a Nancy Drew imitator.

Harriet Klausner