Review & Giveaway: Unraveled by Maggie Sefton

Hardcover, 292 pages

Published June 7th 2011 by Berkley Hardcover (first published May 14th 2011)

ISBN

0425241149 (ISBN13: 9780425241141)

primary language

English

In the midst of the recession, Jennifer Stroud is having a tough time selling real estate in Fort Connor, Colorado. She is thrilled to find a new client; unfortunately, it's Fred Turner whose reputation as difficult is well known in the community. After Turner agrees to sell some river front property to one of Kelly Flynn's clients, another possible buyer tries to get in on the deal.  Jenn and her friend Kelly, who runs her own CPA firm, travel up to see Turner to find out what's going on.

What they find is a dead body. Fred Turner's dead body!  For a man with few friends and many enemies including a bitter soon-to-be-ex wife, the list of possible suspects could be extensive. Turner had a reputation for being a cheat so it's no surprise he is dead.

After having gone through a murder investigation the year before, Jenn wants no part in this mess but Kelly, being curious and having a history of being a bit of a "sleuth" wants to find out the truth about who murdered Fred. She is convinced it isn't her client, Arthur Housemann, even though he desperately wanted that piece of property. Between work, hanging out with her knitting friends at the Lambspun shop and getting over her heartbreak at the breakup with boyfriend Steve, will Kelly be able to unravel this mystery and find the true killer or is the murderer just too clever?

Unraveled is the 9th book in the Knitting Mystery Series. It's not necessary to have any knowledge of knitting nor to have read any previous books in the series. Each book stands well on it's own but you might want to start from the beginning just to see how the characters' relationships have developed. Sefton is very adept at making her characters come alive and making their real life relationships feel so real. Sefton has left a little bit of a romantic cliffhanger at the end of this story so  it will be fun to find out what happens to Kelly and Steve in the next book.

The cast of characters at the beginning is most helpful. At the end of the book is a pattern for a knitted summer tee and a recipe for a chocolate cake. 4****

Disclosure: A review copy of the book was provided by Berkley in exchange for my honest opinion.

To celebrate the release of Unraveled, Berkley is allowing me to give away 1 copy of the book. Open to US only. Deadline to enter is July 9th at 5 PM. Please be sure to leave an e mail address in your comment. Bonus entries available for this contest are as follows:

+2 for being a follower old or new. Just remind me how you follow and under what name.
+3 for blogging or tweeting about the giveaway. Leave me a link, please.

Good luck!