I love cozy mysteries especially when they are craft related and this book was no exception. The story was entertaining and the mystery kept you turning pages. The characters were well developed. Definitely recommend.

What a fun read!!! I really enjoyed not only the characters but the storyline as well! Being a crafter and knitter, I found it refreshing to find a book that centers around my interests and because of that, I think I may have gotten more involved in the story.

The characters themselves were quite easy to be able to identify with and all were quite likeable. I will say that Sammy could be a bit "over the top" at times, but I think that made her more fun. Then there's Detective Nash, he's, well... you will just have to read the book to find out more about him.

I found A Crafter Knits a Clue a very enjoyable and an easy read. It went quickly, almost too quickly! I was almost sad to have finished the book but happy to find out if my theory of "who done it" was correct. There were enough red herrings that I changed my guess a couple of times. Once I get caught up on my reading list, I will definitely be getting the next book in the series: A Crafter Quilts a Crime!

This is definitely a must read for anyone that loves cozy mysteries - especially those that love cozies based on their passion of crafting!

A great book by a fantastic author. The writing is excellent and the mystery keeps you turning the pages. Characters are well developed. Highly recommend.

Samantha Kane returns to her hometown in Heartsford, Wisconsin for her best friend, Kate Allen’s funeral. Kate ran the Community Craft Store and Samantha decides to stay and run the store. A few doors down Main Street, fellow new arrival Ingrid Wilson has just opened the Yarn Barn, a real “purl” of a shop. But when Sammy strolls over to see if Ingrid could use a little help, she finds Ingrid’s dead body along with a green aluminum knitting needle lodged in her throat.

Sammy is eager to help solve Ingrids murder and the attractive Detective, Liam Nash, doesn’t hurt either. Sammy and Liam work hard to put all the clues together and catch a killer. Will they be able to solve the case.

The book was a little slow but I enjoyed the storyline and the characters.

This is the first book in a new crafting series, A Handcrafted Mystery series. It features Sammy Kane. a young woman who returns to Heartsford for the funeral of her best friend. She is heartbroken to hear that the Community Craft store will close with Kate's death. She decides to move home and take over the store herself. Shortly after her new life begins, she wanders down to the new yarn shop to meet the owner, Ingrid, a relatively new resident in town. She walks into the store and finds Ingrid, on the floor with a knitting needle sticking out of her throat. When Detective Liam Nash arrests local woodworker, Miles Danbury, Sammy can't help but begin her own investigation. She is sure he is innocent, but there are so many theories and several suspects that she becomes a nuisance, not only to the police, but to many of the townsfolk. When a beloved citizen is hit by a car, she is sure these two things are connected, but can she convince Detective Nash.

With this being the first in a series, we meet a lot of characters, some important, some will be recurring and some were involved in this crime. I like Sammy, but at times she annoyed me. She was not subtle and was quite good at aggravating people. Sam joins forces with two of her childhood buddies, Heidi and Ellie. They used to play at detective in grade school, and are pretty good at figuring things out. There seems to be a budding relationship with Sam and Liam and he let her get away with some things due to his feelings, and he was always there when she needed help. The mystery itself was a good one and I enjoyed how it all played out. It moved along at a nice pace with lots of clues, sleuthing, some red herrings and twists. This was a cozy where the community plays a role, the MC has returned home to help her hometown deal with something, and she stays to make her hometown a better place. Nothing special, but enjoyable. I will read more in this series to see what else Sam and her friends get up to.

Thanks to NetGalley and to Crooked Lane Books for an advance copy of this book. A Crafter Knits a Clue by Holly Quinn is a cosy mystery.

I really wanted to enjoy this book, as a crafter and as someone who likes a good mystery. However, by the end of the very first page I was already annoyed.

It was far too wordy – over-written and unedited – and I resented the main character telling me so much about herself in such a short space of time that it smacked of narcissism, and was clumsy at best. (Round, hazel eyes; auburn bangs.)

However, thinking it might get better, I struggled on ... But it didn't.

By the end of Page 2, there was too much exposition, too much back-story told in one info-dump rather than revealing things as the story progressed. There is too much telling and not enough showing. And this continued throughout the book.

The main character comes across as still being at High School. She is quite childish and petty and, as someone else has said, doesn't describe unlikeable or red-herring characters very well. There is a knack to getting the quick and witty insult right, but they just came across as nit-picky and, again, childish.

