Yarn to Go by Betty Hechtman is the first book in the new “Yarn Retreat” mystery series. Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime, July 2013

Dessert chef Casey Feldstein doesn’t know a knitting needle from a crochet hook. But after her aunt dies unexpectedly, leaving Casey to run her yarn retreat business, the sweets baker finds herself rising to the occasion—and trying to unravel a murder mystery.

When Casey finds out that her late aunt’s business, Yarn2Go, has one more yarn retreat scheduled, she decides to go ahead and host the event, despite her complete lack of experience as a knitter. At least the retreat is on the beautiful Monterey Peninsula.

But the idyllic setting is soured when a retreat regular is found murdered in her hotel room. Feeling a sense of responsibility, Casey begins to weave the clues together and detects a pattern which may shed light on her aunt’s suspicious death. Despite the danger, the last thing Casey plans to do is retreat. She’ll catch this killer…or dye trying.

This is one of those books with a comfortable tone that flows evenly and the more I read in this lighthearted whodunit, the more the suspense kept me turning the pages as I need to know how it was all going to end. Was Casey going to repeat her lot? Did she have it in her to continue? Could she solve this crime?

This book was a delightful read and the author did a good job in delivery a nicely knitted yarn where the setting was idyllic, the dialogue entertaining and the cast that included Casey, Lucinda and hunky Dane was fun to watch as they interacted with the secondary cast which made this murder mystery pleasantly appealing and a good start to this debut series.

FTC Full Disclosure – The publisher sent me a copy of this book, in hopes I would review it.

previously posted on the Cozy Chicks blog