What’s a day like for me now? Certainly, different than when I was working in the kid’s boutique in Malibu. But then Franklin Indiana is nothing like Malibu. The one thing they have in common is being adjacent to water. Malibu has the Pacific Ocean and Franklin has Lake Michigan—which some people say is like an inland fresh water sea.
It’s all about getting everything ready at the school house before we open. It’s hard to believe just a short time ago the vintage red brick building looked sad and abandoned. Now it’s an inviting yarn shop and tea room that belongs to me, Annie Sara Hart. Even though it’s located on a country road outside of town, it has become a destination for local people, summer people and visitors to the nearby national park.
The original plan was for me to come to see what I had inherited from my uncle and put it up for sale. Then I realized the yarn shop needed to get spruced up to be saleable and I decided to add the tea room to make it more saleable. The trouble is that I got attached and I wanted whoever bought it to keep it the way I had set it up.
I heard the van drive up and opened the front door. Toby Swanson came in carrying a tray of scones with his mother just behind with all the freshly baked bread for the finger sandwiches. Their bake goods are the best and baked with joy.
While they were making their delivery, Gray Hanover came in apologizing for oversleeping—again. She has sort of become my partner in the place. It’s a whole new world for her. Her parents are A-list movie stars and she’s accustomed to a pampered life. It’s a long story how she ended up here with me, but as soon as the Swanson’s leave, she’ll be right there with me setting up things for the tea room.
Jack, the white Persian cat, swirls between my legs to remind me to check the yarn room for any scraps of yarn on the wood table we use for social yarn craft. Jack seems to have special qualities which I haven’t quite figured out yet. I am always amazed at how the big cat manages to maneuver around the array of knitted and crochet pieces we have for sale. I was worried that he would think the amigurumi animals were cat toys, but he is very respectful of them. Maybe he understands that they are my creations.
That’s why my uncle left the yarn shop to me, I’m a crochet artist with yarn as my medium. Instead of scarves or blankets, I made fun crocheted sculptures.
Then it will be time to turn over the closed sign. Fingers crossed there aren’t any problems.
SCONED TO DEATH
Series: A Crochet and Crumpets Mystery, Book 2
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: June 2026
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
A brand-new series from the queen of culinary cozies. Full to the brim with crochet, crumpets, and crime!
The perfect ingredients for murder . . .
Annie Hart has transformed the yarn shop she inherited into a thriving business and tea shop. Now she needs to sell it so she can move back to LA. She just has to ensure that young Toby Swanson is kept on as the supplier of their famous scones.
Annie decides to secretly enter Toby in a new reality TV cooking show. But his application video takes a deadly twist when Annie and her business partner, Gray, discover a body on the beach while filming. Even worse, it looks like the young woman had been enjoying Toby’s cherry scones and the shop’s rose tea before her death.
With the help of her misfit group of local yarn artists, can Annie find a killer and save her reputation?
About the author
Despite getting a degree in Fine Arts, all Betty Hechtman ever wanted to be was a writer. She has written newspaper and magazine pieces, along with short stories and screenplays, but her real love are cozy mysteries where there are dead bodies, but everybody has a good time. She writes the Crochet and Crumpet Mystery series, the Yarn Retreat Mystery series, the Writer for Hire series and the Crochet Mystery series. She lives with her family and stash of yarn in Southern California. Connect with Betty at bettyhechtman.com or on Facebook at BettyHechtmanAuthor.