#Review / #Giveaway – Thread the Halls (A Mainely Needlepoint Mystery) by Lea Wait @KensingtonBooks

Dollycas’s Thoughts

Snow is falling in Haven Harbor, Maine and movie star Skye West has decided to come home for a white Christmas and bring the people working on her current movie with her. This means her son Patrick has his work cut out for him to get her mansion all decorated for the holiday. She also wants needlepoint gifts for everyone so the Mainely Needlepointers have a last minute job to take of.

Angie is a little disappointed, it is her first Christmas since coming home from Arizona and she had wanted to have a quiet Christmas with Patrick. She decides any time with him is a gift after all he has been through so she helps him get everything ready for his mother’s arrival. Skye and her entourage arrive but before they spend one night in Maine, one of them is found dead in the snow. Patrick’s mother decided the show must go on and doesn’t let a murder ruin her holiday plans until Patrick is poisoned and rushed to the hospital. Angie knows they are a limited number of suspects but she is stumped about who killer could be. There is a definite chill in the air and it’s not from the typical Maine winter weather. There is a killer near by, she just needs to figure out who before it is too late.

This was a very entertaining story. Haven Harbor has its own holiday traditions like Santa arriving on a lobster boat.  Skye adds a snowy hayride for her friends too.

Angie grows more in each story. She is really getting comfortable running the needlepoint business and her own needlepoint skills are improving. But she does keep finding those dead bodies. She tries to stay out the investigations but she always ends up right in the middle of them.  I loved the part of the story where Angie decorated her tree, trying to bring back the Christmases she remembered. Angie’s relationship with her grandmother always warms my heart.

I always have to adjust my thinking about Skye whenever she arrives on the page. She is a pushy and demanding women but there is no malice in her actions or requests. It is just the way she is. Patrick knows how to handle his mother and even though she sometimes forgets he is a grown man he still loves her. After the fire any mother can understand where she is coming from. They have a close relationship. I hope they both start to fit more into the fabric of Haven Harbor and be less like “the rich people in town” where they expect people to cater to them. Patrick is starting to make progress in that direction as his relationship with Angie gets more serious.

The story unfolded at a comfortable pace with several twists. One I had worked out in the back of my mind. The climatic ending really took me by surprise. I knew something had to happen soon because we were getting to the final pages but I never expected what happened. Kudos to Ms. Wait for a very exciting ending!

Again the author has stitched together a fantastic mystery with memorable characters in a spectacular setting. She also sprinkles humor throughout the story in all the right places. A perfect escape for the holiday season.