Cutwork: 01/12/16

Cutwork by Monica Ferris is the seventh in the Needlecraft mystery series. It's a modern day murder, this time, one that happens during an artisan fair. This book is a departure from the usual Betsy POV, starting instead form the POV of multiple other characters including the police and the murderer.

A murderer's POV moves the book out of the cozy genre to horror-thriller. I understand an author wanting to try new things and experiment but here, it felt too much like a glossed over retelling of Psycho minus the whole Mother nonsense.

Where Norman Bates was a taxidermist, here the artists are carvers and welders. Where Marion Crane has embezzled money from her company to impress her lover, missing money from the dead artist and his on going financial woes serve as both clues and red herrings.

Although I wasn't keen on the Robert Bloch style of writing, I did get wrapped up in the details of the different artistic styles and the whole art scene in the area. Once Betsy gets fully involved in the mystery solving, the book settles down into a familiar and welcome territory.

Four stars

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