Aside from this, the writing is very much High-School-writing too. I felt as though it hadn't been professionally edited or proof-read, that it was a first draft dashed off and then the send button was hit to publish it. I didn't feel as though it had gone through any polishing rounds.

I did make it to the end, but it became even more of a disappointment when a so-called accident was hinted at at not being an accident ... and then it was never mentioned again.

Hidden behind all of this, the story was quite acceptable, although the crafting link was, in my opinion, tenuous. But the characters were not likeable, the relationships were not believable, and the writing just didn't come up to scratch.

Samantha Kane, or better known as Sammy, goes back home to the cozy town of Heartsford, WI. Sadly, this isn't a joyous occasion, rather its for her best friends funeral. While revisiting home, she gets even more unsettling news as she finds out her beloved craft store is in peril. Sammy makes the courageous decision to move back home with her golden retriever and takes ownership of Community Craft. There is some friendly competition down the road called the Yarn Barn, so Sammy strolls down memory lane to meet the owner. Only to find the owner has perished, by one of her own knitting needles!

Everyone in this small town has an idea of who committed the murder, but also they all are suspects themselves. Sammy sets out to help dashing Detective Liam Nash to solve this murder, before someone else
decides to write Sammy right out of this town, for good!

I always love discovering new cozy mystery series to follow, especially when I can get in right from the first book. A Crafter Knits a Clue is one such series – I’m definitely looking forward to more books with Sammy, Heidi, Ellie, Carter, Bara, Tim and of course swoony detective Liam 😉

Sammy, our heroine, has a few rough edges in her personality that need smoothing, so she might take a bit to fully warm up to, but I for one appreciated the character growth that the author crafted for her throughout the story. I can tell that, as the series progresses, more of her flaws will ultimately turn into strengths. Her relationship with her sister and her cousin is lots of fun – especially as they resurrect their childhood ‘detective group’ (and who didn’t always want one of those as a child? I was the sole proprietor of mine and collected license plates of cars that drove down our street – just in case. Haha!)

New detective in town, Liam Nash, is swoony and smart and interested in Sammy. As Heidi’s boyfriend (and police officer) Tim says at one point, “I wish you two would kiss and get it over with.” The romantic tension is pretty thick at times between these two, though I wanted to see a bit more chemistry and spark. I can’t wait to see where this relationship goes in the next books in the series. It has lots of delicious potential 🙂

The case is pretty standard but definitely kept me guessing, particularly on the motive behind the gruesome murder of one character and the attempted murder of another. And someone certainly wants Sammy to quit snooping around, so she has to keep her guard up – which adds a nice undercurrent of suspense to the cozy mystery mix. Quinn does a great job of portraying small town gossip central as well in this quaint (but buzzing) Wisconsin town – a place that felt a little like home to me since I grew up in Northern Illinois, closer to Wisconsin than I was to Chicago.

Bottom Line: Holly Quinn knits together a cozy town, relatable characters, romantic tension, and a well-plotted mystery in the debut Handcrafted Mystery novel – A Crafter Knits a Clue. Readers will enjoy the Community Craft shop (and wish they had one too), and they’ll be rooting for S.H.E. to solve the case! The pace is a little slow (maybe a bit choppy) at first, but once it gets going you won’t want to put it down. I’m looking forward to more in this series and a chance to keep up with Sammy – particularly given some surprising revelations at the end of the book.

(I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book)

I'm a crafter in my spare time so was really excited about the thought of a series of books written with threads (excuse the pun) linked to crafting.

The first book in the series 'crafter knits a clue' was billed as a 'cosy club mystery' so I was intrigued to see how the mystery would be tied into a craft aspect. The book focuses on a woman called 'Sammy' who has moved to a small town in America, to take over the craft shop of her deceased best friend Kate. The Craft shop is a community hub selling lots of handmade knick knacks and hosts workshops for local groups.

The opening setting has Sammy stocking her shop for 'Spring Fling' with the help of her dead friends young brother. During the shop restock he gets a call to help another local artisan at the Yarn Shop. Sam offers to go help instead but stalls for time, when she arrives she finds the Yarn shop owner dead on the floor with a knitting needle stuck in her throat!!

The story follows Sam as she, her sister and cousin all have an amateur sleuth to try and discover who the killer is. I can't say too much more without giving spoilers away.

In summary this was an enjoyable, easy read. Plenty of well developed characters to watch and enjoy getting to know. It was a cosy read but with some gritty aspects including hit and runs and amateur sleuthing gone bad!

