When murder silences the Christmas cheer in charming Arborville, New Jersey, Pamela and her Knit and Nibble pals must unravel the most bone-chilling mystery this side of the North Pole . . . Pamela has been in merry spirits since her artsy daughter Penny returned home from college for the holidays. But their mother-daughter bonding time gets cut short when a terrified Penny stumbles upon the … stumbles upon the dumped body of Millicent Farthingale, a wealthy craft shop owner who was popular for all the wrong reasons. From a scheming business partner to a seedy husband several years her junior, Millicent attracted scammers so in love with her assets, they’d toss her down a chimney to get their paws on them. Now, with only a hand-knit red scarf connecting the killer to the crime, Pamela and the Knit and Nibblers could use some extra creativity as they find out who’s really naughty or nice in Arborville—because going up against a looming culprit is DIY or die!
Knitting tips and delicious recipe included!
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Silent Knit, Deadly Knit is the 4th instalment in the “ A Knit & Nibble” Mystery by Peggy Ehrhart. I like this series and enjoyed this book.
When murder silences the Christmas cheer in charming Arborville, New Jersey, Pamela and her Knit and Nibble pals must unravel the most bone-chilling mystery this side of the North Pole . . .
Pamela has been in merry spirits since her artsy daughter Penny returned home from college for the holidays. But their mother-daughter bonding time gets cut short when a terrified Penny stumbles upon the dumped body of Millicent Farthingale, a wealthy craft shop owner who was popular for all the wrong reasons. From a scheming business partner to a seedy husband several years her junior, Millicent attracted scammers so in love with her assets, they’d toss her down a chimney to get their paws on them. Now, with only a hand-knit red scarf connecting the killer to the crime, Pamela and the Knit and Nibblers could use some extra creativity as they find out who’s really naughty or nice in Arborville—because going up against a looming culprit is DIY or die!
The cast of characters are likable and I enjoy the friendship between Pamela and her neighbours Wilfred and Bettina. The mystery seemed to not be the main focus of this book but rather on the characters. The mystery was good, lots of twists and turns and red herrings which kept me guessing till the end. I wouldn’t say this is a fast read like some of the cozies I read but one I read over several days.
I look forward to reading the next installment.
I requested and received an Advanced Reader Copy from Kensington Books via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Dollycas’a Thoughts
Welcome to Arborville, New Jersey, just in time for the holidays . . . and a . . . MURDER!
When Pamela gets a frantic call from her daughter Penny saying she found a dead body while out hiking and sketching Pamela and the Knit and Nibblers rush to her side. Pamela identifies the body as none other than craft shop owner, Millicent Farthingale. With just a little digging many suspects are found but Pamela believes a scarf recently given to the victim and missing from her body is a key clue to finding the killer. With the Nibblers on the case, they hope to knit all the clues together and wrap up the case before their holiday celebrations.
I really enjoy catching up with these characters. If the Knit and Nibble group was real it would be one I would love to join. The members are diverse, all with their own quirks. They come together to create wonderful knit items, eat delicious snacks and snoop into the latest death that has taken place in their fine town. With each story, the author delves a little further into the lives of this eclectic group. She also introduces new characters in the form of suspects. She unveils more about them as the clues drop and the investigation continues.
In Silent Knit, Deadly Knit, the murder mystery is pretty straight forward and for me was more of a subplot. The main plot this time was more about the lives of the knitting group and the holidays. While the mystery was interesting I think this time the author’s writing style which is very descriptive took over pushing it into the background. I did enjoy all the baking and cooking, Pamela’s quest to find the perfect tree, and her trying to spend as much time with her daughter as possible. There were some funny and sentimental moments and the story did have a good flow. I just wish the mystery would have had as much depth as the characters I have come to love.
Pamela and Bettina make a great team whether sleuthing, butting into each other’s lives, or taking care of their friends. Following these ladies around through these pages is always entertaining. I do encourage the author to tighten up her writing a bit and put more focus on the mystery. I really liked the premise of a unique scarf as a strong connection. It really grabbed my focus. I also loved the description of the tunic Pamela was making for Penny. It sounds gorgeous!
