Till Death Do Us Purl

Black Sheep & Company Mystery #4

by Anne Canadeo

The fourth in the charming knitting mystery series that is “sure to hook cozy fans” (Publishers Weekly) featuring Maggie Messina and her close circle of knitting-club friends, who must unravel another murder in their cozy coastal town of Plum Harbor, Massachusetts.

The Black Sheep Knitters new project is helping a bride-to-be knit shawls for her upcoming wedding. Days after the ceremony, the groom dies in a freak accident. As the knitters comfort the family, many secrets and betrayals—both business and romantic—are revealed. When the groom’s body turns up after the funeral in a motel room, dead again, the newlywed widow is the prime suspect, The Black Sheep must prove her innocence and find the real killer among a large circle of family, friends, and foes.  

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Knitting, Cozy, Fiction, Chick Lit, Crafts

288 pages, Paperback

First published March 6, 2012

Reviews

[Jeannie and Louis Rigod · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Black Sheep Knitting mysteries are getting stronger and more mysterious each novel. This was the best yet.

There is a wedding of a regular customer, Rebecca Bailey, and she needs the help of the Black Sheep Knitting group. The group consists of the shop's owner, Maggie and four of her best customers/friends.

Maggie known for rushing to the aid of any knitter, volunteers the group to help finish up the wedding gown (yes, the Bride is going to knit her gown,) and shrugs for the bridal party. Then...death strikes.

This becomes a murder investigation when the dead party is pronounced dead...twice!

We are taken through the wedding, funerals, industrial espionage, and obsession by the ending of this well crafted and quick reading novel.

Ms. Canadeo truly wove us a mystery as fine as any tatted lace.

[Gigi Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this Black Sheep Knitting Cozy Mystery. Maggie is the owner of the Black Sheep Knitting Shop, and four of her enthusiastic knitting friends (Lucy, Suzanne, Dana, and Phoebe) meet once a week to knit and chat. Each of the amateur sleuths has a different personality and their differences adds to the fun of them making inquiries, and gossiping while knitting.

I enjoyed this book and I awarded it 3***

[Dale Harcombe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars. I haven’t read any of the others in the series but that didn’t matter. This stands alone. I have to admit to this non crafty person knitting a wedding dress seemed very bizarre. But that’s just me. She needs help to get it all finished before the big day so Maggie and members of the Black Sheep Knitting group spring into action to help with the hand knitted dress and with shrugs for the bridesmaids and flower girl. Sadly, Rebecca who was married in her knitted gown, soon finds herself a widow. But who could have killed Jeremy and why? The author drops a couple of red herrings to try and lead the reader away from the real criminal and their motive. It’s light, easy to read and a little bit of fun to while away some time. Those who enjoy cosy mysteries will no doubt really enjoy this.

[Ann Boytim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maggie Messina owner of the Black Sheep Knitting shop volunteered her group to help a local bride with her wedding plans to knit shrugs for the bridesmaids and Maggie herself would help the bride knit her dress. The wedding has been pushed up so they are all getting together at Maggie's shop. The wedding goes off as planned but then two days afterwards the bridegroom is found dead. Lots of intrigue when the body is found to be someone else other than the groom.

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first book by this author and I just loved it! Can't wait to read more of the series! I just fell in love with the Black Sheep knitting group and how they all bond together to help each other out and their friends. A couple of recipes and patterns included from the story too!

[Jennifer Robb · Rating 3 out of 5]

A friend (AC) sent me a number of books in this series. (Since I apparently have no life, I have been reading through them rather quickly it seems.)

As you may guess from the title and the cover, this book does contain a wedding--and a knitted wedding dress..

We're never really given a good explanation as to why the wedding was moved up so suddenly. Was it the father's doing (wanting them to get married either before his health deteriorated or before his investment scheme came out--perhaps thinking that Rebecca couldn't (or wouldn't) testify against her husband)? Was it Jeremy's idea (and if so what motive did he have? Had he discovered his father's missteps and wanting to get away, but also wanting Rebecca to be with him, decided to marry her so they could slip away during their "honeymoon"?)

