Pattern of Betrayal
A Vineyard Quilt Mystery #2
By Mae Fox and Amy Lillard
ISBN# 9781573674812
Author’s Website: amywritesromance.com
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Jeanie
Synopsis:
Murder checks in. When Julie Ellis traded her high stress life as an antiquities bounty hunter in the big city for the slower pace of Missouri wine country, she expected to find peace and tranquility among the beautiful rolling hills—not murder and mayhem. As the new innkeeper of the Quilt Haus Inn, Julie breathes a sigh of relief when preparations for their first quilting murder mystery weekend are finally complete. The props are set, the scripts are ready, and each guest has a role to play. But when the lights cut out, someone goes off script, and a real dead body takes center stage. Every guest is a suspect in the murder and as the clues unfold, it seems they all have something to hide. Can Julie identify the killer before someone else checks out … permanently? (From Goodreads)
Review:
What a great idea for a theme weekend! This would definitely be on my top five list if I could have any vacation I wanted. And a place like this would be perfect. Pattern of Betrayal is the second offering in the Vineyard Quilt Mystery series. It can easily be read as a stand-alone, but you won’t want to miss Threads of Deceit if you have the opportunity to read it. Set in the wine country of Missouri, managing the Quilt Haus Inn has been a wonderful career for Julie Ellis and her best friend and chef, Hannah Marks. The Quilt Haus Inn typically caters primarily to quilters and their events, but with Julie at the center of solving the recent murder in their little town, a mystery weekend getaway for those who enjoy quilting – and mysteries – was becoming in-demand. Part of the fun included that the guests were, prior to arrival, assigned to a specific role and they could act out that part throughout the weekend, including costumes if the person so desired.
In the meantime, Julie was hunting in the basement for something to donate on behalf of the Inn for an upcoming school auction, and found what appeared to be an original journal of a soldier in the Civil War. In her spare moments, Julie was trying to find someone to authenticate the journal and attach a value to it.
Julie continues as a spunky, sassy former antiquities bounty hunter – turned Inn manager and the owner, thrilled to be seeing the sites she had missed all the years she managed the Inn, is equally as happy with Julie and Hannah. While some of Julie’s methods might be a little unconventional, some of the things she learned as a bounty hunter have served her well with honed instincts for investigation and thinking outside the box for creative ideas and to resolve problems. At least until the night of the mystery weekend when the murder is supposed to occur. All went well until … the order of events changed, the person who was supposed to be dead was actually alive, and one of the guests was really dead. And she had an Inn full of guests with a few staff. The murderer could only be one of the guests – but who? The victim was a recent divorcee whose children had paid for her to get away for a weekend that it sounded like she really didn’t want to attend.
Hannah and Julie now are “helping” with the investigation, in spite of the deputy not welcoming their input. It’s amazing just how much Hannah is able to dig up online about people … and just how many people either aren’t what they seem, or have a completely different name and identity. I think if I were Julie, I would ask Hannah to do that investigation when someone books a room in the future, rather than wait until after the fact!
The portrayals of Julie and Hannah and their friend Daniel Franklin are seamlessly consistent with the earlier book in the series, which is excellent since she did not write the first book with Mae Fox. They are excellent in both organizational and writing skills to be able to take part in a series for which one of the two writers will change with each book. The guests were very well revealed as necessary, including the details of their clothing or costume styles as part of their character definition. In this book, the guest Liam Preston, doctor of literary studies, becomes a help to Julie as she seeks information on the journal she found. Daniel is also of assistance as they tried to determine who the murderer was and why; he continues to be a sounding board and idea person for Julie.
I was intrigued to see how the authors would plot the story and activities with the wrong person being actually murdered – not acting the part of being killed – and the person being a guest. This reader thinks that the mystery flew along in an orderly fashion, that every stone was turned and there were no open issues left outstanding. The plot twists were unanticipated, and I had a hard time thinking through to the right “whodunit” and “whydunit”. All in all, I was happy to have read it and hope that this series continues.
I highly recommend this book to young adults and adults of all ages who enjoy quilting, bed and breakfast tales, and good inspirational mysteries. If you have enjoyed cozy mystery series that Annie’s Attic or Guideposts have published, you will want to read Pattern of Betrayal and the earlier cozy mystery, Threads of Deceit as it is part of the Annie’s fiction collections. This series is a new favorite of mine. If you like small quilting projects that are ideal for shower or other gifts, you will enjoy the pattern in the back of the book. I wish I knew more about sewing, much less quilting, so I could make one as it sounds cute and useful!