Silent Knit, Deadly Knit is a nice addition to this series. To really get to know Pamela and the rest of the Knit and Nibble group you really need to read the series from the beginning.
Pamela’s daughter, Penny, is home for the holidays. She is the unfortunate person who finds a local shop owner dead in the nature preserve. With many people with varying motives can Pamela, Bettina, and Penny figure out what happened?
I am truly starting to love these characters. I’m loving getting to know them and I’m starting to wish I could go to the Knit and Nibble meetings. I love getting to know all the different sides of each of the characters. I am getting a little annoyed with the weird potential relationship between Pamela and Richard. It almost seems like they’re acting like 10-year-olds not being able to talk to each other. I’m looking forward to reading more of this series.
Silent Knit, Deadly Knit by Peggy Ehrhart is the first book in the Knit and Nibble Mystery series that I have read. Although it’s book four, Ehrhart gives enough background information on the characters and previous events that you won’t be lost.
I always hate giving a book less than a four star rating, but sometimes it has to be done. Especially since I write book reviews so people know what they are getting into. But reviews are subjective and what I found to be a problem with this book might be something that others enjoy reading.
There was a lot of filler in this book. I think Ehrhart mentioned how to make coffee at least ten times in this book. The neighbors pumpkin colored coat and Penny’s violet coat and scarf were mentioned almost every time they went outside or came in from outside. Whenever Pamela would pick up something around her house it had to be said if she got it from a tag sale or some other second-hand shop. When they were looking through her friend’s items at the estate sale, a black and white outfit was mentioned twice in the same paragraph… and I think the paragraph was only three sentences long!
If you were to take out all of the descriptions and repetitive household events, the book would be only half as long and I would have been fine with it. I would rather have a short, well-written book than one with a lot of fluff.
I did get a good feel for the characters which always makes for a good cozy. It was not consistent how Pamela treated her 19 year old daughter though. One minute she was letting her drink alcohol and then she needed to know where she was all the time. And the way Pamela and the potential love interest were interacting was very high-schoolish to me, by book four I would think it would have moved along a bit more.
I did really enjoy the mystery reveal though and didn’t see it coming. Plus I really enjoyed the details behind it. Maybe if I had started with book one, Murder, She Knit, and had really gotten to love the characters I would continue reading the series, but there are just so many great cozy mystery series to read that I don’t want to settle for a just okay one.
This was more a story of several personalities in a small town than a murder mystery. And too detailed and repetitive. Every time one woman put on her outerwear, it was described as her “pumpkin-colored coat.” Every time! And a detailed description of exactly how to do a coffee pour over? I really am surprised this even got published.
A cozy with a good mystery and a great deal of filler in minute details about how the protagonist cooks that does not add to the story
I thought this book dragged- – -. I will not finish it because it lacks humor and fascinating plot or some romance or something in the first part to keep me reading.
This was a good story and I like the characters in this series, but it got a little too detailed for me about what they ate and wore.
Silent Knit, Deadly Knit by Peggy Ehrhart is the fourth A Knit & Nibble Mystery. Pamela, Wilfred, Bettina and the knitting group are back. They are gearing up for Christmas by finishing last minute gifts and enjoying Christmas cookies. Pamela is happy to have her daughter, Penny home for the winter holidays. I like the diverse group of people that make up the knitting group. They are friendly bunch who get together to create beautifully knit items while they chat and eat items that they have made. Of course, when there is a murder to solve, they brainstorm and snoop. I like that we get to learn more about Pamela as well as the knitting members in each story. We also get to catch up on the lives of the kittens who love to chase yarn and get into mischief. There are some lovely yarn descriptions that had me wanting to add to my stash (which consists of six large totes at the moment). Pamela and the knitting group get involved in the death of Millicent Farthingale. Millicent is a woman of means who is married to Pierre, a French Canadian and owns a local craft store. The mystery was not the primary focus of the book. Pamela was focused on decorating for the holidays, making cookies, and spending time with Penny. There are a couple of suspects in Millicent’s death, but the killer can be pegged in the first quarter of the book. I wish the mystery had been the focus and that it had been more complex. I am glad that the romance between Pamela and Richard is not being rushed. However, I believe it is time to move forward and for them to actually go out (they have been acting juvenile for two mature adults). Silent Knit, Deadly Knit is nicely written, and the story moved along at a nice pace. It can be read as a standalone for those new to the series. There are lovely cozy moments and some humor sprinkled throughout. Silent Knit, Deadly Knit is a merry cozy mystery with scrumptious cookies, yummy yarn, fun felines, Christmas carols, and a meddlesome murder.
