Sammyβs heart sank. Could this day get any worse? Sheβd
hoped to spend more time with her old neighbor, but she resigned herself to the fact that the
timing apparently wasnβt meant to be. Maybe it never had. Sammyβs mind wandered to Mayor
Allen, his wife, Connie, and Carter too. With Carter abroad at school, she hoped his parentsβ
sharing what she had uncovered about his sisterβs death wouldnβt cause him to want to come
home. What would that kind of news do to his psyche, especially while he was so far away
from Heartsford? She wondered if she had made the right decision to get involved. Did
ignorance really mean bliss? She didnβt think so.
Knowing Kateβs death wasnβt an accident didnβt make it
easier, though. Would bringing the murderer to trial bring Kate back? Certainly not. Or Jane
Johnson? They deserved justice though and young Ethan deserved justice for his injuries too.
The carnage! She needed a mind break.
Sammy decided on a whim to try to return Bradleyβs call. The
phone went straight to voicemail: βHey, Bradley, -um, -I meanβ¦Brad. That feels weird on my
tongue. Anyway, have a safe trip. Catch you on the flip side! Bye!β
Catch you on the flip side? What an idiot. Sammy slapped her hand to her forehead.
The dark wet road and lack of overhead lights on the county
highway made visibility on the ride home tough. Without warning, Sammy saw something dart
across her path just beyond her headlights. She swerved and skidded the car to avoid the
large animal, but as she continued driving, she quickly came to the realization it wasnβt an
animal she had narrowly missed, but a bicyclist.
What the hell is someone doing out in the dark on a bike
at this hour? And without reflective clothing? What an idiot!
And then it happened.
She noticed the oversized fat tires on the bikeβ¦trail tires.
Her heart thundered.
Sammyβs eyes flew to the cyclist, who was wearing a dark
helmet and pedaling hard. Her eyes narrowed in on the letters on the back of his gray T-shirt,
which reflected the name Semco in bright white letters. Β . . . Duke! The adrenaline rushed through
her veins like a cresting river. Her immediate instinct was to hit him. She could do it right nowβ¦
and no one would blame her.
I could say it was
an accident. Everyone would believe her. Sheβd never done anything to hurt anyone in the
pastβ¦but that was then. That was before Kateβs killer had flashed right before her eyes.
Sammy shook her head as if to waken herself. She was
appalled at the vulgar darkness that had clouded her thoughts. Thoughts like that made her
no different than the killer in her mind. The thought made bile rise in her throat.
But she had to stop him! He must have known she had
slowed the car to follow him, as his riding path changed. He jerked the bike into the median,
kicking up wet stones, and pumped hard along the grass, waiting for a break in the thick brush
to escape. He was within feet of an opening where the brush met farmland, and then he could
easily squeeze through. She couldnβt let that happen. With seconds to spare, Sammy lurched
the car into the median to follow the fat-tired bike and bumped the back tire, just enough to
cause the man to fall. She could have run him over. Right then and there. But she slammed on
the brakes and skidded inches from his body. Immediately she texted Detective Nash a 911
text with instructions to leave Pine Haven. Surely, heβd find her on his way back toward town.
Sammy leapt from the driverβs side and sprinted to the front
of the car. The man was groaning, but he was alive. He rolled over onto his side, and Sammy
knelt down to remove his helmet. And the blow hit her hard.
(C) Holly Quinn, Crooked Lane Books, 2019
Handcrafted Mystery
Sure to delight fans of Betty Hechtman and Maggie Sefton, A Crafter Hooks a Killer is the
second installment in Holly Quinn's Handcrafted mysteries.
Community Craft proprietor Sammy Kane suspects that a tantalizing thread links the
deaths of her best friend and a bestselling author. But can she weave together the clues?
Samantha "Sammy" Kane is settling into her new life in idyllic Heartsford, Wisconsin, running
her late friend Kate Allen's craft shop, Community Craft when one early June day, bestselling
crochet author Jane Johnson visits Heartsford. Captivated by Community Craft, Jane devotes
a chapter in her new book,
Behind the Seams, to the store. Sammy is honored, though
satisfaction quickly turns to shock when she finds Jane strangled to deathβher cold hands
clutching a copy of her most recently published book, with the words "THE END" raggedly
scratched into the cover.
Heavens to Etsy! Not only must Sammy contend with the author's inauspicious demise, she
has to untie some knotty details from her own past. It turns out Kate's death was not what it
seemed, and instead somehow hooked to Jane Johnson's demise. Handsome Detective Liam
Nash is on the "skein", more than happy to see the shop owner again, if less than enamored by
her sleuthing interventions. But this was Sammy's best friendβshe has to know.
Fortunately, Sammy has a "lace" in the hole. As a child, she formed the S.H.E. detective team
with her cousin, Heidi, and her sister, Ellie. Having already reconstituted their partnership, the
S.H.E. team searches for a pattern behind the latest death. As the case starts to unravel, will
Sammy and team be able to sidestep Liam quick enough to stitch together the clues?
Mystery Hobbies | Mystery Cozy [Crooked Lane Books, On Sale:
June 11, 2019, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9781643850122 / eISBN: 9781643850139]
Who killed the
Queen of Crafts?
Holly Quinn has published two stand-alone fiction novels in another persona. She graduated
from Carroll University in Wisconsin with a Bachelor of Science in business and a minor in
marketing.
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