Skein of the Crime

A Knitting Mystery #8

by Maggie Sefton

Fall has come to Fort Connor, Colorado, and the cool air has inspired the knitters at the House of Lambspun to start on their hats and mittens. It's also brought an influx of students to the university town--and into the shop for knitting classes. Kelly Flynn is happy to teach them the tricks of the trade-until one of them is found dead on the river trail near Kelly's house. Compelled to investigate, Kelly finds herself following a path that twists more easily than the yarn with which she knits. Knowing the killer could be close, Kelly must work fast to unravel the skein of this crime.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Knitting, Fiction, Cozy, Crafts, Mystery Thriller

304 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2010

About the author

Aka Margaret Conlan

From author website:

"First, a little biographical information as introduction: Born in Richmond, VA, I grew up in Northern Virginia in Arlington, close to Washington, D.C. I attended university and received a Bachelor's degree in English Literature & Journalism, married, and started my family there. All four of my daughters are grown and established in careers of their own and are literally scattered around the globe. I now reside in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado with two very demanding dogs."

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, so I quite like the series and I do like the way the mystery itself is crafted (haha). However, this book pissed me off on a couple of levels.
My first issue is one that another reviewer pointed out the spinning terminology is wrong. So wrong. As a spinner it bothers me greatly. I found it annoying in some of the other books, as in Dyer Consequences, but just chalked it up to the idiosyncrasies of technique between what the author was shown and my own experiences in dyeing yarn and fibre, but the spinning descriptions were just plain bad.
The dynamic between Kelly and Steve was incredibly frustrating and was my main peeve with the book. Kelly is usually portrayed as a ball-busting sleuth who takes no prisoners, ...but then rolls over and takes all that shit from her boyfriend, blaming herself for not answering his calls and for not immediately accepting his proposal (because of course that's what women have to do when a guy has been a self-absorbed douche for months and won't allow his partner to help him out except on his own alpha-male fuckwit terms - what woman wouldn't want that?)? Her behaviour was completely out of character. I get that love makes us stupid etc, but seriously? Seriously?! I'd cut him some slack for the finance stuff, blah blah blah but the level of alpha male bullshit achieved is just so unappealing to me in this book I nearly screamed at it on the train while reading it. It really got in the way of the murder...

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty good. Some of the writing was a little strange. For example, I don't understand why the author had to make a point at every opportunity to tell us that the main character loved and needed coffee. It got a bit old after the first couple of times. The mystery portion was pretty good; I didn't figure it out until just before the murderer was revealed. The story focused on the characters as much as the mystery itself and delved deeply into their lives. Fortunately the characters were pretty likeable. I was disappointed with the knitting pattern and recipe at the end. As the book focused on Kelly's hat knitting I thought it was going to be a hat pattern, but it was a scarf pattern, and a kind of lame one at that. Also, there was a great to-do make about Kelly's homemade gingersnap cookies and I expected that to be the recipe (which greatly excited me), but it was something totally non-related to the story. Boo. As I started with #8 in the series, I will seek out book #1 to read.

[Kate Robertson · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was ok, not fantastic. It had a nice little mystery but I was disappointed at the inaccuracies in the book. Her section on spinning was nice but she had the terminology wrong. That annoyed me, there are thousands of handspinners out there and I am amazed she didn't check with one to get her facts straight. She seems to repeat things a lot too. I mean the talk on the drug trade and bad economy was talked about over and over again. That was the boring part. She had set that scene up in the beginning and it seemed overkill to keep repeating it.

[Judy Iliff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoy Sefton's books. The conversations among the characters is stilted IMO, and that bothers me. I finally decided it's because when, for instance, 2 characters are talking to each other, they keep saying each others names. People don't talk that way. The story lines are good, though, and I'll keep reading as many books as are in the series.

