Love is in the air in Sea Harbor, Massachusetts, which is
the home of the Seaside Knitters who have all pitched in to
knit a gorgeous wedding shawl for Izzy Chambers, whose
wedding is only in a few weeks. As Izzy's wedding will be
held in her aunt Nell's backyard, Nell has hired a gardner,
Claire (who used to live in the area and has recently moved
back), to landscape the area. In a short amount of time,
Claire has transformed the area into a beautiful space
befitting a wedding.
Unwittingly, though, a local writer stirs up bad memories
when he's asked to give a talk at the local bookstore.
Danny discusses how some of the best fiction springs from
actual events, and he uses an example from Sea Harbor's
history - the case of a Harmony Farrow, a young girl who
died on the night of her high school graduation by drowning
at the nearby Markham Quarry. For many, the case is ancient
history; for others (such as Claire), it seems like Harmony
died only yesterday and the discussions take them back to a
dark period in their life.
The general pall surrounding Izzy's wedding is complicated
even more when her hair stylist, Tiffany, is found dead at
the hair salon. Tiffany had been acting strange lately (she
had recently missed an appointment with Izzy and Nell, she
got emotional at the rescheduled consultation), but no one
can understand who would want Tiffany dead. The police
chalk up her murder to a robbery gone wrong, but who would
rob a hair salon?
As is wont to happen in small towns, rumours quickly swirl.
Tiffany was best friends with Harmony Farrow; could the two
deaths be connected - even decades apart? And could
Claire's sudden return possibly be related? Or are these
the kinds of coincidences that only happen in movies?
Sally Goldenbaum's story-telling is exquisite in THE WEDDING
SHAWL. The story moves along beautifully, and she has an
amazing ability to set a scene. As I read along, it was
all too
easy to picture the salon, the knitting shop, the bookstore,
or whatever else she was describing. It was also easy to
imagine each character, as each one was multi-dimensional.
The downsides of THE WEDDING SHAWL, though, were the mystery
and how
it came together in the end. I appreciate mysteries that I
can solve along with the protagonist, and the Seaside
Knitters uncovered clues that were not only not revealed to
the reader (leaving the reader completely unable to solve
the mystery) but were also not things the reader could have
possibly known or intuited on their own. When I get to the
end of the book and find out "whodunit" and discover that I
was unable to play along with the characters even if I had
wanted to, it takes the fun out of having read a mystery.
On a slightly less critical note, I felt that the red
herring character was overplayed.
Readers can't help but get entangled in this national
bestselling series... Izzy Chambers is about to get
married, but much remains to be done. Then the wedding
plans get complicated when the wedding party's hair
stylist begins missing appointments. When she's found
dead, things really begin to unravel. Rumors circulate
about the stylist's past and her connection to an unsolved
murder years ago. All the Seaside Knitters really know is
they must rally to find some answers, so Izzy can don the
wedding shawl they're surprising her with- and replace the
whispers about town with wedding bells.
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