If Jeremy had lived, I'm not sure how their relationship would have done. Jeremy seemed deceptive (not that we got to know him for very long). He deceived everyone into thinking he'd died in the fire. He hid his work from the company that hired him (more on this later) and apparently tried to sell it to a rival.

I did guess correctly that the clue would be in a piece of knitting but I guessed wrong on which piece of knitting it would involve. I did not guess who the murderer was.

Another reviewer pointed out that companies such as At-Las usually have legal agreements in place so that anything invented/discovered belongs to the company, not the individual. I do remember having this discussion with a friend who worked for a computer company because of a concern that something entirely unrelated (in my head I remember it being a children's book, but it might be something totally different, but it was nothing related to the computer industry or what she worked on at work) would be claimed by the company. Since Jeremy was the son of one of the founders, would he have been asked to sign an agreement? Or would his father just have assumed he could keep his son in line? We're never told if an agreement was signed or not. Given the company's legal troubles, I don't know if they would have been able to "enforce" any legal document like that anyway. I would need to leave that to lawyers to hash out as to how practical that would be or At-Las's chances of winning.

We could argue that we really only have Lewis's word that the formula was contained in the knitting. And given that he and his company were working toward something similar, it's possible that they would have eventually discovered a formula that worked--and their formula may have been similar to the one Jeremy created. Lewis could have just written down the formula and taken it back to his company and tested it, then presented it as his own company's research leading to the find. (I am glad that he chose to share it with Jeremy's widow Rebecca though)

I agree with another reviewer who says Matt and Lucy make choices that shouldn't necessarily be emulated in real life. Yes, they do seem committed to each other, but the decision to move in together seems rushed (since Matt chose not to tell Lucy until 2 weeks before he needed to move). (I believe both have been married before, so they should have had pre-marital counseling for those marriages, and Matt's been seeing a counselor with his ex- and daughter. Yet there's no discussion of much of anything of substance--they can't even agree on a paint color! And in the end, Lucy just decides to go with her choice and do it herself so she can get her way.)

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The wedding part of this book was fun.

I would never have thought of a knitted wedding dress, and I definitely would not have thought of knitting my own wedding dress. No wonder one of the other characters said that the bride "always looks like she's about to churn butter."

I also liked the little amigurumi birds. They sound cute. It's hard to believe that 3rd graders could knit them though. Maybe not. 3rd graders can surprise you.

I did not guess whodunit, nor did I guess about the formula. I had been convinced it was elsewhere, in part because of the plot, and in part, because of the cover illustration.

I do not think we had enough clues to guess the identity of the murderer until late into the story, when the knitters went through the photos, and even then this photo was merely suggestive, not conclusive, until other discoveries fell into place.

The principal reminded me of more than one other principal that I have known, taking part in the theatric productions of their students and being loved for it. They are good people.

Having worked as an engineer in industry, I can say that the author is wrong about the relationship between inventors and their companies, though. The company would own the rights to the invention even if the inventor had designed it out of the office.

The typical hiring practice of companies hiring scientists is a legal agreement that the company will own whatever you produce, wherever you produce it, as long as you work for them, whether it's on their time or yours. Such a chemical formula would belong, not to Rebecca, but to the company.

Not only would they have this legal agreement as proof of ownership, but they had also hired Jeremy to specifically to design this chemical compound for the company. You can't just design something for a company that employs you, and then just not give it to them. Rebecca wouldn't have a chance of seeing it. Jeremy wouldn't have gotten more than a token bonus out of it. As another scientist who had worked for that company, Lewis would have known this.

Once again, in this genre, the amateur sleuth is meeting alone with murder suspects. Nothing could go wrong.

Also, one of the other reviewers pointed out that the reason that the knitters don't like the police is because the knitters talk too much to them, beyond just answering questions, and don't get a lawyer. There's no shame in getting a lawyer so that nothing you saw will be misconstrued or used out of context or to see that your legal rights are held intact.

I feel like I should say something about Lucy and Matt, but I don't even know where to begin. Just realize that they are not always making the best decisions to emulate.