[Lou Brinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This has been my least favorite book in the series so far because it includes my least favorite media trope: when all of the characters refused to listen to each other, and thus creating tension and problems, when it could all be easily resolved by fucking talking. I could not get over how frustrated I was with every single one of Kelly’s interactions with Steve in this entire book. She kept feeling a lot of guilt for not being there for him when she did literally nothing wrong the entire time, and none of her friends told her that when I really thought that they would. Everyone in the series always seems to have so much common sense especially about relationships. I thought for sure Jennifer or Liza would bring up to Kelly that it was unreasonable of Steve to expect her to be there at his back and call when he didn’t give her any notice. ESPECIALLY when he decided to show up to surprise her a SECOND time when they had already established that that wasn’t a good way for them to communicate because Kelly doesn’t just sit at home and wait for Steve to show up when he isn’t supposed to be there. I thought FOR SURE that when Kelly spoke to Jennifer that Jennifer would call Steve on his bullshit for trying to surprise her when they had already established that didn’t work but instead everyone just placated Kelly and told her they would work it out. It seems really unrealistic to the strength and dynamic Ness of these characters that everyone would’ve just said “aw, it’ll get better.” There was no need for Kelly to spend the whole book feeling really guilty for not being there for Steve, when she repeatedly tried to open lines of communication to him, offer him solutions and be there for him when he was present. Steve was all mad at Kelly for not being there for him but every time he was home, he would ignore her and watch baseball and drinking and go to sleep instead instead of talking to her spending time with her and every time she tried to talk to him, he would shut down and hang up on her. THEN when she tried desperately to explain why she was appalled that the idea of getting married, he just decided to walk out and then move out the next day with no further discussion?!?!? And of course in 30 seconds flat he went from. I thought we were building a life together to fine we need to take a break then when that conversation needed to be much more drawn out and much more thorough discussion of what their plans were. Steve didn’t have this insight but when Meghan got engaged, Kelly was surprised that they did it as a next step. Clearly, Kelly was more comfortable with what Liza and Greg were doing with having a longer period of dating before marriage. To me, the fact that they had never even spoken about it in the first place tells me that they should not be together, but clearly these two need to seriously work on their communication. At the end, Kelly had made a comment about how she always approaches things with bluntness and honesty and the fact that Steve did not react well to that just tells you there and then that they should not be together because then he isn’t OK with how Kelly is very fundamentally in these stories. I am disappointed at the way that this relationship has gone because I know damn well that they’re gonna smooth it out and get back together and stay together and probably get married later when really, they should truly break up at this point I am still shocked that none of Kelly’s friends ever once mentioned to her anything about Steve being in the wrong or questioned Kelly about if they never had these conversations begin with I more from these characters after seven prior books where they showed great emotional intelligence and care for their friends. Everyone felt extremely one dimensional in this particular book.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, I have visited Fort Connor, Colorado again to visit Kelly, Steve, Lisa, Gary, Megan, Marty, Jennifer, and Pete. Again while I was there, another death occurred! Seems every time I go to see all of them, a friend or a new person they know gets killed. This book was not different in anyway. A young college student that was friendly with Burt and Mimi (the owners of the knit shop where all the girls go everyday to talk and knit) is found dead on the running trail behind Kelly's cottage. I enjoyed being there and watching Kelly solve the mystery as she always does, but there was some personnal drama in this book and the author left it hanging for the next book. Steve asked Kelly to marry him finally, but she was so shocked, she did not answer him and now I have to wait until the nest book to find out what happens. I will be waiting to find out what happens when she writes the next book, I can't wait!

[Nico · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing wasn't the best I've seen; it occasionally got a little repetitive. Nonetheless, it was a very nice light read and fed my love for knitting a little bit, which is really quite nice. I figured out who did it about halfway through the book, but the real motive didn't become completely clear for awhile, so it was still worth finishing. And even so, I am WAAAAYYYY behind on my Reading Challenge for 2015, so I could use another book in the pile.

So in the end, this was predictable and not the greatest writing, but sometimes I just need something so sinfully light and happy in between all the horror and angst novels I subject myself to.

[Betty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't like the trend of cliff hanger endings. Authors who resort to this are cheating the readers and just trying the sell books.

