Death by Cashmere

Last week when I read this I also wound up two skeins of cashmere that I'd bought several years ago in New York at the sheep and wool festival in Rheinbeck. As I wound the skeins of expensive cashmere into balls I discovered that each skein had been sliced with a sharp instrument, severing several yards of the yarn. Muttering dark threats of what I'd like to say to the booth owner who had sold me the mutilated cashmere, I grimly tied square knots every few yards and thought what my idea of "death by cashmere" would look like. I think a disgruntled customer (like me) would take the knotted pitiful ball of cashmere to the vendor and order her to knit a sock with it while I watched. And carefully cut out all those square knots and weave in all the hundreds of ends of yarn that would be there and make that sock look perfect and worth the $$$$ spent on the yarn. It probably wouldn't kill her, but it might make her think twice before wielding her box cutter with gay abandon while opening a box of yarn!

I sent Penny Death by Cashmere. It reminded me of her because she knits and loves the beach. Then I saw it at the library a few weeks ago and read the endorsement by Alexander McCall Smith on the cover, so I checked it out.

Set in the seaside village of Sea Harbor, Massachusetts, this murder mystery introduces the Seaside Knitting Studio, its owner, Izzy Chambers, and Izzy's aunt, Nell Endicott. Izzy's shop has an apartment above it rented by Izzy's old friend, Angie. When Angie is found dead, Izzy, Nell and the regulars of the knitting group at the shop try to find out what happened.

This looks as though it's the first in a series, and it looks as though Nell, rather than Izzy, might be the one to solve the mysteries. I guess I'll see if I'm right when the next book comes out.