I’m Shelby Phillips, new “temporary manager” of Nina’s Nimble Needle needlepoint shop while my mom Nina is on vacation.

As my first official day at the shop, yesterday was blessedly ordinary. Even after I did everything I could think of to get ready for today’s big event, I had time to spare. I spent some time getting to know Mom’s two shop staff, Leona and JanLi. Both have been enormously supportive of my taking the helm of the shop. They piled on the compliments all day long and went to great lengths to talk me up to any customer who walked in.

Today? Today hasn’t gone well at all.

JanLi gave me a panicked look at 9:45 a.m. “We’re supposed to start in fifteen minutes,” she whispered. “Where is Kat?”

Kat was our special guest artist who made exquisite needlework scissors in addition to her clever mobile knife sharpening business. She should have been here by now.

“Maybe she got caught in traffic?” I wondered if Kat was more upset about being passed over to run the Nimble Needle than my Mom realized. Would Kat be the type to pull a no-show just to make me look bad?

“We have to do something,” JanLi whispered as the front door opened and three more customers walked in.

We had had enough absent-minded artistic types on staff at Batterson Graphic Arts Design that I had developed a solid arsenal of good stalling tactics. “She’s an artist. They’re notoriously bad at keeping track of time. Set the coffee and goodies out and help people look around the shop.” I grabbed my jacket. “I’ll just go take a look outside.”

I walked to the end of the block to peer down the side of the street in both directions. Kat’s van was nowhere to be found. But just as I was turning back toward the shop, I caught a flash of purple between two trees a block or two away. Sure enough, on one of the side streets, I spied what had to be the back of her mobile sharpening van.

A last-minute nap? Knife-sharpening emergency? Whatever was holding Kat up, I needed to head over there and get her underway to our shop. I picked up my pace to a light jog and dialed the shop from my cell phone.

“I found her,” I said when JanLi answered the phone. “I should be able to get her up to the shop in a minute or so.”

When I got closer to the van, I heard a machine sound and rock music coming from the interior. Maybe she had to fix something at the last minute and had lost track of time. I knocked on the side of the van. When that brought no response, I ducked around to the driver’s side and peered in the window. The driver’s seat was empty.

“Kat!” I called, rapping on the window. “Hey, Kat, it’s time for you to be up at the Nimble Needle!”

No reply. I ducked around the corner of the van and grabbed at one of the two back-door handles. With all my might, I yanked. The door gave way easily, nearly knocking me backward. There was an oily smell to the air, and the whirring, slightly squeaky sound of a large machine came from one side of the van. It took me a second to recognize that the dark figure in the corner shadow was Kat, peering down at whatever she was working on. Her face was blocked by her thick black hair.

Only she wasn’t moving.

One Sharp Stitch: A Nimble Needle Mystery, Book 1
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: March 2025
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Purchase Link

When thirty-something Shelby Phillips returns to her quiet hometown just outside of Asheville, North Carolina, she reluctantly takes over her mother’s Nimble Needle needlepoint shop—and gets entangled in a murder investigation . . .

It’s only temporary. That’s what Shelby Phillips tells herself when she returns to excruciatingly harmless Gwen Lake after her graphic arts career—and the office romance blooming with it—get tossed like rejected design mockups. Her plan is as simple and fool-proof as a tent stitch: manage the family needlepoint shop during her parents’ RV vacation. It’s just a month. It’s not as if they’re retiring . . . right?

When Shelby becomes responsible for hosting a trunk show with local vendors, she’s determined to pull it off. Even if that means dealing with former classmate Kat Katsaros, a rising entrepreneur specializing in needlework scissors. Kat has changed since high school—and she’s angling to take over the Nimble Needle herself. The tension unspools when Shelby makes a terrible discovery on the morning of the event: Kat’s dead body.

Shelby can’t believe the death was an accident. That’s why she’s set on exposing who committed the murder with Kat’s own equipment. She finds help in a new friend, a potential crush, and the surprising support of her sister and the Nimble Needle stitchers. Still, Shelby must move quickly to stop the crafty culprit before her maybe not-so-temporary new life in Gwen Lake comes apart at the seams . . .

About the author
An avid crafter, coffee junkie and firm believer that “pie makes everything better,” Allie Pleiter writes both fiction and non-fiction working on as many as four books at a time. The bestselling author of over sixty books, Allie has enjoyed a twenty-plus year career with over 1.8 million books sold. In addition to writing, Allie maintains an active writing productivity coaching practice and speaks regularly on the creative process, publishing, and her very favorite topic—The Chunky Method of time management for writers. She lives in the Charlotte area with her husband and the world’s most adorable dog. Visit her website at alliepleiter.com to learn more.