Looming Murder by Carol Ann Martin

Looming Murder by Carol Ann Martin ISBN-13: 9780451413604 Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: Obsidian Released: June 4, 2013

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
Della Wright moved to small town Briar Hollow to realize her lifelong dream of owning a weaving studio. To promote her new business, Dream Weavers, Della starts a weaving group to make charity baby blankets. It attracts half a dozen people who seem as eager to gossip as to weave.

When a shady local businessman is found murdered, Della can’t help getting entangled in the investigation. Her criminologist friend and housemate, Matthew, and the police chief are upset with her bumbling sleuthing. But her promises to stop don't deter her, and perhaps her knowledge of weaving might be the final clue needed to uncover the murderer!


My Review:
Looming Murder is a cozy mystery. The few weaving descriptions assumed you had some knowledge about weaving, but the mystery had plenty of clues and red-herrings. Whodunit was guessable from the clues, and the clues weren't always obvious.

While I correctly and firmly guessed whodunit long before the characters, I still think that the motives of some of the other suspects felt more natural/realistic. I found the ending a little jarring since I had to change my view of several characters. We discover that a woman who doesn't come across as brilliant is actually very smart, and so on.

The story's tension mainly came from Della's romantic misadventures and from her potential decision to spend every last dime to buy a store when her business isn't doing well. Matthew seemed pretty sensible and drew the obvious (though incorrect) romantic conclusions, so I was surprised that he kept pushing Della to go out on a financial limb with the sole argument of "because you want to."

But it's Della that's the real mystery to me. I could never guess what she'd do next. She broke promises without a thought. She went from "no one's a suspect yet" to "hey, let's investigate this ourselves!" with no good reason why they should.

The men don't take her seriously because she's hard to take seriously. She insisted on wearing high-heeled shoes even when they weren't practical--like when she's on crutches. She's in blinding pain due to a fall down some stairs, and she's trying to flirt with the emergency room doctor and hopes he'll notice her trim ankle instead of the injured one. At least Della wasn't mean, but she didn't think things through. So she destroyed a crime scene that would have proved her friend innocent when she hopped all over it on her crutches looking for clues. She baffled me.

There was no sex. There was some explicit bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this book to those who like more chick-lit type heroines.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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