Monday, July 7, 2008

Dyer Consequnces by Maggie Sefton

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. We got some sorely needed rain here in my area. I finished two books over the long weekend -- Water for Elephants, which is for a book club discussion tomorrow night and Dyer Consequences by Maggie Sefton. I want to wait until after our discussion to do a review of Water for Elephants. So look for that later in the week.

Dyer Consequences is the fifth book in the Knitting Series by Sefton. It's one of those cozy mystery series that centers around a hobby (gardening, scrapbooking, knitting, etc.) or a job (bookstore owner, florist, librarian, etc.). None of these series are considered high brow literature; however, some of them are well-written and entertaining, which is the case with Maggie Sefton's series. I've read the previous four books in the series and have enjoyed all of them. This latest installment was the perfect thing to read after my two previous books -- Lolita and Water for Elephants, which both deal with more serious subjects.

This one is purely for fun. Kelly Flynn is the protagonist, who has moved back to the Colorado mountains and taken up residence beside the Lambspun Knitting Shop. As is the case with these types of series, she ends up finding herself in the middle of a mystery. Someone is trying to scare her away from buying a ranch up in the canyon. The threats begin with vandalism to her property and soon escalate to more serious crimes. In addition, there's been some vandalism at the knitting shop next door. Soon a body turns up and Kelly sets out to find out if the these are random acts of violence or if they're related and really do have something to do with her.

I enjoy the characters in this series, as well as the descriptions of the beautiful Colorado landscape. But as much as anything else, I enjoy reading about the knitting -- the yarns, the patterns, the projects, etc. The book includes a pattern at the back, as well as a recipe. This is another things that is pretty typical with this type of cozy mystery. This latest mystery was pretty easy to solve, but it was still enjoyable. If you like this type of book and possibly need a change of pace after some heavier reading, this just may be something you'd like.

4 comments:

Andi said...

Ugg, we definitely need that rain you mentioned here in TX, too.

Looking forward to your Water for Elephants review. I've had it sitting on my TBR for far too long.

Lisa said...

andi, I've had it for a while myself before I got around to reading it. If it hadn't been for the book club, I don't know if I'd have read it yet. But, I'm glad I did.

Iliana said...

I used to read a lot more cozies than I do now. It seemed that I went through a lot that were just silly almost and so started going for more of the police procedural or historical mysteries. I will keep this one in mind though because it would be nice to check out a good cozy!

Lisa said...

iliana, I know what you mean about many of the cozy mystery series. They can be silly. I have enjoyed this one. After five though I'm afraid I may not be able to buy into many more. I know the whole premise is the amateur sleuth thing, but really how many murders can be believed in such a small town?