Needle and Dread by Elizabeth Lynn Casey is the 11th book in the “Southern Sewing Circle” mystery series. Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime, April 2016

The Sweet Briar Ladies Society Sewing Circle is needled by the death of a highly strung woman in the new mystery by the author of Wedding Duress.

Downtown Sweet Briar is now home to a new sewing shop run by one of the circle’s own. With the help and support of her fellow members, Rose is determined to make SewTastic a success, and, to that end, she decides to sponsor a series of do-it-yourself weekends for sewing enthusiasts.

But when a group arrives at SewTastic to work on a project, a loud and argumentative guest pushes everyone’s buttons. And when she winds up dead in Rose’s project room—strangled by a sewing machine power cord—it’s up to Tori and the gang to stitch together the clues before Rose’s reason for living is ripped apart at the seams.

It’s like coming home again with my annual visit to Sweet Briar with Tori and her friends. In their latest adventure, a woman is murdered in the opening of Rose and Leona’s shop and to salvage the store, Tori, Margaret Louise and the ever-exuberant Charles are on the case to solve this puzzling mystery.

The author did a great job in setting this up and kept me on my toes as I circled around the suspects and enjoyed the way it all played out where each character, including the murderer, had a pivotal role that made it easy to follow and fun narrowing down the suspect until there was only one standing. Good job.

This character-driven drama always puts a smile on my face as it puts me right in the middle of all the action in this delightfully charming tale. Oh, one of the best parts of the book was the mention of a small town in Pennsylvania and its owner that I hope comes to fruition. That would be so Cool!

This was a great read and I definitely can’t wait to read the next book, especially with this book’s ending sentence.