A Clock Shop Mystery sounded just the ticket so I grabbed the second in this lively series of cosy mysteries. Located in New England, the town of Orchard boasts a clock shop, owned by Ruth Clagan who first featured in JUST KILLING TIME. With winter approaching, Ruth is finishing some renovations and preparing for a grand re-opening with her employee Mark Pine in CLOCK AND DAGGER.

We learn that Ruth, a former faculty wife, inherited the Town Hall with its fine but non-working clock tower. She leases it to the town for a peppercorn rent and has asked the town to fund repairs to clock and building. Petty local ordinances however keep intruding on the business life of all the shopkeepers and might spoil the plans for the hall. What's a divorced girl to do but compare notes with the handsome, friendly owner of the barber shop, Ben Clover? Unfortunately a rather less friendly newcomer, Beckett Green, has started a bookshop and seems intent on taking business from other stores, like the coffee shop and even the clock shop. Hard enough to make one clock shop pay, but if Ruth had competition there would not be enough trade to go around. The party ends early when Ruth discovers a body, and the mystery gets ticking.

A wide variety of characters appear, though with a central female character the chat tends to revolve around housework and families rather than more exciting issues. Ruth discovers that someone has been living a lie, and the stumbling blocks in the way of repairing the Town Hall look set to see it demolished. Can Ruth resolve any of these problems, and see which contributed to the murder? This mystery is short on forensics or gruesome details, and long on small town atmosphere. Anyone who enjoys craft-based cosies will be keen to add clock repair to their bookshelf in the form of CLOCK AND DAGGER.

Julianne Holmes lives in Somerville, Massachusetts and she serves on the boards of Sisters in Crime and Sisters in Crime New England. This series is her first foray into crime writing, and now she has got settled in to Orchard I'm sure we can look forward to more fun and crimes.