Favorite quotes:

"Just goes to show you, you never know what's going to happen in life. Day to day. Hour to hour."
"But we rarely seem to remember, and live as if we have all the time in the world."

"... considering the instructions the way a teacher does. Wondering if she could lead her young knitters through this uncharted territory without too much chaos and confusion." This makes me smile. I can soooooo related to this one, too. Well, maybe not the knitting part.

[The Mystery Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Till Death Do Us Purl" is the fourth installment in Anne Canadeo's Black Sheep & Company Mystery series, bringing us back to the cozy coastal town of Plum Harbor, Massachusetts, and the familiar warmth of Maggie Messina and her knitting circle. This time, the Black Sheep Knitters are lending their crafting talents to a bride preparing for her wedding. However, the celebratory mood quickly unravels when the groom dies in a seemingly freak accident just days after the ceremony.

Canadeo once again creates a comforting small-town atmosphere, and the focus on the knitting club and their projects adds a pleasant, familiar touch for fans of the series. Maggie and her friends are a likable bunch, and their supportive dynamic provides a cozy backdrop to the unfolding mystery. As they rally around the grieving family, secrets and betrayals within the groom's business and personal life begin to surface, hinting that his death might not have been accidental after all.

The plot takes an unexpected turn when the groom's body reappears after the funeral in a motel room, dead for a second time, making the newlywed widow the prime suspect. This twist adds a layer of intrigue and raises the stakes for Maggie and the Black Sheep Knitters as they feel compelled to prove the widow's innocence and uncover the real killer among a wide array of family, friends, and potential enemies.

While the cozy setting and the engaging characters remain series strengths, the mystery itself felt a little convoluted at times, with a large cast of potential suspects and a somewhat winding path to the final reveal. While "Till Death Do Us Purl" offers a pleasant and familiar read for fans of knitting mysteries, the complexity of the plot occasionally overshadowed the cozy charm.

★★★☆☆

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[Nolan · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s a wedding in the offing. No, it’s not one of the Black Sheep knitters, but it’s a schoolteacher friend of theirs. She’s marrying a chemist who works for his dad’s company. The schoolteacher wants the knitters to build her gown and the clothing worn by the bridesmaids. The problem is the wedding happens in two weeks! It’s all hands and needles on deck as the group agrees to lend a hand. The couple seem so in love. What could go wrong?

The day after the wedding, there’s an explosion at a lab wherein the groom works. He was inside when that happened, and he died. Well, not so fast. Everyone went to his memorial service, and the death shocked at the suddenness of the end of that marriage. But hold on! Who is that dead guy the cops find in a hotel room days after the memorial service. Hey, look at that! It’s the dead groom—the one everyone thought was dead already. It looks like someone strangled him with a knitted scarf. That begs two questions: Who killed the guy? And whose body burned up in the lab explosion?

The plot is compelling. Your heart goes out to the young bride, and you fervently hope that she isn’t the killer.

This includes a weak ending, but the series is worth returning to, and I will, but not for a while.

[Niffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I go back and forth on this series, and this book was no different. Unlike many cozy mysteries, there isn't a lead protagonist with a gang of friends. Instead, the series has a group of friends, with Lucy being kind of the main one we read about, but each of the main characters in the book may also have quite a few scenes written from their point of view. The transitions to different viewpoints tends to be abrupt and I sometimes struggle to get back into the story. In this book Maggie had a lot of scenes from her viewpoint.

The characters also seem to have some moments of pettiness within the friend group. They will go from teasing to snippy to teasing very quickly. I feel a though the author could do a better job of choosing words that might be not as strong that would make the conversations feel less like a pendulum swinging out of control.