That said, this one was just ok. What really bothered me was the dialogue that used the charaters names over and over. When A sees that B is calling on a cell phone then neither A nor B need need to keeping naming each other during the conversation. I'm not that dense that I can't keep track of who's talking.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book would have been easier to finish if I hadn't dropped it, unnoticed, in the driveway on my way to do errands yesterday. It was pretty sodden when I tracked it down today. Luckily I had almost finished it; it was a challenge to read semi-transparent pages where I could see through the page to the reversed printing behind and the next page.
As to the book, I still found it verbose and a bit repetitive. I wonder if the author just dictates her thoughts with little editing. And although a recipe is included (along with a knitting pattern,) it has nothing to do with the dishes lovingly detailed in the text.
But the plot was fine, and the author was fairly good company.

[Brianna · Rating 1 out of 5]

A fluffy, unsubstantial exercise in the sleuth formula. The murderer was apparent as soon as she was introduced. Although I read this series for mindless entertainment and expect little from them other than fun descriptions of yarn and sleuthing, this particular volume was quite annoying. The "Don't Do Drugs" message was plastered loud and clear throughout the novel. Ok, we get it, you are against the recreational use of drugs. Please get back to plot development.

Will I read the next installment in the series? Probably. *sigh*

[Moondance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kelly Flynn navigated her car out of the shopping center parking lot and merged into fort Connor's thinning late-night traffic.

Kelly comes home late one August night to find a young woman stoned out of her mind in her backyard. Fast forward six weeks or so and the young woman, Holly, has been taken under the wing of Mimi, the owner of House of Lambspun. She is learning to knit and has started back taking classes at the university. Everyone is shocked when Holly turns up dead on a walking trail where several assaults have taken place.

I have not read anything in this series in quite some time. I was sad to see where Kelly and Steve's relationship was heading. I enjoy the yarn shop atmosphere. I always enjoy the knitting pattern that is given in the back of the book. This one also had a yummy carrot cake as well.

It was nice to catch up with secondary characters and with Kelly. i thought the culprit was a bit obvious when I realized what the motive was behind the murder.

I'm sure that I will return to Fort Connor at some point. It's just not an urgent need with so many other books to read.

[Castor Akers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought the mystery of this was pretty interesting and honestly i didn't figure it out till the end so that was nice. The underlying drama with the main character and her real really had me in turmoil tho fr. I was getting mad at her bf a lot bc he was just not willing to hear her out at all during their little fights. The ending had me tearing up a lot and makes me wanna read the next one soon!

[Kathy Davie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seventh in the Knitting Mysteries series set in a fictional Fort Collins, Colorado.

The Story
In this particular story, Skein of the Crime, a young college student ODs and there's a connection to the shop through Barbara Macenroe, one of Mimi's knitting instructors and a teacher for whom Kelly has acted as an assistant. The girl's boyfriend is overwrought and overflowing with guilt, so much so that he intends to investigate her death himself. Exploring the drugs-filled parties, questioning students, and probably losing his scholarship. Kelly's kind heart…and need to dig…takes over and she promises Tommy that she'll take this on and get her friends to help. Her friends add their own input and manage to convince Tommy to concentrate on school

And so it begins with Kelly set loose on the unsuspecting students of the college and the people most intimately involved with the victim. In the meantime, her personal life takes a huge hit even as she experiences a major lift when two of her friends decide to get married.

The Characters
Kelly Flynn's independent accounting business is booming with the recommendations from Curt. Her royalties from her Wyoming wells are a nice boost to her bottom line and she's so in love with Steve and so happy they're living together. The bonus of all those investigative opportunities is enough to keep her own Rottweiler side happy.

Steve's construction company is going down the tubes. The economy is forcing foreclosures and storefronts are going dark. All of which is bad news for its affect on the loans Steve has out on those buildings. He's working harder than ever at two outside jobs besides trying to keep his own company afloat. And his relationship with Kelly has descended to grabbing a bite to eat and falling asleep.

Her supportive circle of friends includes Megan and Marty, Greg and Lisa, Jennifer and Pete, Bert and Mimi, Curt and Jayleen along with Carl, the squirrel-chasing, protective Rottweiler.

Barbara Macenroe teaches knitting classes for Mimi and worries about the influence that Holly has over her son, Tommy, an EMT with a full scholarship at UC School of Medicine in Denver.

