Night of the Living Thread

A Threadville Mystery #4

By Janet Bolin

ISBN# 978- 0425267998

Author’s Website:  http://threadvillemysteries.com/

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Daniele

Synopsis: 

Zombies, killer dresses, and ancient curses prove that Halloween in Threadville can be sew spooky…

It’s early October, and hordes of visitors have descended on the tiny, celebrated village of Threadville, Pennsylvania, to attend a Halloween crafts fair, a zombie retreat, and the wedding of Edna Battersby—dear friend to Willow Vanderling, owner of the chic machine embroidery boutique, In Stitches.

As a friendly prank for Edna’s wedding, Willow and the rest of the Threadville gang have fashioned an overly extravagant hoopskirt, complete with lights and music. But in a bizarre turn of events, the garish gown is implicated in a mysterious lakeside murder.

Now Willow must follow a trail of glow-in-the-dark thread, delve into ancient Egyptian curses, and creep through a haunted graveyard to unearth a killer—before she becomes the next fashion victim…(Amazon.com)

Review:

There is a lot going on in this book – a pre Halloween craft show, a zombie retreat at the local inn, a wedding, an over the top piece of clothing that becomes a death trap, a saboteur, Egyptian curses and fortune telling – that, in my opinion, do not really go together.  Sound a bit odd?  I thought so.

Elderberry, PA, aka Threadville, is a village known for its boutique shops with themes such as embroidery, fabric, knitting, and sewing notions.  They have become quite the draw for tourists.  This installment opens with the town’s folk busy with preparations for a craft show and constructing an outrageous outer skirt for one of the shopkeepers, Edna, to wear (if she chooses) at her reception when she marries the town’s doctor, Gord.  The inn has sold out due to the zombie retreat so many of the craft show participants from out of town are staying with the shop owners.  When one of the vendors dies under mysterious circumstances, all of the other houseguests become excellent suspects.  Their pasts all seem to conveniently intersect, and they do provide plenty of red herrings.  In spite of all the elements, the resolution to the mystery is satisfactory.

I must admit that I have not read the previous installments in the Threadville Series, and I fear that this influences my opinion and rating of Night of the Living Thread.  Knowing the back stories of the characters probably would have helped me to appreciate them more than I did.  The recurring characters were fine, but the suspects were some of the most unlikable people I have read about in a long time…condescending, hateful, mean folks with their own agendas.  I found myself getting angry at Brianna’s behavior and attitude and at Willow for putting up with Brianna.  One caveat was Edna’s mother, who started out as a bit of a harpy but grew on me the more I read.

I will give the series another chance by picking up the first book someday.  For now, I just did not find any of it very appealing.  I would, however, not hesitate to recommend Night of the Living Thread to readers who have enjoyed the other books in the series or lovers of the textile arts.

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