Chain Piecing a Mystery

Missouri Star #1

by Hillary Doan Sperry

Hillary Doan Sperry is the daughter of the internationally known quilter Jenny Doan and the author of the Missouri Star Mystery series.
She has taken the town she grew up in, including the familiar sights, sounds, and quirks to create a beautiful fictional place where quilters solve mysteries and friends are worth gold. Not so different from real life.
While the stories and characters are fictional Hillary Doan Sperry loves working in little details from real life that make her characters jump off the page to make you laugh and cry together as she helps her mother save their beloved town over and over again.

Genres: Cozy Mystery

316 pages, Paperback

Published October 2, 2022

Reviews

[Jodi Galland · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fun, easy murder mystery. I did not expect murder from a MSQC tied book! LOL I’m kind of concerned if the other books involve murder in this small town, people will begin to think proximity to the real Jenny Doan is as dangerous as being near fictitious Jessica Fletcher.

I didn’t get enough upfront information about some of the local characters that I guess would be recurring. I didn’t realize Block magazine had stories by the author, so maybe the characters (are they all based on real MSQC people?) are already known by most people who choose to read this book.

I was 95% sure I knew the culprit in chapter nine. The guilty party was revealed in chapter 28. I was right. I felt like a LOT of loose threads were never tied up (to use some sewist puns), though the main crimes were cleared up handily.

The book could have used editing, and though I mentally noted the errors, I tried not to let it ruin the story.

I will likely read the other books when I want a break from heavier reads.

[Diana · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read just over 20% before giving up on this book. It seriously needed an editor! Dialogue was inane and it was often not clear who was talking - eg two men having an argument and at most “he said” ……who said it?
I rarely give up on books - occasionally I realize I am not in the right frame of mind for a book at the time. This book will not be one I try again. It is poorly written and I can’t imagine I will feel any differently later.

[Elaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book because I appreciate the Doan family and their business. It was fun to have the family members as characters in a mystery. Jenny often says, “Finished is better than perfect,” but this poorly edited book left way too many dangling threads and jumped from here to there with implausibly big toenail-catching stitches.

I recommend a rewrite and a good copy edit to clean it up so as to better reflect the quality of the Missouri Star Quilt Company.

[Sarah Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was going to be a romance when I started it - despite "a mystery" clearly stated on the cover. At chapter 3, everything changed! there was still a little romance weaved through but thankfully it was more mystery. That's morey speed.
There were some issues with knowing who was who or what the author was saying - which could be solved with a good proofreader.
The storyline itself was...weird. Good, but weird.
Worth reading!

[Kristen Marshall · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book since Jenny and family taught me how to quilt via YouTube. And it was cute but had too many characters, jumped around too much and felt undeveloped. I did like the mystery, I couldn’t figure out who did it right from the start so that kept me reading. And I will read more as I hope the writing and characters grow as the stories progress.

[Amelia in PDX · Rating 3 out of 5]

Evidently the first three stories in this series is in MSQ's Block Magazine, as this is the first printed book & Jenny is already a mystery solver in this book.

It would be nice if the stories printed in Block would be put together in one book so those who don't have a Block subscription could read those stories as well.

[Laura Burch · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, but it was terribly written. Bad grammar, typos, incomplete and fractured sentences, and choppy dialogue made for a very distracting and frustrating read. It seems like there was little to no editing done on the book, which is unfortunate because I liked the storyline.

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Needs editing

I found this book frustrating because there were so many punctuation errors - commas where there shouldn't be and many areas where commas were needed. There were also grammar errors as well. It distracted from the story line.

[Ranee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good mystery! Kept wondering why the hypnotized would be killers weren’t watched over more etc The ending was exciting and surprising.

[Sharon Gaffor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too unorganized

Places and people were not introduced .
You were just expected to know everyone.
Places and events were brought up intermittently. Very poorly written.

[Dany · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a cute cozy mystery. The setting was a little surreal and it was a little odd reading about real people as book characters. A nice easy read though and a decent story.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good basic plot but so many typos and grammatical mistakes! It's hard to read when things haven't been edited.

[Betty Walton]

Note: This is a placeholder for a book I read ... The Haunting of Quilter's Square/same author. It is not on Goodreads list.

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book even more than her first one. There were many plot twists and I kept your guessing until the end.

[Michele Redman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pure escape. Funny story, crazy adventures. It is a side of Jenny Doan that you don't see in her tutorials.