Patty Warner is a student at the local college with a reputation for partying. When Kelly asks her to talk to her fellow students and partyers to try and find out what happened to Tommy's girlfriend, she jumps at the chance to help.

My Take
I just love Sefton's Knitting Mysteries series. Yes, the writing is simplistic but I adore the creative knitting side and the incredibly supportive and loving relationships that Kelly has with her friends. She loves her work and she's a regular terrier when it comes to ferreting out the truth. It's not like Kelly goes hunting for these mysteries; she just wants to help her friends.

It's rare to find a series with such a supportive, loving group, which is so comfortable with themselves and each other. All ages. A range of careers.

Layers and layers unfold about the characters particular to this story and had me jumping through three different possible suspects before I finally grasped the real killer. I think that part of my fascination is with Kelly's ability to stand back and objectively assess the evidence she uncovers. She has a very real grasp on the possibilities for a character to snap no matter how wonderful they appear on the outside.

Oh, and for all those of you interested in felting…READ THIS BOOK and take notes! I am!! Sefton provides an easy-to-understand set of instructions on felting your wool including an explanation of controlling how much shrinkage! That alone has tremendous value!!!

The Cover
The cover has such a sweet charm to it. Whoever does Sefton's covers has a lovely touch. Again, the cover is a scene from House of Lambspun, the knitting shop Kelly frequents. Bright, cheerful colors—yarns stacked on shelves to the left of the window featuring a jar of needles, a basket of yarns, and a sample sweater hanging on a stand. The front of the shop has a table featuring a knitted cozy over the French press, a tasseled blue knit cap waiting on a hatstand with the ubiquitous basket of yet more yarn providing a close background for a couple of knitted muffins…yup, knitted from its base of cake to the knitted frosting lined with a knitted row and topped with sprinkles of buttons all aglow in a golden light. Makes me want to hang out, drink lattes, and enjoy the warmth as I finger those luscious wools. And I do so enjoy the play-on-words titles Sefton creates…

[Caitlyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sorry Maggie Sefton, writing a book is a major accomplishment and I'm sure you're a good person and that people enjoy your Knitting Mysteries.

((Is there a way to "Hide Review Because You Are Mean and Feel Like a Bad Person"?))

But I laughcringed all the way through this. I read aloud passages to Odin as he tried to sleep. Everyone was hilariously white , with names like Kelly and Steve, Greg and Lisa, Megan and Marty, and Burt. Burt! It just cracked me up for some reason. (Only a few of them have any discernible personality at all, so sometimes it's hard to tell them apart, but that doesn't usually even really matter.)

There was also an absolutely SHOCKING lack of, like, clues . No scraps of cloth, no examination of the body, no looking around the trail to find footprints... just a lady talking to a lot of other ladies between times she is knitting and then thinking about the dialogue. Two thirds of the way through the book I just realized there was not a shred of physical evidence for a single thing this CPA/detective was theorizing. Just, like, people telling her stuff.

Also, in addition to be very white, it was also very, like, middle-aged? Lots of stuff about the Dangers and Evils of Drugs and Parties. Hilarious descriptions of the "college campus party scene" where people are just handing out pills and shit, just huge numbers of kids gathered at random houses to sell each other Ecstasy, LSD, and also prescription opiates that not a single person ever uses any kind of slang term for AT ALL. Not even the college kids are like, "how bout them acid/pressers/Mollies/beans/just fucking Google 'slang terms for drugs'." Fucking hilarious. I cannot describe it. You have to just feel it in the writing, the dialogue. Amazing.

But what really fucking got me was how many words there were. Just so many words, guys. Six straight pages about Megan and Marty's wedding and I was seriously thinking, "I hope someone dies as this wedding so there is a reason I am being told everything there is to know about bridal shops in the greater Boulder area and a description of every dress Megan does not choose to wear." BUT we did not even get to the wedding!! It will be in a year!! So, like, the next book? Just, like, WHY?? And on a micro level:
"Kelly watched Megan blush at Mimi's compliment."
No, Ms. Sefton. "Megan blushed."
Holy cats. Just so many words. And A LOT of them about coffee. Too many, definitely. "Likes coffee" is just, like, not a character trait, you know??

