See book 3, Stitches in Time

See book 3, Stitches in Time

very good

A Killer Lurks... In her quaint vintage clothing boutique in picturesque Georgetown, Karen Nevitt's laces and white linens seem so innocent. Her aunt's aged friends have even ransacked their attics to help the novice entrepreneur launch her business. The dresses they produce are exquisite--valuable designer originals from decades past--but unwittingly Karen has discovered something far more lethal than fashion trends. Concealed by the delicate fabrics is the hidden clue to a forgotten mystery, and someone is willing to kill to keep it that way.

The story follows Karen Nevitt who has recently moved into her aunt and uncle's house, because she married a controlling dickhead and he finally got tired of her and kicked her to the curb for a younger woman. So, Karen has come back to the town she went to college in, with not much money, not much clothes (because she left the instant Jack –the ex-husband- told her about his divorce plan), not much self confidence, out of shape, and with little to no backbone. She’s now working for her friend, Julie, in Julie’s antique store.

Karen’s character kind of annoyed me in the beginning, because she let Julie (and pretty much everyone else) walk all over her, but Karen slowly started regaining her confidence throughout the book. Mainly this change in her occurs because, instead of giving Julie the vintage clothes, she finds in her aunt’s attic, she keeps them and decides to open her own shop. After some really hard shoving by her uncle’s mother she finally really starts getting serious about opening her vintage clothing shop. Only her plans start getting delayed by weird stuff starting to happen to her; fake ghosts trotting around in her back yard, a guy breaking into the house and trying to choke her, and someone dying who was working for Julie. On top of all that Karen also has to deal with Mark, her ex-boyfriend who she left for Jack.

This is another really great mystery by Michaels. The line of suspects wraps practically around the block and the killer/stalker that is doing all this to Karen barely even showed up on my radar. Like at the climax of any good mystery everything just clicks into place and leaves you with a “oh my god, I completely overlooked that” feeling. The characters are great, but I would’ve liked to have seen Karen’s uncle’s mother play a bigger role than she did. This book is definitely a keeper for me.
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