Stitch Me Deadly

I actually had my copy of Stitch Me Deadly (#76) by Amanda Lee on hand before I read The Quick and the Thread, the subject of my previous post.  So sue me, I like to read things in order if possible.  As you probably have already guessed, Stitch Me Deadly is another Embroidery Mystery (and still no counted cross stitch graph for the reader, Ms. Lee!)

Only a couple of months have passed since the first book and embroidery shop owner Marcy Singer is still trying to get past the murder that occurred in her store.  It was a dark and stormy morning when elderly Louisa Ralston brings an old sampler in to Marcy and begs her to "find ivy" before collapsing and dying later at the hospital.  She's been poisoned and Marcy is number one on the suspect list of the Tallulah County Sheriff's Department.  Marcy's film costume designer mother is between assignments and flies up to Oregon to defend her chick.  They are determined to unravel (sorry!) the mystery of the missing ivy - is it a person or merely a matching color thread for the altered sampler?  And why was the the sampler altered in the first place?  Is Marcy's shop cursed as her cranky neighbor who owns the aromatherapy store claims?  You'll just have to read the book to find out.

Although this book was an enjoyable read, I didn't find that the story hung together as well as her first book.  The local Tallulah Falls characters that were introduced in the first book were barely developed further.  If you weren't told that Sadie was her best friend and the reason Marcy moved to Tallulah Falls, you would never have known it from Stitch Me Deadly, as these two characters hardly interact.  For supposed best friends whose stores are almost next door this seems highly unlikely, and very unsatisfying.  Too much Mom and not enough Town.