The reason I only gave three stars is the (in my opinion) pointless (and very obvious) side romance story with the new cop in town and the writing at times would have benefited from a good pruning. An example is... Sammy went toward the front of the house to open the front door.......she's hardly going to go anywhere else to open the front door! I thought something like Sammy opened the front door..... Sometimes less is more. As often you to get an over description of exactly what everyone is doing, when actually I like to make up my own views of how the characters look, move or respond to situations, I don't need to know about every hand on the hip and hair toss!

Convoluted secrets and a strong sense of community power this first-in-series character-heavy cozy mystery.

Thank you, Crooked Lane Books, for providing me a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sammy Kane has returned to her hometown of Heartsford after her best friend’s funeral, taking up the endangered craft store that Kate left behind. Discovering the body of a fellow store owner sets her on an unexpected path of detection and discovery.

Strong characters and a great sense of community are the definite highlights of this cozy mystery. I very much enjoyed the development of the ties between the various characters, and feel that Quinn has a good basis from a strong series here. The nascent romance possibilities between Sammy and Detective Liam Nash are intriguing, and the various small details that flesh out the world that Quinn is building are delightful. I did feel that the urgency to solve the mystery of who killed Ingrid could have been stronger, but the way that Sammy went about her investigations was fun and the various twists and turns were enjoyable. I will be reading more of this series!

Thank you to the publisher I received an e-book through Netgalley.
I liked A Crafter Knits a Clue, my first cozy mystery book and it was good. My only problem was that I found it difficult to like Sammy's attitude. The mystery had me interested and so did all the crafting. I do think I will continue with the series, hopefully Sammy's character will develop a little more.

This cozy was just ok for me. The blurb was right up my alley... a golden retriever and a shop that sells homemade goods. Definitely a place I would love to visit in real life. Even though this book was the first in the series, I felt like I was missing some past background info. Despite this, I will still give the second book in the series a try.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book, which I voluntarily chose to review.

Now I don’t know much about knitting but I do know a good cozy mystery when I read it. This was a good solid mystery that was filled with true to definition cozy characters and a charming setting. I think I could easily find myself sleuthing through this series.

Samantha Kane is back in her home town. The tragic death of her best friend continues to haunts her. To keep her BFF's dream alive, she now runs Community Craft which was Kate's store. Ingrid, a nearby shop owner, asks for a favor. When Sammy arrives, she finds Ingrid dead. After what she's seen Sammy is determined to find the killer. This town needs to feel safe again. Can she find the murderer? Sammy is an interesting character. She's not perfect. She's impetuous and stubborn. It's refreshing to see that she has flaws like we all do. The mutual attraction between our heroine and the head Detective Liam Nash added a touch of romance which I enjoyed. I was sorry that a bad experience made Sammy so fearful to take a chance. The Detective is playing it cool. I can't wait to see what happens next. I must say that I enjoyed the small town setting and the local characters who added drama and unexpected shenanigans to the story. I smiled when the ladies of S.H.E. helped with the investigation. I liked their spunk. I enjoyed the writing of Holly Quinn. I couldn't put down A Crafter Knits a Clue. The story was well plotted. There were so many suspects that I didn't know until the very end who committed the crime and why. I'm hooked. The tease at the end about Kate has me anxious for the next book in this series.
I received a copy of this book which I voluntarily read and reviewed. My comments are my honest opinion.

I finally picked this one up because I just love the covers of all the crafty/murder books in this series, and I'm real sad to say this one just didn't hit it for me (although I have a crochet one on my list as well, so we'll try again). When reading this kind of cozy mystery, I'm looking for ideally two things (but I'll take one): characters I love, and a mystery to sink my teeth into. Unfortunately, I just wasn't feeling this one. The characters I wasn't super strong on and then the mystery was kind of disappointing once we got to the end.
Not going to renounce this series forever, but won't be picking this one back up again.

This is the first book in the Handcrafted Mystery Series. Samantha Kane has moved back to her hometown of Heartsford, WI to take over Community Craft for her best friend Kate who died suddenly in a tractor accident. Sammy is back home with her sister Ellie, cousin Heidi, pseudo adopted baby brother Carter (Kate’s Brother) And all the crafters that use Community Crafts craft room. Down the block from Community Craft is a new store The Yarn Barn owned by newcomer Ingrid Wilson, who just happens to be the high school basketball coach’s aunt. When Sammy by chance finds Ingrid murdered in the Yarn Barn, she decides its up to her to figure out who murdered the woman. Enter newly hired Detective Liam Nash, not not is he leading the investigation, but as Sammy has noticed, he’s also very easy on the eyes. Though Detective Nash has made it clear that he will do the crime solving and he prefer Sammy stay safe. Can Sammy figure out who killed Ingrid before she becomes a victim? Is there a relationship budding between Sammy and Detective Nash?

