Review and giveaway: The Wedding Shawl by Sally Goldenbaum

Hardcover, 320 pages

Expected publication: May 3rd 2011 by NAL Hardcover

ISBN 0451233190 (ISBN13: 9780451233196)

Residing in Sea Harbor, MA, the four friends Cass, Birdie, Izzie and her Aunt Nell are preparing for Izzie's upcoming wedding. They meet regularly at Izzie's yarn shop to work on her wedding shawl and just enjoy each other's company. One night they meet at the book store to hear a local author talk about plot development. He tells them he gets a lot of ideas for mysteries from cold cases like the one that happened in town fifteen years ago. A young high school senior was found dead in the quarry and it was never proved what happened but suspicions still linger to the present time.

When Tiffany, a young woman from the salon who is helping the friends with wedding plans, is found murdered in her office, the town gossips can't help but compare it to the cold case. It's eerily coincidental that the two women were best friends in high school and both had a friendship with  the same young man then and now. It feels like the past is starting to repeat itself and suspicion about Tiffany's murder turns to a friend of the group.

The four knitters know they must find out what really happened, prove their friend's innocence and get this all behind them before the wedding. When two members of the group receive veiled threats, they know they are getting too close to the murderer but it does not deter them; it just make them more determined than ever to find out the truth not just of Tiffany's murder but for some closure on the fifteen year old mystery.

The Seaside knitting friends help solve the mystery using intelligent, well thought out deduction; no crazy- off -the-wall heroics in this series. These friends are very down to earth and believable characters. Along with the small town atmosphere and seaside location, I think this is why I like this series so much. All the characters are fully fleshed out and feel like old friends at this point.  Goldenbaum builds her case logically with enough clues and red herrings to keep any mystery fan intrigued. 4****

The Wedding Shawl is the 5th book in the Seaside Knitting series, set in New England. I've read 3 of them now and to my mind they just keep getting better and better. Recipes and a knitting pattern are included at the end of the book.  Sally Goldenbaum is also the author of the Queen Bee Quilting series set in Kansas.

Disclosure: A review copy of the book was provided by Penguin Group (USA)  in exchange for my honest opinion.

To celebrate the release of The Wedding Shawl, Penguin Group is allowing me to host a giveaway for one copy of the book. US only. Deadline to enter is May 14th at 5 PM. Be sure to include an e mail address in your comment. Good luck!

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