After losing her job Shelby returns home to take over her mom’s needlepoint store while her parents go on vacation. Someone dies as soon as her parents leave with Shelby finding the body. The good parts…the patterns for the alphabet coasters and the idea of creating a canvas from original artwork, finding the cat. The parts I didn’t care for….the constant assumption Shelby would be staying permanently and take over managing the store, her sisters marriage and how the sister handled an affair, the slow slow pacing and the ending. The entire book was blah.

North-Carolina, needlepoint, small-town, small-business, artist, pattern, cozy-mystery, murder, investigation, local-law-enforcement, local-gossip****

Shelby's employer abruptly closed up shop at about the same time as her parents decided to do a cross-country vacation leaving Shelby to run their small business while they're gone. First up is an apparent accident involving a local bladesmith who is found in her business van with a large knife in her chest. Dead. The plot is smoothly developed and the characters are very engaging. Nice start to a new series!
I requested and received a free temporary uncorrected digital galley from Kensington Publishing | Kensington Cozies via NetGalley.
Avail Mar 25, 2025 #OneSharpStitch by Allie Pleiter #aNimbleNeedleMystery #NetGalley @KensingtonPublishing #KensingtonCozies **** #CozyMystery #Needlepoint #NorthCarolina

This was a beautifully done mystery novel, it had that element that I was looking for and enjoyed figuring out what was happening with the murder that was going on. I enjoyed the way the characters were in this story and how everything worked with the story. I enjoyed the way Allie Pleiter created this story and was glad I got to read this.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Kensington Cozies for the ARC of One Sharp Stitch by Allie Pleiter.

One Sharp Stitch follows 31-year-old Shelby as she returns to her hometown to oversee her mom's needlepoint shop while her parents go on a month long roadtrip. Shelby has just lost her job and is trying to plan for the next steps in her life, and the apartment above the shop is free while she figures things out. Her parents take off, and then, within 48-hours of their leaving, Shelby finds the body of Kat, former friend, and expert craftswoman who was supposed to be featured in a trunk show at Nina's Nimble Needle that morning. No one seems to think this is anything but a horrible accident - or is it?

This is my first Allie Pleiter novel, and I think there were a lot of positives to her writing style, and her mystery building. I did not figure out who the murderer was until the very end, and I appreciate that Pleiter didn't put Shelby into an impossible situation - the confrontation had a much more real feel to it because of that. I really liked her setting, the yacht club quirkiness, and the excellent small town vibes. I like Shelby a lot as a character too, and the family/friend group she is building around her are a lot of fun with a wide range of personalities that I could see really expanding into some interesting mysteries in future books.

I think what took stars off for me was the pacing of the novel. It takes until about 75% of the way through for anyone to confirm we are looking at a murder - so for 3/4 of the novel Shelby is stumbling around asking "What if?" with no real rhyme or reason. Had she done nothing, the police still would have caught a killer, just maybe not the whole story. I think this lack of....essentialness (?) to Shelby's taking on the case just made her seem a bit like an armchair conjecturer as opposed to any active detecting. To add another wrench into that, Pleiter is doing some really, really lovely secondary plot work with Shelby's growing love toward her hometown, her repairing her relationship with her sister, supporting her nephew, reconnecting with her parents, making friends - but so much of it happens off the page. She mentions Jake knowing about her old boss and that failed relationship, but we never see them interact/flirt outside of the group needlepoint nights, so that felt flat - I wanted more of the same exposure we got between her and Jessica to the other relationships she's cultivating. Instead Shelby's character is so focused on wondering if there is a crime occurring that we don't actually get to enjoy the parts of the novel that are shining and are going to bring that cozy community tighter together. I think once the murder part was acknowledged, a lot of Shelby's legwork had more weight to it / it made the last 25% of the novel fly by and be really, really engaging, I just wish the pacing were adjusted to have that momentum throughout the whole story.

I also struggled with how everyone seems to think Kat was aiming to take over the shop but she didn't work there? She also didn't seem to actually have a relationship with Nina. I feel like this plot point would have made more sense if she had been like, Nina's assistant since high school or something, not an artist selling on consignment to the shop. I never got the connection the shop is something Kat could have expected or why it would be unlikely that a daughter with a business degree who grew up in the shop would be a poor choice? The tension in this just never rationally materialized for me. It keeps being brought up even if it isn't impacting the plot, but, again, I think if the murder had been confirmed earlier the parts of the plot that are important could have been moved up so the truly important parts stood out.

Also, this is an ARC so I think this part is still being edited, but there are a few continuation errors that are confusing that it might help to clear up:
- When Jessica first sees Nabbit she is disgusted and is going to "tell" on Shelby. Later, she's smiling down and it's said she "enjoys other people's animals"
- Kat's time of death is said to be 3-4 hours before Shelby finds her, but from the ending it sounds like it happened immediately beforehand. We also know Kat had TONS of work already prepared in her apartment, so the justifications in the story seem to be colliding.
- If Shelby makes the scrabble tils say 'Stop on in and sign up to win" she does not have enough N's made.
- In the beginning, Shelby tells Jessica her concerns about Kat being threatened but Jessica tells her not to go to the Chief and that she's wasting everyone's time. Later, she finds out Shelby did talk to the Chief and seems shocked that Shelby was investigating and didn't include her. It was a bit of whiplash.
- Mark is mentioned as having an immediate attraction with Cherie, but one chapter later we find out he has a near fiance, Vicky.
- Windham says "he wouldn't recommend that woman at all" about Kat but a sentence later also acknowledges she is dead. It seems he could have said there is no other service available any longer? Would have been the more southern hospitality route then making it seem like he's stepping into a lie that is immediately dispelled.
- Why the scenes with Windham's son? We never get more details on that and it seems to be a dropped plot.
- For someone with a business degree, Shelby being confused by Windham's offering services like knife sharpening, even if it's just the one service, shows a lack of understanding in capitalism. Also, it's made to seem like Windham's is both a fancy chain and a very successful upscale store and I wasn't sure which it actually is - especially with the owner being on the floor with customers.

4 stars
One Sharp Stitch
Wow! I have never read this author before, but I will definitely go looking for more of her books.
One Sharp Stitch is the first in a new series and one of those books that is so good, you don't want to put it down, but you hate to read it because it will end. I loved main character Shelby and her sister Jessica. The characterizations were excellent and so believable.
I love it when an author throws me off track and I have no clue to whom the murderer is. The only reason I didn't rate this a 5 is do to the main character gets a little woo-woo about this "being placed in her path."

But otherwise an absolutely fantastic cozy.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley.

#OneSharpStitch #NetGalley is the first in a new series, featuring sisters, Shelby and Jessica.
Shelby is overseeing her mom's shop while she's taking a well earned vacation. Things are starting out well, until a guest artist is found dead, the victim of a freak accident. Shelby has a feeling something isn't quite right about the death, and her curiosity almost gets the best of her and Jessica.
This is a fast paced cozy mystery, full of colorful characters who have great personalities.
I'm looking forward to reading more in this series.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for selecting me to read and advanced copy of the book.

What a good start to a cozy mystery series. When Shelby comes home to watch her mom’s needlepoint store while her parents go rving across country. She stumbles across the body of a hated girl in town. Enjoyed this one and would recommend. Hope more books in the series to come.