Series: A Knit and Nibble Mystery – Book 4
Author: Peggy Ehrhart
Genre: Cozy Mystery/Holiday
Publisher: Kensington Books
Page Count: 304
From Kensington Books comes the 4th installment in the “A Knit and Nibble” mystery series. Silent Knit, Deadly Knit, is a holiday cozy written by Peggy Ehrhart.
Pamala is at it again. Getting involved in murder investigations is becoming a habit for her, but this time it includes her daughter. This is very upsetting for Pamala and creates a bit of tension near the holidays that she could have done without. This holiday cozy has some interesting characters and a unique capture of the killer.
I have read several books in this series, and I’m afraid they are not getting any better. A holiday cozy should be filled with the sights and sounds of happiness and Christmas. Although holiday references are spread throughout the book, it isn’t as dominant as it should be. The mystery itself is a huge disappointment. Once again, there is little to no investigation, no real police involvement, even when Pamala finds possible evidence she doesn’t take it to the police. Instead, she passes it on to her friend Bettina who passes it along to the police. And the suspects are, well… not really suspects. No plausible motive is given for the murder or the suspects. The main character treats her daughter as if she is five instead of nineteen. There are no clues pointing to anyone in particular, and the murderer comes out of left field. How Pamala captures the killer is noteworthy but not enough to justify the rest of the book.
Frankly, there is just too much filler in this holiday cozy. The main character spends 75% of the story cooking, yet she is not a chef, buttering a piece of toast or two, or going to the Co-op to shop for groceries. Silent Knit, Deadly Knit, is pedantic. In a nutshell, it is detail taken to an extreme, which bogs down what could have been a good murder mystery.
This is the fourth book in the cozy “Knit & Nibble Mystery” series. I have not read the others in the series, but had no trouble getting into this story so it’s not absolutely necessary to have read them in order—but it would probably help with knowing who’s who and where they fit into the story.
In the series, Pamela Paterson is the sleuth. She has joined the Knit and Nibble gang who enjoy crafting their projects as well as making goodies to share. She works at home for a “fiber” related magazine—which figures into her solving the murder. In this one, Pamela’s daughter Penny is home from college for the Christmas break and, while on a hike, discovers the body of one of the knitters’ friends. There are the usual suspects and an interesting twist at the end that I didn’t see coming. I also love the idea Pamela came up with in order to trap the killer. That was fun (not giving away secrets!).
Things I liked: the twist at the end. The characters were also interesting. And all the references to holiday music set the stage well.
Things I didn’t like: The author tends to go on for much too long with “filler” – describing every step in great detail of how the character is baking something, the plates (and colors) being used and more. There was so much of this that had absolutely nothing to do with the mystery. I found myself skipping entire pages of this filler. It really turned me off of the entire story, which was a shame because I think it could have been really enjoyable except for that.
Recommendation: If you’re already reading the series, pick this one up. The mystery part of the story is really good. It’s all the filler that drags it down into the three-sparkler level.
culinary, knitting, friendship, cozy-mystery, murder, murder-investigation
It was supposed to be a fun time with daughter home for the Christmas holidays and good friends to share with. But then daughter is out sketching in the woods but finds the body of a wealthy craft shop owner and everything becomes complicated. Add in the woman’s boy toy, an alleged sister, intrusive reporters, the support of the knitting group, and the sleuthing begins. Great afternoon read!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Kensington Books via NetGalley.