Heist Along the Rails: Book 1 Winslow Quilting Mysteries

by Jan Cerney

The spinster sisters, Dora and Josie Winslow who belong to the Hedge City, Nebraska Quilters’ Guild present an idea for the guild’s annual project. The guild decides on making a sampler quilt of 50 blocks representing every state in the USA. Although, the members can obtain the patterns without any trouble, the sisters volunteer on searching for appropriate quilt patterns while on their retirement trip across country via Amtrak. The group approves the plan in spite of a sister’s and niece’s concerns for their naïve sisters and aunts’ safety.
The sisters leave on Amtrak from Nebraska and arrive in Chicago where their adventure begins. After touring Chicago, Dora reads in the newspaper that an art museum where they visited had been robbed of a painting. The sisters take it in stride until the robberies happen in other cities that they have just visited. The sisters become suspicious when they see passengers from Amtrak at some of the other sites they visit. It seems to them like they are always in the wrong place at the wrong time. And why do they keep seeing the same faces? Dora becomes very nervous and contemplates ending their excursion, but about when she decides to head back home with her sister, they meet Anthony on Amtrak who befriends them. He suggests they rent a car and drive through Texas and up the California coast to San Francisco where the sisters can board Amtrak on their way home to Nebraska. In the meantime, the sisters befriend an elderly couple who ask to join them in their rented car. Seeing that the trip would be cheaper that way, the sisters agree to help out the elderly couple and the five of them set off across country.
Dora is especially interested in the Spanish missions. While sight-seeing at one of the missions, a boy hands her a note and runs away. The note invites Dora and Josie to participate in a mystery quilt hunt, the clues being left at the missions along the Camino Real. Anthony encourages them to participate to get their mind off the art robberies that continue to follow their itinerary. While the sisters search for state quilt patterns and stop to visit missions where they find quilt pieces to sew together and another enticing clue to lead them to the next mission and a new hunt.
In the meantime, Josie becomes interested in Anthony, who is hesitant to encourage her. A supposed relative of the elderly couple joins them in California. She makes a play for Anthony but for another reason than romance.
Eventually, the elderly couple and the woman leave the group telling them they want to tour the Napa Valley, leaving the sisters with Anthony. The sisters become suspicious of Anthony because they saw him conversing with two suspicious men. The sisters leave him in Santa Cruz while they flee with the rented car on to San Francisco to catch Amtrak back home. By this time they have found all the pieces to the Rolling Stones quilt which they sew partially together and leave in a designated mission in San Francisco to be finished and mailed to them.
Meanwhile Anthony catches a ride with the two suspicious men to San Francisco where they set up a sting operation to catch the art thieves. Unknown to the sisters, these three men are detectives who are searching for the art thieves. The sting works, and the elderly couple and the women who rode to California with Anthony turn out to be the art thieves and are arrested. Another couple who the detectives suspected was actually the elderly couple in disguise.
When the sisters arrive in Salt Lake City, Josie gets a call from Anthony begging to meet them and explain. Josie convinces Dora to allow Anthony to come to Salt Lake. She agrees and when Anthony arrives he explains the entire situation and apologizes for their stressful vacation.
Once they discover, the sisters can trust Anthony, they agree to divert from their initial plan to return home.

242 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 8, 2016

Reviews

[Cindy Cooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heist Along the Rails

is a well-written novel about newly retired twin sisters who go on a cross-country Amtrak tour. Their objective is to go to each of the States and acquire a quilt pattern that is representative of each for the quilt guild they belong to. Along the way, the sisters develop a friendship with a man who is also traveling the rails. He joins them in their journey as chauffeur and tour guide as the twins explore different quilt shops across the Midwest. A rather alarming situation develops when the sisters realize paintings are being stolen from every art museum they visit, as well as a mysterious quest involving the journey they find themselves drawn into to find clues and pieces to make a mystery quilt along the way. While it seems very improbable that these women would allow it, they leave the itinerary and set out across the Southwest and California, collecting quilt pieces, clues and patterns. Art theft follows them along this journey. What have they gotten themselves into, and how can they extricate themselves?
This was a well-written, though unlikely, book. The author writes descriptively about each town or mission that her characters travel through.I am looking forward to the next goodread in this series.

[Valerie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reached chapter four . While well written I just couldn't get any further. It didn't hold my interest.
I put it down and picked it up again but had the same reaction.