Thread and Gone (Mainely Needlepoint Mystery Series #3)

by Lea Wait

Overview

When a priceless antique is stolen, murder unravels the peaceful seaside town of Haven Harbor, Maine. . .

Angie Curtis and her fellow Mainely Needlepointers know how to enjoy their holidays. But nothing grabs their attention like tying up loose threads. So when Mary Clough drops in on the group's Fourth of July supper with a question about an antique needlepoint she's discovered in her family attic, Angie and her ravelers are happy to look into the matter.

Angie's best guess is that the mystery piece may have been stitched by Mary, Queen of Scots, famous not just for losing her head, but also for her needlepointing. If Angie's right, the piece would be extremely valuable. For safekeeping, Angie turns the piece over to her family lawyer, who places it in a safe in her office. But when the lawyer is found dead with the safe open and ransacked, the real mystery begins. . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781617730085
Publisher:	Kensington
Publication date:	12/29/2015
Series:	Mainely Needlepoint Mystery Series , #3
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	88,607
Product dimensions:	4.10(w) x 6.70(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Lea Wait lives on the coast of Maine. A fourth generation antique dealer, and author of the Agatha-nominated Shadows Antique Print mystery series, she loves all things antiques and Maine, and she's learning to do needlepoint. She also writes historical novels for young people set in (where else?) nineteenth-century Maine. Lea adopted her four daughters when she was single; she's now the grandmother of eight, and married to artist Bob Thomas. Find her at Facebook, Goodreads, and at www.leawait.com.

Editorial Reviews

2015-10-08
Historic embroidery is a motive for murder in a small Maine town. Angie Curtis couldn't get away from her hometown of Haven Harbor fast enough when she was a teenager. Now she's back, living in the house of the grandmother who raised her while Gram is on her honeymoon. Angie is giving a July Fourth dinner for fellow members of her small business, Mainely Needlepoint, when state trooper Ethan Trask's younger brother, Rob, arrives with his fiancee, Mary Clough. Mary's been cleaning out her parents' house, which has been in the family for generations, and she's discovered an old panel of embroidery. She and Rob want Angie and the other members of the needlepoint group to estimate its worth so that Rob can sell it to buy his own lobster boat. The panel and the old letter in French accompanying it certainly look antique, and while Angie's establishing their provenance, she entrusts the panel to Lenore Pendleton, Gram's lawyer. It seems like a good idea until Lenore is found in her nightgown bludgeoned to death in her own living room. All her jewelry and the embroidery are gone. Even though Ethan doesn't want Angie to meddle, the 10 years she worked for an Arizona private eye make it impossible for her to walk away. As she pursues the possibility that the panel has connections to both Mary, Queen of Scots, and Marie Antoinette, Angie establishes who knew that the embroidery was with Lenore, and whom Lenore knew well enough to let into her house at night. Then Angie identifies what appears to be a prime suspect, with only one slight complication: the suspect is dead. It's a big jump from needlework to homicide, but Wait combines a plausible plot with the same rockbound coastal atmosphere as in Shadows on a Maine Christmas (2014).

Kirkus Reviews