My name is Phoebe Meyers, assistant manager of the Black Sheep & Company knitting shop. Guess you could say I’m the, “and company” part of the shop’s name?

My boss and good friend, Maggie Messina changed the sign when she gave me a big promotion about a year ago. I started there as a customer and hung around so much –and was such a good knitter, helping everyone else with their projects – Maggie offered me a job. I already thought she was cool, but add to that she saw past my piercings, tattoos and colorful hairdo, down to the real Phoebe.

She let me move into the apartment on the second floor at a super cheap rent, where I live very happily with my rescued alley cat, Van Gogh. Nice perk for an art student, I’d say. I’m done with school, but still love my job. It hardly feels like work with our knitting group pals — Lucy, Suzanne and Dana — popping in and out all day. They’re like my fiber fairy godmothers.

Maggie is more than a boss or a mentor, or even a good friend. She and her husband Charles fuss over me like their own daughter. I don’t have much family. My Mom died when I was nine and my father remarried and moved to Arizona. But that’s another story. Let’s just say, I’ve been on my own from a tender age. But when I landed here, I felt like I really found my tribe. And my true passion.

Maggie is usually at the shop by half past eight, or even earlier. I can hear her fiddling around, making coffee and getting ready for our day. I come down around nine and help customers pick patterns and yarns, or untangle a newbie’s stitching mess. Or even give a class. Lucy Binger usually comes by about then, when she walks her dogs to town and Suzanne Cavanaugh, our real estate broker friend, can never resist a pit stop with her BFFs. Dana Haeger, who’s a psychologist has an office up the street and visits between clients, when she needs her own favorite therapy.

Even when I’m in the shop, my brain is working on my own designs. I knit crazy, colorful socks, hats, scarves, capes — even bikinis– all types of knitwear that I sell online at Socks-by-Phoebe.com. I’m totally focused on my career right now, and so not dating. Ever since I broke up with Harry McSweeney, a super talented potter. I have to give him credit for that even though he broke my heart.

Maggie knows my goal is to have my own shop one day and she’s always encouraging me. When I was offered a booth at the Farmer’s and Crafters Market in town this summer, Maggie and my pals jumped into action to help me sell my wares. I was the one dragging my heels when I heard the reason the booth was empty. Farmer Jimmy Hooper, a guy we all knew and loved, committed suicide. That sort of freaked me out. I’m a little superstitious. . .Okay, a lot. I couldn’t help thinking that poor Jimmy’s spirit had left this world in an unhappy state and might be hanging around?

My friends convinced me I was being silly. Until bad things did start happening at the market – annoying stuff at first, like Harry showed up in a booth across the aisle, selling his pottery. And the police arrived, questioning everybody because. . . Guess what? Jimmy didn’t take his own life, he was murdered.

Somehow Harry has become their prime suspect. He was a super-bad boyfriend, but a murderer? I wouldn’t go that far. I have to help him, since no one else will. Of course my friends, who love to solve crimes almost as much as they love to knit and gossip, are putting their heads together, too. Even though they’re not convinced that Harry is innocent.

One thing is clear. Something rotten is going on at the Farmer’s Market.

Strangers on a Skein, A Black Sheep & Co. Mystery #4
Genre: Cozy
Release: October 2021
Purchase Link

Romantic entanglements and handcrafted murder tie the Black Sheep knitters in knots when the local farmers’ market becomes a haven for a killer . . .

Phoebe Meyers, Black Sheep Knitting Shop’s assistant manager, finally comes out from behind the counter to sell her own creations—Socks by Phoebe—at the Plum Harbor Farmers’ and Crafts Market, a lively, colorful venue that draws shoppers from miles around. But her excitement cools when she learns the previous tenant of her booth, farmer Jimmy Hooper, committed suicide. She’s barely raised her Grand Opening banner when Hooper’s death is upgraded to murder.

Phoebe worries that her stall is jinxed when things go from bad to worse. The last person she wants to see, her ex-boyfriend Harry “The Potter” McSweeney, appears in the stall across the aisle to sell his wares. The Black Sheep advise Phoebe to be strong and resist the handsome artist’s spell. But romantic sparks and tempers explode in a very public scene—and a pile of broken pottery. Before Phoebe can get back to business, her stall is trashed, her Facebook page hacked, and another vendor is found dead.

The Black Sheep worry for Phoebe’s safety, especially when Harry becomes the prime suspect in both crimes. Phoebe refuses to believe he’s a killer and is determined to prove him innocent. Her friends are not convinced, but for Phoebe’s sake—and her safety—the Black Sheep puts their wits together to catch the crafty marketplace killer who’s hiding in plain sight . . .

About the author
Anne Canadeo is the best-selling author of the Black Sheep & Company Mysteries, and the Cape Light and Angel Island series, written as Katherine Spencer. When Anne isn’t writing she’s doing all the things her fictional characters like to do — garden, cook, take long walks with her dog, Leo and volunteer in the community. You can contact her at anne@annecanadeo.com. She loves to hear from readers.

All comments are welcomed.