If Hooks Could Kill: A Crochet Mystery

By: Betty Hechtman
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: November 2012
ISBN: 978-0425252796
Reviewed by: Deb Fowler
Review Date: January 13, 2013

Molly Pink was an event coordinator for Shedd & Royal Books, but there wasn’t anything on the shelves that could help her tell Barry he’d overstayed his welcome. She’d welcomed him and his teenage son, Jeffrey, with open arms when Barry had been recently shot. It was cozy, but having an ex-boyfriend in residence was a little awkward to say the least, especially when she started to date Mason Fields. Pink and the Tarzana Hookers were busy crocheting for the upcoming Jungle Days Fair where they would try to raise money for Hearts, and Barks, and Meows Too. Everyone was hooking up a storm except for Kelly Donahue who appeared to be nothing more than a “crochet pretender.”

Kelly and her husband owned “Hollar for a Dollar,” a store name that matched her mouth and her appetite for a buck. The only other action in Tarzana, aside from Hollar’s hourly specials, was the fact that North Adams, star of “L.A. 911,” was in town for a shoot. Pink and Adele finally got Kelly to come up with something for the fair, but were shocked when they found she could actually make a bullion stitch, a “crocheter’s greatest nightmare.” Nightmare wasn’t the word for what came next when Detective Heather showed up at the Donahue house. There was no script, no lights, but there was plenty of action ... Kelly had been shot and Pink was one of the last people to see her alive.

“I just want you to know,” Adele yapped at North, “I’m working in adjunct with the police.” Her traffic cop boyfriend, Eric “cutchykins,” must have gotten a promotion because he was the only cop she knew. Dinah, Pink’s best friend, was her investigative sidekick and it was time to get to work before Miss Know It All flubbed the case. No doubt Dan Donahue had done in his wife, but without a murder weapon it was going to be a tough one to solve. Things began to mysteriously disappear, including Kelly’s crochet pieces. North Adams was turning into a big time liar and there was a “sudden influx” of money into someone’s pocket. It looked like Pink had the case all wrapped up until there was some duct tape slapped across her mouth!

Pink has got some “real” competition when Adele, another Tarzana Hooker, decides to find out whodunit. Of course Pink would never be able to live it down if Adele actually solved the mystery of who shot Kelly before she did, so she really had to pick up the pace. With Barry Greenberg, homicide detective, in residence she did have an edge over Adele. I enjoyed the slow and steady pace of the mystery and certain clues were thrown in to make it even harder to solve. The obvious suddenly was not so obvious after all when Pink began to do her sleuthing. The mystery was getting as difficult to unravel for her as that bullion stitch was to make. If you want a cozy mystery that you actually have to think about to solve, pretty in pink Pink will give you one!

Quill says: If you like your cozy mysteries as complicated as a bullion stitch, but as homey as a Granny Square Afghan, Betty Hechtman will whip you one up!