This story was mostly about food prep and very little about a murder mystery.

Knot Dead Again is the first in the Yarn Retreat series for me. The first few chapters, where all the series regulars seem to be introduced, were a bit overwhelming because of that. At the same time I had the feeling I was missing out on something. This had mainly to do with the relationship between Casey and Dane.

But as soon as Casey, and the story, arrived at Vista Del Mar, the feeling of being left out subsided. From here the book can be read as a stand alone. There is a very slow run up to the (first) death, which Casey spends for a large amount sitting in the lobby watching all the key players/guests arrive.

The story continues to be slow moving after one of the guest, the host of another retreat scheduled the same weekend, is found dead in his bed. It seems he died of natural causes in his sleep, though Casey treats the room as a crime scene. Even calls it a crime scene and calls the police to report the death rather than a physician. Not that either can reach the hotel due to the storm and fallen trees.

The other guests are all unpleasant people. When Casey and Cloris, the interim hotel manager, finally decide to tell the other guests a guest has passed away - they didn’t tell before because they didn’t want them to get upset - the guests respond with “a barrage of questions about the cause”. There are pleasant and unpleasant ways to inform about a cause of death. This sounded like an unpleasant way. There was no mention that any one of them expressed condolences to the widow, who was sitting only a few feet away from the rest of the group.

It seems the widow was not consulted about when and what information to share with the group. No points for Casey and Cloris on empathy either.

Or on smarts for that matter. Having decided that the death was suspicious after all, Casey comes up with one suspect: the wife. She would have the best opportunity to use the means. Casey conveniently ignores that the wife also has the best opportunity to remove the means from the room of the victim before warning anyone about her husband’s death. Unless she forgot, she would have no reason to go back and remove the means at a later time.

Aside from my dislike of citing “the wife is the first suspect”, considering only one suspect makes for a rather boring murder mystery. Actually, almost 70% into the book, it becomes rather aggravating that Casey and friends are still looking at only one suspect. The victim was going to host a retreat; his wife was not the only person present that knew he was was going to be there. At least two other people knew too, and there were at least two people present that disliked him. How hard is it to keep an open mind (Casey’s words) that is actually open to alternative scenarios?

Props for the author for showing what tunnel vision looks like. It’s not until 87% into the story that Casey considers that someone wanted to frame the wife for the murder of her husband.

The plot of the book sounded like it could have a great mystery: a group of people is cut off from the outside world, then one of them dies. It could have been a real tension grabber. In stead it got bogged down in meal prep and thinking of activities to keep a group of adults busy. And no one thought of the activity ‘see if we can get the road cleared ourselves so we can get out of here’. Bunch of wet blankets.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.