Thread and Dead by Elizabeth Penney | book review

Thread and Dead is the second book in Elizabeth Penney’s Apron Shop series, a fun cozy mystery series set in Blueberry Cove, Maine.

Thread and Dead by Elizabeth Penney

Title: Thread and Dead
Author: Elizabeth Penney
Series: The Apron Shop Series #2
First Published: August 25, 2020
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Genres: Mystery
Acquired: from the publisher

*** Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, for providing me with an advanced e-copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. ***

Iris Buckley is busier than ever this July, with the town’s annual Lobster Festival fast approaching. In just a matter of days her apron shop Ruffles & Bows, will be jam-packed with tourists eager to lay eyes on its world-class collection of aprons and linens—and Iris’s inventory is running low. Then, just when all hope seems lost, Iris gets a call from Eleanor Brady, a wealthy, reclusive spinster who just happens to have trunks full of vintage fabrics. Would Iris like to come down to Eleanor’s cottage estate Shorehaven and have a look?

Before long Iris is on the scene—and on the case. Turns out that Eleanor has rented Shorehaven to the handsome, charismatic environmentalist Dr. Lukas de Wilde and his flock of students. What begins as an apron-scouting endeavor soon morphs into a full-blown murder investigation when Dr. de Wilde’s beautiful young teaching assistant turns up dead. Now it’s up to Iris—along with her friends—to unravel the mystery before the Blueberry Cove killer strikes again.

A cozy mystery set on pins and needles

Thread and Dead by Elizabeth Penney There were so many reasons why I didn’t initially agree to read Thread and Dead. It was the second book in a series I hadn’t read before, and the main character owned an apron and linen shop. While I could possibly look past the fact that I hadn’t read the first book in the series, it was harder for me to work up enthusiasm for a book about aprons. I’m don’t sew, knit, iron sheets or wear aprons (well, I do own a few, but they’re the really thick, starchy chef type aprons)

But I figured, “What the heck?”, let’s try something new!

And I’m SO glad I did! I really enjoyed this book. It was fun, moved at a good pace, and there were two mysteries that moved the plot along (only one involves the murder, the other involves a family’s past).

At first, everyone assumes the murder is an accident – who would want to kill the smart and enthusiastic teaching assistant? But as Iris soon finds out, the girl was not as nice as she pretended to be and there were definitely a few people who had a motive. I have to admit, I changed my guess several times before the conclusion of the story and even then, I was surprised at how the ending played out.

This book isn’t “action-packed” and there is a significant amount of time spent on building friendships and digging into Eleanor’s past, but it was still a nice read that kept a nice, easy pace.

Thread and Dead has a large and interesting cast of characters

There were a lot of characters in this story. Maybe too many? I have to admit though that there were times when I couldn’t keep straight of who was who. There were A LOT of people to keep track of – including all of Iris’ friends and their respective love interests, the academic group staying at Shorehaven AND the people of Blueberry Cove. It was probably one of the larger cast of characters in a cozy mystery that I’ve read in awhile. I wonder if it might be easier for me to remember who was who (and who was dating who) if I had read the first book, but *shrugs* it is what it is.

Although there were so many characters, I did enjoy all of them and their interactions with each other, especially the women. The female characters in Thread and Dead are very well written – they each have very distinct personalities and I’m sure the more I read this series, the more I’ll be able to tell them apart. I loved their girls’ nights – it was fun to see a group of girlfriends just enjoying and supporting each other, ignoring age gaps and backgrounds. They were all welcoming and seem like exactly the type of friends you want in your life.

And that’s not to say the male characters weren’t interesting too. Again, there were A LOT of them, but they had some good, solid (and different) personalities (at least they did whenever I could remember who was who without looking at my notes). Some of the characters that were introduced in this book sound like they’ll be sticking around Blueberry Cove, so it will be interesting to see if they come up again in future stories.

The main character, Iris, was very well written. She’s very genuine and likable. She’s a bit less reckless than most cozy mystery amateu sleuths who just seem to race headlong (and alone) into dangerous situations – Iris always tries to have a backup plan, which is a nice change of pace. I was even interested in her business and could imagine a cute little shop in a small town selling aprons and linens. And yes, now I want a cute apron of my own.

Speaking of the small town – Blueberry Cove is definitely somewhere I want to visit. A Lobster Festival? Sign me up! The food descriptions had me drooling and I was dying to see if Iris would have a change of heart and learn to like seaweed (yep, you read that right – I said seaweed).