Quilt or Innocence: A Southern Quilting Mystery [Versión Kindle]

I'm sorry to say that I was disappointed in the writing style of this author, and certainly this debut wasn't what I'd thought it would be.

I'm a huge fan of cozy mysteries, and while this is certainly defined as a cozy, I found the writing to be almost amateurish, which was a huge disappointment to me. I realize the author has no control over formatting, but the Kindle edition was "locked" in its formatting, and I couldn't change my font style. The font it's written in is one I'm not personally fond of, so that didn't lend itself to an enjoyable read for me, but that's no slight against the author. What I found highly annoying about the writing itself, was that she chose to italicize far too many words, I suppose for emphasis, but in terms of the reading, I felt they were totally unnecessary. There was also an overuse of the exclamation mark, so for me the formatting and typeface/set were bothersome.

As for the story, while I agree it's a cozy, and it's not a bad storyline, it was truly amazing to me that the "heroine" had been in town but 2 days when the murder happened, then she went on to solve the crime from a cast of people she'd just met, and basically could know nothing about (how can that be?). For me that was just too far a stretch for total believability, and to some degree you want your cozy mystery to be believable, even if a little far fetched (that's part of the fun of a cozy).

Though the characters are described well, they don't seem like mostly likable characters, and unfortunately, there was almost nothing described or talked about as it relates to the physical locale of Dappled Hills. From the little descriptions given it sounds lovely, but I truly like to read and get into the geographic area that a book takes place in. For me it makes the reading experience that much more enjoyable.

I'm not sure I'll buy the next book in this new series (Southern Quilting), because I had hardly started reading and felt a sense of disappointment. I read a great many cozy authors, and I didn't feel that this one lived up to its expectations. Thank you for reading my review.

Beatrice Coleman had recently retired and moved from Atlanta to Dappled Hills, North Carolina to be closer to her daughter, Piper. At first glance it appeared to be the type of town where one might find Opie Taylor just around the corner, but she quickly discovered it just wasn't so. A disheveled, decidedly maniacal woman showed up on her doorstep and attempted to drag her into the neighboring barn for some sort of guild meeting. Beatrice was going to call the police, but Police Chief Ramsay Downey was practically at her door before she dialed 911, claiming "She's not as crazy as she looks." Beatrice had just made the acquaintance of Meadow Downey, his wife.

It looked as though her dreams of walking with her corgi, Noo-Noo, swinging in a hammock drinking southern sweet tea and reading the "Whispers of Summer," would have to be put aside. The Village Quilters guild was anxious to have her as a member despite her inability to thread a needle. As a folk art curator she knew more about things like the Quilts of Gee's Bend, but she "was happily ignorant of the precise methods of constructing" any kind of quilt. Needles were a no-no, but Meadow was insistent. Unexpectedly, the members of the guild began to gossip and trash-talk, so much so they could have opened a dump.

Everyone from Posy, the owner of the Patchwork Cottage, to the Potter twins managed to have a bone to pick with Judith. She was doing everything from trying to fleece Felicity out of a valuable Civil War quilt to attempting to put Posy out of business. Piper had warned her mother that the woman never missed "an opportunity to irritate large numbers of people at once." Beatrice was on an early morning walk with Noo-Noo and accidentally ran into Posy when they spotted something indescribable. "Beatrice, there's something lying on the ground over there ..." It looked like Judith had irritated one person too many in Dappled Hills. Threatening notes soon began arriving on Beatrice's porch. Would she be able to solve the mystery of Judith's murder before she became the next victim?

This dazzling debut will keep you on pins and needles as you try to figure out whodunit. Beatrice, a staid patron of the arts, stands out in sharp contrast with the down-to-earth members of the Village Quilters guild, some of whom were six pins short of a bowling rack. Not unlike Beatrice's book, "The Whispers of Summer," this mystery will charm you whether you're lounging in a hammock smelling the roses or sticking your toes in the sand at the beach. The flow was smooth and the plot was as intricately stitched as a Dutchman's Puzzle with just the right touch of humor to hold it together. The Dappled Hills quilters are definitely one gang of gals to watch out for!

This book courtesy of the publisher.

There were some positive features that attracted me to this first installment in a new series, especially the story line about Beatrice Coleman, a retired folk art expert who has extensive experience in evaluating quilts, and the promise of a small group of quilters who welcome her into their small town of Dappled Hills, North Carolina. Unfortunately, these features were not enough to carry my enthusiasm very far into the book before I developed a lack of interest in a plot that has a lot of repetition.

Another point that for me that was a detractor was the similarities between this book and those of Elizabeth Lynn Casey, who also writes about a small town in the south and a sewing circle in which there are two characters who are twins whose personalities are notoriously different from one another. I wouldn't say that there's any dishonesty in the similarity of these story points, but they do limit the reader's experience a bit, since quilters and sewers are likely to be attracted to both series. The other features that limited my pleasure in reading this book were the small number of suspects and lack of atmosphere related to the small town in North Carolina. Although I hate to give up on a series after just one book, I think in this case a new installment would have to be a significant improvement before I would become a devoted reader.