I enjoyed not liking this book. Two stars.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

You had to know that Holly Kaiser was doomed. She landed in Kelly's backyard--Kelly leaves all the lights on, just in case her life gets boring and she needs the challenge of solving a murder--and was dead within a month. Poor girl. She thought that hanging at the knit shop and making friends with the local neighborhood CPA would turn things around. Little did she know what series she was in.

I have to give this volume credit for finally picking up on the utter lack of chemistry between Kelly and Steve and snuffing that one out. Don't get me wrong; I fully expect to find in the next book that they're back together, because people ship them exactly like the characters are more than one-dimensional. But for now, I can't recall having looked forward to a breakup the way I looked forward to theirs. Someone's finally calling her on having her head up her ass all the time. I was beginning to wonder if she'd slipped them all drugs.

[Petra Beck · Rating 2 out of 5]

The actual mystery/story line was quite interesting and kept me guessing for a while, although it was a very strange assumption that the police would cooperate and share quite so much information with a private person as the author is trying to tell us here.
Unfortunately the writing is simplistic and rather poor, almost like a children's book. Most of the story is told via dialogues between people rather than in a descriptive form which does not really create a true immersive experience. And surely normal people don't talk like this? The conversations seemed unnatural and stilted, and there are a lot of repetitions (the protagonist has a coffee obsession and if this darn "slightly felted" hat crops up just one more time I am going to scream!). The characters are strangely one-dimensional and I just couldn't seem to like any of them or get truly involved in the story.
As a knitter and a fan of whodunnits, I really wanted to like this book but fact is that I didn't. Sorry.

[Rebecca T · Rating 2 out of 5]

Repetitive and clunky writing. It felt very awkward and unnatural. The endless mentions of coffee, usage of the phrase “You two” constantly and by every character, as if nobody has their own speech patterns. Also everyone saying “Listen,” when they need to end a phone call. Repeated mentions of “opiate narcotics” and “narcotic pain pills” as if people don’t shorten things up once they get the gist of what’s being discussed. The plot itself was really quite boring. I was hoping this would be a cute little cozy mystery. But it was a struggle to get through honestly. Kelly taking crap from Steve and blaming herself for him being a jerk was just plain annoying. I really wanted to like this book but meh. Not sure I’ll bother with the rest of the series. This was the first one I’d read. I feel bad leaving bad reviews but I can’t pretend I loved it.

[Kate Insley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. I battled the whole time to finish this. ** maybe ** I should have read the first book of the series first, but I doubt it. The writing was middle school level blunt in its description, the dialogue was so unnatural and often repetitive or not necessary (like the random lady who, getting out of the hot spring, mentioned to Kelly that she entered the pool in the same place…like why. That did absolutely nothing to the story), and Kelly was so annoying! Like is she God’s gift to Fort Connor? I was just annoyed. The recipe and pattern included had NOTHING to do with the story. And knitting hardly even played a role. Except that she had to knit to think 🙄 anyway. Didn’t like at all.

[Juniper · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yes Steve, your ‘pride’ is definitely worth over working yourself and ruining your relationship over. You definitely are right to get mad at Kelly for making other plans when you’ve stated you are unavailable. And definitely everyone wants to marry a verbally abusive ass on the brink of financial ruin who literally asks out of the blue and in a completely unromantic fashion. That really is everyones dream.
But no, Steve isn’t toxic and in need of therapy, Kelly just needs to be constantly on call and patient.

[Bryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise of the book (trying to find out who was selling drugs at a college party so that the boyfriend of the overdose victim) is rather far-fetched. The background storyline of the wedding planning was annoying at best and the main character's obsession with her friends' and boyfriend's finances was ridiculous. Maybe it is because this is the first book of the series that I have read, but I just didn't find myself liking the characters.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't read these books for the mysteries, I read them because I like the characters and my Lambspun family. I'm not even sure why Kelly got involved in this except that she was bored. This was also an emotional roller coaster with the characters in this book in their personal lives. #readforkimberly

[Kristen]

Only two pages in and I just can't do it. The writing is so insipid. I can't read something this poor after Barbara Kingsolver, whether I agreed with all of Kingsolver's views or not, I adore her words.

