What’s with the town’s trees wearing handknit sweaters? Is it public art? An environmental statement? Some anonymous person is covering up the red Xs on trees slated for removal below power lines. The mayor supports the tree removal, but when the mayor is murdered, suspicion falls on one of the Knit and Nibble knitting group and Roland DeCamp, who argued with the deceased, is soon arrested and charged with homicide.

Pamela Paterson from the Knit and Nibble club along with her reporter friend Bettina get to work on not only clearing Roland but finding the real killer. From knitting club meetings to an estate sale, Pamela and Bettina follow the clues, even with danger stalking them.

A Fatal Yarn invites you into a group of friends and knitters. It’s a light read, but the author does get bogged down in detailed aspects of everyday life and routine. And there seemed to be so many secondary characters. I understand this is part of a series, but maybe a bit more reflection that not every reader will start with book one might make the author consider scaling back the number of secondary characters. Perhaps not everyone in a large cast has to make an appearance in every book in the series. Or maybe consider including them more in the current story to help keep their character distinctive. For the reader, especially the one reading the series out of sequence, it may make it easier to keep track of who is who and how they relate to the rest of the characters and story.

3 stars