All that said, I do find the books in this series very readable. I finished this over the course of a weekend, where plenty of cozies take me longer because I find myself annoyed at some of the silliness of the characters. So 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 because I did overall enjoy this book even with the little quirks it has.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series of mysteries are good but the knitting group act like the police don't know what they are doing. When in real life police have to follow the law to make sure the right person is arrested. Police are not likely to get people to talk to them as easy as to lady of the black sheep knitting club can. And the reason the black sheep knitting club don't like the police is because they talk to the police without a lawyer and they just talk and talk with out the police asking a question. I don't care you are always ask for a lawyer when be question by the police it is safer and that was the big and first mistake they made in book 1. I do like the books and will read the rest of the series and did not know the murder was until the end I did know some what of the clue that the knitting club was over looking and missed which in the end helped find the murder I just picked the wrong murder.

[Barb Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bride thinks she's going to knit a wedding gown within two weeks. Somehow, those unrealistic expectations become reality, but the wedding doesn't bring a happy ending. Nope. This is a cozy mystery, so you know someone is going to die.

Corporate secrets, a ponzi scheme and someone trashing Maggie's car with literal garbage all leave sometimes-smelly clues that the members of the Black Sheep Knitting group try to piece together to solve the crimes.

The culprit seemed, to a point, to come out of left field. However, the character did keep showing up in the story, so it wasn't totally out of the blue.

In "Till Death Do Us Purl," Anne Canadeo continues to build the sense of community and camaraderie among our knitting enthusiasts. As is usual, she included links to patterns in the back, so anyone curious about the bridemaids' shrugs can take a look and decide whether they want to tackle making those . . . and a wedding dress . . . in fewer than two weeks.

[Anna Hanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Black Sheep Knitters lend a hand getting a bride ready for her wedding when the date suddenly got moved up, with Maggie helping to finish the wedding gown and the rest working on the bridesmaids’ shrugs. The blissfully happy bride is gorgeous on her special day, but her joy is turned to sorrow when her new husband is killed in an accident in his lab. As the Knitters gather around to support the young widow, they are stunned to learn, a few days after his funeral, that he had been found murdered in a hotel room - he had faked his own death, then was killed. The question of who knew he was really alive, and why he’d been murdered, occupies their collective minds as they gather to knit and puzzle over the information they gather. Finding his killer will reveal a reason as old as life itself.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series is really growing on me. I really enjoy the knitters and the mysteries are pretty interesting. I have to admit that I sort of started thinking that might’ve been the killer but I got distracted by all the fancy other stuff that got in the way. But I don’t think I would’ve figured it out the same way that the girls had done. I’m curious to see how Lucy and Matt work out and of course what kind of dating future that Maggie might have. I enjoy knitting but I don’t do anything very complicated because I just don’t have the attention span or the time to invest. And I’m pretty sure if I tried to knit my own wedding dress I’d have made a mess!

[Catherine Hoidal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author is believable

I like cozy mysteries that let my mind relax but the author allows me to be part of the group. I am a knitter so I feel I fit right in. Love when I can find friends who have a lot in common. Thank you

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was needing a fluffy read after all the serious things I have been reading, and this fit the bill perfectly. I did figure out one of the mysteries well ahead of time, which always makes me feel adept.

[Mavarnee · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing is average and the story unsatisfactory. I'll skip the rest of this series.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chick lit as smooth, enjoyable, and forgettable as vanilla pudding.

[Nathalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another enjoyable Black Sheep cozy and I never suspected the guilty party!

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do enjoy knitting and reading about knitting

[Debi Emerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great series! The plot is well done & the character development is logical & interesting!

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this story more suspenseful! It is nice that Lucy and Maggie have moved ahead romance-wise. Maggie is the investigator of the group in this book. Plot twists are many.

[Deann Doolittle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read

[Dee Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read based around a group of knitters who seem to stumble on murders and help solve them.

[Carol B Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yeah!

This book has lots of twists and turns that keep you engaged and reading. New characters added some spice to it roo.

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Black Sheep Knitters are on the case again - friendship, knitting and murder --what more could you ask for?

[Jewett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked this one, the characters, the plot and the knitting, but really don't think human hands can knit quite that fast.

[Andrea Kalmbach · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my favorite in the series so far. I nice juicy mystery with a lot of suspects.

[Joyce Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anne Canadeo's books are fun to read. This one was a bit different, and I really enjoyed it! Very easy and fun reads. Thank you!