Brought to you by OBS reviewer Andra

Spoiler alert – though not about the mystery

Synopsis:

The sun is shining in Sea Harbor and a group of friends, the Seaside Knitters, are spending Thursday evenings knitting the sweetest of gifts—a baby blanket. But as the due date draws near, they find they must take time away from their needles and yarn to confront a murder and untangle a mystery before a certain baby is brought into the world….

It’s an exciting time for yarn shop owner Izzy Chambers Perry. She and her new husband are expecting a baby, and all of Sea Harbor seems to be rejoicing with them. As a mother-to-be, Izzy is having a heady summer—full of bike rides, runs along the shore, and time spent with her aunt Nell and the other Seaside Knitters—until the day she spots an abandoned baby car seat and hand-knit blanket on the beach. Izzy immediately recognizes the blanket’s material—a soft yellow angora yarn she displayed in her shop window last fall. Maybe it’s the hormones, but Izzy has a terrible premonition, and when she realizes no one is claiming the car seat, she shoves it in her trunk. Soon it starts taking over her thoughts and her dreams. What happened to the baby who once sat inside it?

Unfortunately, Izzy’s fear of something bad happening comes true when a young man who did odd jobs at her doctor’s clinic is killed during a scuba dive. When Izzy discovers the man was actually murdered and is connected to the abandoned car seat, the crime becomes too close for comfort and Izzy asks her aunt Nell and knitting pals to investigate. It’ll take the Seaside Knitters’ careful attention to patterns—and their fierce commitment to bringing Izzy and Sam’s baby into a peaceful town—to knit this mystery together. (Goodreads)

Review:

Angora Alibi is the seventh book in the series and unfortunately, I come in on the seventh book.  While I caught up quickly with the cast of characters, the flow might have been enhanced by having read the first six books. Given that I enjoyed this cozy, I just may go back and read the series from the beginning.  Can I sum up the story is one word????  Yes – cute!  I found the story following the traditional cozy formula where the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community, where the detectives are almost always amateurs and usually women. They are typically well educated, intuitive, and often hold jobs (in this instance -> shop owner) that bring them into constant contact with other residents of their town.  So yes – traditional cozy.

The book contains a whole litany of knitting related sayings:

“I think we’re getting closer. But it’s still a little bit like this sweater. We need to weave the ends in.”

 or

“The stitches would come together, the yarn would remain taut, and by the time they were ready to bind off, the whole pattern-complicated as it might have been-would make startling sense”

In the next sentence the term “frogging” is used. (Definition source  – Sometimes when a mistake happens and you don’t notice it for a long time, you have to rip out many rows, a process known as frogging.)  Good to know I can read a simple cozy and learn a new term.  I love expanding my vocabulary, something I don’t often get with cozies so this is a BIG bonus.

The cast of characters were lovable; I enjoyed getting to know Lizzy and her merry cast of residents: Nell, Cass, Birdie, Ben, Sam (husband of Izzy and father to be) to name but a few.

The only part which I found annoying was everyone’s insistence that Izzy’s baby was “Perry” – a boy and then of course, with such insistence, you know that they would be wrong…..way to predictable.  I found the constant referral to the sex of the baby unnecessary.

If you are looking for a light cozy which will keep you guessing as to who the “killer” is until virtually the end, then this story is for you.

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