For a Cozy Mystery, this book was a fairly fast read but had trouble keeping my interest. Though the book is good parts of it felt a bit sophomoric. I believe I would read more in this series to see if the characters and the writing mature and develop.

Many thanks to NetGalley for a free copy of the book in return for an honest review. A Crafter Knits a Clue by Holly Quinn is the first book in Handcrafted Mystery series. It's published by Crooked Lane Books, October 2018.

When you think that it takes slow to got one or more murders, this isn' t book for you. There one one murder just after a couple pages. But this was quite good cozy mystery even thought there was many parts which made this quite interesting book. Sometimes it was really hard time getting into book because characters but sometimes it was much easier time to getting into book, when there happened some interesting things.

Samantha Kane moves home after the accidental death of her best friend and Craft Connections store owner. To keep Kate's dream alive, Sammy takes up the mantle as store owner and continues to work towards community togetherness like Kate would have wanted. She really gets an opportunity to work on the community when one of the other small merchants is found dead, stabbed by a knitting needle in her own yarn store. Was it for the family fortune, because of her store location, maybe it's related to her nephew's coaching job or the call to remove a school board member. Sammy can't just let it go especially since she was the one who found the victim. She isn't the only one looking into this murder, there is also the new Detective, Liam Nash who both excites and annoys her and the feeling may be mutual.. This was a great story line and with a cliff hanger of an ending that you'll just have to find out for yourself and the ladies of S.H.E.

This was a first for me: a mean-spirited cozy. I didn’t like the heroine who came across as shallow and socially maladjusted. But what I really didn’t like was the fact that pretty much every character was described in terms of their weight or other unflattering terms - the bakery owner has “chubby fingers”, she is dismissive of man who is kind and described as loved by the Town because the locals can’t see he is “a heart attack waiting to happen” with coffee stained teeth. It just felt like it was written by someone who didn’t like any of the secondary characters but expected you to like a spoilt mean heroine whose attitude and behaviour towards the detective is petty and bitchy and rude - and like a high school mean girl. The mystery isn’t developed enough either - with too many random threads and not enough development of the various suspects and clues.

Can you tell this book annoyed me? I don’t think I’ll be coming back for more.

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Andra

A Crafter Knits a Clue is the first book by Holly Quinn that I have read as well as the first book in this new series. This book is a well constructed cozy mystery with many suspects and red herrings to keep the reader guessing until the end.

Samantha “Sammy” Kane has returned to her home town of Heartsford, Wisconsin to take over the running of her best friend’s store, Community Craft (due to Kate’s untimely death). What transpires rather quickly is the death of a fellow shop keeper – Ingrid Wilson – new owner of the Yarn Barn by way of knitting needle in her own yarn shop! When Sammy was much younger, she joined forces with her sister Elle and their cousin Heidi and formed S.H.E. – their detective club. The three unite to solve Ingrid’s murder. I love this trio!

Detective Liam Nash is a hunky individual charged with solving Ingrid’s murder. He is also the “love” interest – or could be for Sammy – as there is certainly chemistry between the two. During A Crafter Knits a Clue though – they tend to butt heads while at the same time Liam finds many ways of interjecting himself into Sammy’s life. Generally, Sammy’s amateur sleuthing gets under Detective Liam’s skin but he also worries about her safety.

Just as Sammy (and the police) are closing in on a suspect, the potential suspect is cleared. Then it is on to the next suspect. Is it a new person in Ingrid’s life or a blast from the past? Seems there really is no shortage of suspects. The journey through eliminating suspects is interesting and quite entertaining to see how Sammy’s mind works. The town’s inhabitants are colourful folks with entwined histories with each other (as to be expected in a small town such as Heartsford.

I quite enjoyed the cover art. The small town “vibe” is charming, a bit of romance and a whodunit that is not revealed until the end…just the way I like my cozy mysteries. I look forward to the next installment in the A Handcrafted Mystery series.

*OBS would like to thank the publisher for supplying a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review*