Knitting Bones: 05/02/16

Knitting Bones by Monica Ferris is the eleventh in the Needlecraft Mystery series. The Embroiders Guild has raised more than twenty thousand dollars for a local charity but the guild president and the check have gone missing. His wife believes that something terrible has happened to him and wants Betsy to help.

There's just one small problem with that plan: Betsy's confined to her apartment after a terrible horse riding accident. Her leg is in a cast and she needs Goddy's help to be her eyes and ears.

Unfortunately Goddy's not quite the detective that Betsy is. Goddy uncovers for Betsy a gay scene in Excelsior and surrounds she was previously unaware of. It was nice to see Excelsior expanded beyond Betsy's comfort zone, and I suppose the author's.

But what really sold me this particular installment was the sheer silliness of the climax. Now usually when the protagonist is incapacitated he or (more often than not, she) is at the mercy of the antagonist, needing rescue by a secondary protagonist or potential love interest.

Not here. The antagonist is as beat up as Betsy, for reasons that are discovered over the course of the book. In fact, it's not entirely certain that he's the criminal until near the very end. But the final confrontation involves two people recently in the hospital, still recovering from their injuries going head to head in a tiny apartment, with a completely crazy crow coming into the fray too.

Five stars

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