Book Review: Bits and Pieces by Annette Mahon
Bits and Pieces
Annette Mahon
Five Star, January 2010
ISBN 1594148457
Hardcover
I have the latest in sewing equipment, including machines that embroider and quilt, so when I see a book that combines my favorite hobbies of reading and sewing, I’m all over it ! Bits and Pieces may be a stretch for me, since quilting for me is an individual activity as opposed to the concept of a “quilting bee” in which a quilt is the pieced quilt top stretched over a frame and hand quilted by a group of quilters.
This is a cozy mystery that takes place in Scottsdale, Arizona and opens with quilter, Clare Patterson, calling one of the other quilters, Maggie Browne, to report that she is in Big Mart and saw Kenny Upland, a neighbor and the suspect in an explosion that killed his wife and their five year old twin daughters. Kenny has been a fugitive for six months and Maggie is disbelieving that Kenny would be shopping so close to home where the police are searching for him. Clare is urged by Maggie to call 911 but Clare decides to follow Kenny in her car when he leaves Big Mart. Clare is feeling very smug: Kenny is the object of an extensive manhunt, the authorities have been unsuccessful, but she, Clare Patterson, has found him; she’s just like the amateur sleuths in the mystery novels she reads or like Jessica Fletcher from TV!
Tailing Kenny is not easy; thunder, lightening, heavy rain, slick and unfamiliar roads cause Clare to crash her car and lose consciousness. She wakes up to find she has been rescued by Kenny and she is in his hideaway. Kenny, a veteran of the Iraq war, shares with Clare that he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder but he truly loved his wife and children and would not have done anything to harm them. Clare returns to the Quilting Bee and relates her experience with the quilters. While some of the members of the Quilting Bee are ambivalent toward Kenny, they do indeed mobilize to solve this mystery.
I liked this book ! The short synopsis presented here does not do justice to all the characters and their personalities and sleuthing skills. For those readers who are not quilters, there is not an over abundance of references to quilting and for those of us who love making quilts, the references to quilting make us think of fabric, patchwork and bits and pieces.
Now, I have to read other books by Annette Mahon !
Reviewed by Jean Tribull Harris, April 2010.
April 8, 2010
Tags: cozy, Five Star, mystery, quilting Posted in: Full Reviews
Loading ...
Leave a Reply