Thursday, September 16, 2010

Double Cross-Clare O'Donohue

Double Cross
Clare O'Donohue
Plume, Sep 28 2010, $14.00
ISBN: 9780452296428

George Olnhausen hires quilt instructor Susanne Hendrick to instruct at a workshop at the Patchwork Bed-and-Breakfast in the picturesque Adirondack Mountains town of Winston. Accompanying Susanne on her journey from Archers Rest are Nell Fitzgerald; her quilt-shop owner grandmother Eleanor Cassidy; Barney the dog; and George’s high school girlfriend Bernadette "Bernie" Avallone.

Bernie still loathes her former BFF Rita for taking George from her. So when someone kills George, Bernie is a prime suspect; even more so because her "double cross" quilt covering the body. Nell’s boyfriend, Archers Rest's police chief Jesse Dewalt assists Winston police chief Jim McIntyre with the investigation while Barney finds another corpse in the woods.

The latest Someday Quilt amateur sleuth (see A Drunkard's Path and A Lover's Knot) is an engaging whodunit as the ladies work the case one stitch at a time. The story line is fast-paced when it focuses on who killed George; a sidebar involving workshop students is fascinating in its own right; but detracts from the prime whodunit. Still fans will enjoy the Someday Quilt ladies take over the New York Adirondacks.

Harriet Klausner

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