Knit One, Die Two

Peggy Ehrhart

Apr 2019 · A Knit & Nibble Mystery Book 3 · Kensington Cozies

About this ebook

When Arborville, New Jersey’s snooty theater scene is upstaged by a shocking murder, Pamela Paterson and her Knit and Nibble knitting club must act quickly to stop a killer from making an encore performance . . .
 
Knit and Nibble’s numbers are growing! In addition to a litter of adorable kittens, the knitting club just welcomed their newest member, Caralee Lorimer, who’s learning to knit for her upcoming role in A Tale of Two Cities. According to the amateur actress, the behind-the-scenes drama at the theater is getting downright catty, and Caralee wants a reckoning for Arborville’s pretentious suburbanites. Her claws are out, and just like her character in the play, Caralee is ready to name names. But before she can finish her snitchy stitches, Caralee is killed in a suspicious theater accident. Someone thinks they’ve staged a perfect murder, but Pamela and her Knit and Nibblers are ready to pounce on the real killer . . . before it’s curtains for anyone else!
 
Knitting tips and delicious recipe included!

Ratings and reviews

Knit One, Die Two is the third book in A Knit & Nibble Mystery series. I do recommend reading the series in order since background information is lacking in Knit One, Die Two. The book is nicely written, but I wish the pace had been livelier. Peggy Ehrhart is a descriptive writer who goes into detail on cooking, baking, feeding the cats, clothing, going to the grocery, etc. An example is “she added a few tablespoons of sugar to the flour mixture, then poured in melted butter and stirred until some of the flour mixture formed buttery lumps”. This is just a portion of the paragraph describing Pamela making cobbler. These types of descriptions are included for all the items cooked. I would have liked more action in the book and less focus on everyday tasks. I like the main characters of Pamela, Bettina, Wilford and the other members of the Knit & Nibble club. They are a friendly bunch of people. I did not understand Pamela’s obsession over when her neighbor would return from his out of town excursion. She likes her new neighbor, Richard Larkin (though she does not want to admit it), but I did not feel it needed to be mentioned so frequently. The mystery is lackluster. Only Pamela believes Caralee has been murdered. Pamela, with Bettina as her sidekick, question various people around town (food is usually involved). The reveal of the killer is not a surprise nor is the murder weapon. I wanted more focus on the mystery and less on food, kittens, grocery shopping, and chatting. The kittens are adorable and add humor to the story. The recipe for Pamela’s peach cobbler is at the end of the book along with a knitting pattern for a sachet. For those readers who prefer laid back cozy mysteries with more cozy than mystery, you will find Knit One, Die Two enjoyable. I just wanted a little more oomph.

I enjoyed visiting Pamela, Bettina, and the Knit and Nibble gang again! The author has woven together a group of knitters that works well. Throughout the novel is the beauty and history of the community. The mystery was intriguing, as was watching Bettina and Pamela figure out who the real bad guy is. This time we are treated to six kittens, offspring of a cat Pamela ad her daughter took in several months ago. Pamela is the founder of the Knit and Nibble group in Arborville; they meet weekly to work on their knitting patterns, share suggestions on their projects, make items for charity, and nibble on the treats that are brought each week. It is a unique group that includes a male attorney whose doctor wants him to relax and lower his blood pressure. The newest member is Caralee. She recently returned to town from New York and has a part in the community play group’s new offering, A Tale of Two Cities. Her role is a knitter, so she needs to knit convincingly on stage. Pamela, a young widow, has a daughter in college and works as an editor for a fiber magazine. Bettina is her best friend; she and her husband Wilfred live across the street. Bettina has connections with many around town, since she writes for free weekly paper distributed around town. She and Pamela are equally curious about mysterious instances, but Pamela’s involvement with sleuthing in the past has upset her daughter Penny, who tries to have her promise to not get involved in any more mysteries. That seemed an easy thing to promise until she heard a disagreement on the other side of the hedge between her home and the church next door where the community players rehearse. She heard what sounded like Caralee and a man whose voice Pamela couldn’t identify. Pamela was still pondering a situation Caralee told her about. At the church, there is a closet kept for all the sets, costumes, and miscellaneous that the theater group has. For the second time, Caralee opened the door of the room and furnishings stacked up on each other fell, one time getting injured. She tried to reorganize the storeroom to avert a more serious incident. One evening emergency sirens arrived at the church. Bettina and Pamela learned that a young woman had died in an accident. It was Caralee, and once again, the furniture and settings tumbled atop her. Police deemed it an accident and didn’t do any investigating – but what about the person she had a disagreement with earlier? Caralee’s knitted piece, which looked like a random jumble of stitches, might hold the clue to who her killer was. I enjoyed the mystery in this novel, as it was hard to solve, and clues were revealed in interesting ways. I also enjoyed seeing mama cat and kittens throughout. I didn’t feel there was new information about Pamela or Bettina or relationships within their group. Including the knitting pattern and a recipe was interesting, yet there was much emphasis on what Pamela, Bettina, and Wilfred cooked and ate and the volume of work Pamela does each day. A little less would still be interesting. I felt it took away from getting to know more about them or working on the mystery. Finding out who the killer was, and why, was surprising. I had considered the person but couldn’t get the motive. I do recommend this to those who enjoy light cozy mysteries, knitting, and kittens, and am looking forward to the next one. From a thankful heart: I received a copy of this from the publisher through NetGalley, and this is my honest review.

Fun book to read

About the author

Peggy Ehrhart is a former English professor who lives in Leonia, New Jersey, where she writes mysteries and plays blues guitar. She holds a Ph.D. in medieval literature from the University of Illinois and taught writing and literature at Queens College, CUNY, and Fairleigh Dickinson University, where she was a tenured full professor. Her short stories have appeared in Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine, Crime and Suspense, Flashing in the Gutters, Spinetingler, Crime Scene: New Jersey 2, and Murder New York Style. A longtime member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, Peggy served on the board of MWA New York as head of the Mentor Committee. She was president of Sisters in Crime NY/TriState from 2013 to 2015. Peggy regularly attends mystery-writing conferences and participates in conference panels and also gives talks on mystery fiction at libraries in New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey.