Nothing To Hide Patchwork Mysteries

Patchwork #16

by Susan Page Davis

Nothing to hide Patchwork Mysteries

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Fiction, Christian

Hardcover

Published January 1, 2011

About the author

FROM AUTHOR'S WEBSITE: I'm a native of central Maine, and grew up on a small farm with a wonderful mom and dad, three sisters and a brother. Most of my books take place in small towns, many of them in Maine.

My husband, Jim, and I moved to his birth state, Oregon, for a while after we were married, but decided to move back to Maine and be near my family. It allowed our six children to grow up feeling close to their cousins and grandparents, and some of Jim's family have even moved to Maine!

Our children are all home-schooled. When Jim retired from his vocation as an editor at a daily newspaper, we moved from Maine to Kentucky.

I've always loved reading, history, and horses. These things come together in several of my historical books.
Another longtime hobby of mine is genealogy, which has led me down many fascinating paths. I'm proud to be a DAR member! Some of Jim's and my quirkier ancestors have inspired fictional characters.

For many years I worked for the Central Maine Morning Sentinel as a freelancer. This experience was a great help in developing fictional characters and writing realistic scenes. I also published nonfiction articles in several magazines and had several short stories appear in Woman's World, Grit, and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sarah is reading a poem at her boyfriend's daughter's wedding when she sees a woman, Ruby, she hasn't seen for years. Sarah tries to find Ruby but she can't and asking around town she finds people aren't willing to talk to her about Ruby. Ruby's family had, had a textile factory in town and closed it down throwing people out of work. Sarah thinks something was going on and sets out to find out why the factory was in such bad shape and where all the money went. She uses her late husband's law records and a quilt to figure things out.

[Loraine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Number 16 in the Patchwork Mystery Series, I didn't find the mystery as compelling as the others I have read so far. So much of the storyline this time focused on Sarah Hart's close friend and mystery ally, Martha. Martha has decided to run for the local school board. Sarah's twin granddaughters and Martha's granddaughter decide to be her campaign managers although they are only in junior high. They mystery this time seemed to play a background to the campaign many times. It focused on an old baby quilt and the missing ex-owner of the fabric mill that had at one time been a large part of Maple Grove and during World War II had been experimenting with man-made fabrics. Still a nice cozy mystery for a quick, easy read.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This entire series is excellent. However, as might be expected when more than one author writes a series, the details sometimes get lost, especially when you read them one after another. The last book ends with Caitlyn's wedding being the next week, still in October. This book begins with the wedding and it is November. In addition Sarah speaks pleasantly to a nurse from the home where her father used to reside- and I'm pretty sure that this woman was convicted of embezzling from the residents a couple books ago.

With that being said, in this book Sarah delves into a mystery of a woman who left Maple Hill years ago and there was a scandal when she suddenly had to close the family business, a fabric mill. In addition to that Sarah is busy helping her friend Martha Maplethorpe with her campaign to run for the school board. There is a quilt in the story, as always. This one is a baby quilt that was perhaps made with a revolutionary new fabric made from milk proteins decades before.

[Roberta · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is number 16 in the Patchwork Mystery Series and not my favorite but still good for a cozy evening of reading. Like many of the books in the series, there is a primary mystery, a secondary mystery, and a "personal adventure." The personal adventure this time involves Sarah Hart's friend Martha running for the local school board. Sarah lends moral support while Martha and Sarah's young granddaughters act as Martha's campaign managers. For the secondary mystery, Sarah researches an old baby quilt that she has been asked to restore. The quilt appears to have been constructed from Aralac, a fabric that had been experimental at a Maple Hill woolen mill during the short time that it was popular decades ago. That same woolen mill ties into the primary mystery of Sarah's search for an old acquaintance and that's definitely the weakest part of the story.

While attending a wedding, Sarah spots Ruby, a woman she knew forty years ago. Sarah looks for her later as she is leaving the church but the woman has disappeared. For no good reason (at this point) Sarah becomes absolutely obsessed with finding Ruby. Ruby was not a close friend and she moved away from town forty years ago after her father died and she closed down his woolen mill, not suspicious circumstances. Sarah calls or visits every hotel and motel within driving distance searching for Ruby. When she finds out the Ruby may have been seen leaving the library, she questions the library employees and her question on Page 68 "May I ask what she came in for?" is way out of line. Sarah visits restaurants where Ruby may have eaten, even revisiting to question employees who may have been on duty on the right day. Sarah is clearly a stalker.

Remembering that Ruby had been one of her husband's clients, in an effort to search out every last detail of Ruby's life, Sarah goes up to the attic to root through the files from her late husband's accounting business. It's only at this point that Sarah comes up with an actual reason for finding Ruby. It wouldn't have taken much to have written the story so that Sarah found the reason before the search.

Sarah's prayers are off stage in this book and not shared with us like they were in the last one.

[Jacquie Stricklind · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sarah sees a person from her past, Ruby Sears at Caitlin's wedding talking to Ernie, Martha's husband. When she asks around town if anybody has seen Ruby, nobody will admit that they have seen her. Meanwhile, Martha Maplethorpe decides to run for the open school board position. Sarah's granddaughters, Amy and Audrey become her campaign managers. Sarah decides to find out why Ruby doesn't want to be found. Sarah's husband Gerry did an audit on the factory Ruby's dad owned after he passed away. Sarah finds a watch that belonged to Rub's grandfather in the papers that were left in a box after Gerry passed away. After looking through the papers, Sarah finds out that something wasn't right about the bookkeeping. Family members are really mad that Ruby sold the factory when her dad died. Can Sarah get Ruby's whole family together with Ruby and reveal the truth about the factory? Will Martha win the school board seat? Read the book to find out.

[Carolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first book I've read in the series that was a real disappointment. Sarah Hart came across as just a nosy busybody. She kept digging until she turned things into a mystery, but in the end she just came off as an old snoop.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pleasant read.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoying this book group. Happy reading and still has intrigue.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sarah Hart is at it again, as Caitlin gets married, Sarah notices a woman in the back at the wedding talking to Ernie. He denies it later, but something is familiar about her and Ernie can't lie. Admitting he spoke with the woman the next day, Sarah pursue a 40 year old mystery of the Sears textile factory in Maple Hill.

[Dina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book! I love Sarah Hart's persistence in figuring out the mysteries in her town of Maple Hill. Love the characters and the whole cozy atmosphere.

[Bess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I seriously can't get enough of these - just bought the next 3!