[Carol Stanley-Snow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, i enjoyed this book. I am not a knitter, but it was more about the folks of this small Colorado town. They are a fun, interesting bunch and Miss Kelly is the sleuth of the group.

A nice, easy read for the beach or rocking on the porch.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointingly stilted writing doesn't help a boring plot. The relationship intrigue in this one deserved more investigation than the actual mystery.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got kinda of annoyed with the Kelly character taking so much crap from her boyfriend but maybe that is just me :) but i still enjoyed the book overall. Its not great literature but a fine mystery.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good one - definitely enjoying this series.

[Phillip Albright · Rating 3 out of 5]

When this book starts I am upset with the idea of drugs in Fort Conner. I really don't like drug conversations. The world Kelly Lives in just got way complicated. I love this series. Up until this point. I think the separation of characters this time made me go whhhyyy? Also using the knit shop Lambspun crew member as a potential suspect was like "Again" The books are easy reads yes, but the story is getting predictable. I may read more from this series, and I know it's still going on. But as of now Things better get better. I don't need another yarn retreat, or so in so in the yarn shop. I want to expand Kelly's world. There is more out there than just Lambspun and the every day suspects. Also this book marks the second of potentially three marriages coming to the crew almost at the same time. I'm really loosing interest in this series. I love Kelly, but she is starting to annoy me. Does she want to even live in Fort Conner or a ranch, and her income seems extremely questionable all the time. I might take a break from the series and come back from the break. But as of now I am not sure.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was going to get a 1 star from me for approximately 75% of the book, I would have DNF'd this multiple times if I wasn't challenging myself to not DNF books this year. The plot, what little there is of it in that first 75% was frustrating to say the least. Basically just her boyfriend treating her like so much crap that I assumed he was having an affair, or this very odd war on drugs era hatred for anyone who does drugs. It's not cute to think you're better than someone who is an addict just because you're a rich lady who can spend all day drinking coffee and knitting and that certainly doesn't make for a protagonist that I care about. Perhaps if this were written last year instead of 2010 there would be more compassion for the homeless population in a town that is crumbling financially instead of calling them vagrants and acting like they're all scary. But I will absolutely say when the story finally got around to the mystery it became more interesting and I basically flew through the last 50 pages. I did not expect the twist at all but it made sense in retrospect which is the hallmark of a good plot twist.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Financial advisor / accountant Kelly Flynn is happy with her life in Colorado, although her boyfriend, Steve, an architect and home builder, is having a hard time keeping his business afloat in the then difficult 2010 economy. In Kelly's free time, she helps out at the knitting shop next door to her home, which puts her in contact with the son of one of the employees there, whose girlfriend, Holly, recently died from a drug overdose. At first, it appears that the death was accidental, but the more Kelly looks into it, the more she believes the death may have been caused intentionally by someone wanting Holly out of the picture.

This was the first book I've read in this series, so I appreciated the cast of characters given at the start of the book. The cozy, pretty cover drew me to the book, as well as the Colorado setting. I wasn't completely drawn in by the mystery itself, although I did like the twists and turns in the list of suspects. I liked Kelly's group of friends, but her boyfriend Steve's attitude and behavior was exhausting.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fair to middling read. Again, lots of secondary characters (and I feel as if I need a diagram to keep them all straight). I did figure out who was the culprit before Kelly did.

I knocked off a star due to incorrect spinning terms being used. I don't know if the author is a knitter or spinner, but I found the incorrect terms to be an irritant. I did like that a man (Burt) was a spinner, the fiber arts are for everyone!

Things I've learned reading this series, because they seem to be mentioned every four paragraphs:
- MC Kelly is seriously a coffee and caffeine fan.
- Kelly has an obsession with touching every type of yarn she comes across.
- Burt's cinnamon rolls solve all issues.
- Multiple knitting breaks during the day are part of the Fort Connor social scene.

Will I continue with this series? Perhaps. I might pick up a few different cozy mystery series to read before I come back to this series.