Maggie Sefton – Unraveled

The ninth book in the Knitting Mystery series, published June 7, 2011.
Genre: cozy mystery



Spring is in the air of Fort Connor, Colorado – and it’s a time of new beginnings for the House of Lambspun knitters. But for Kelly Flynn, a March chill lingers as she tries to mend her broken heart … and solve a cold-blooded crime.

Kelly’s longtime romance has come apart at the seams. To distract herself, she burrows into her demanding consulting business, hangs out with her knitting pals, and takes on the challenge of knitting a scarf from gorgeous unraveled silken sari yarn.
When Kelly accompanies her friend Jennifer to meet with Jen’s new real estate client, the two women discover him shot in his own home. The client, Fred Turner, had a reputation for being difficult at best, unscrupulous at worst, and he had a long list of enemies – from his estranged wife to bitter business associates. Unravelling the tangle of clues may prove to be Kelly’s greatest challenge yet. But it’s the only way to catch a killer who’s anything but sorry…


Kelly’s heart was broken half a year ago, when her boyfriend Steve walked out on her. His business went down the drain, and he could not handle it. So Kelly has buried herself in her new job, and she really likes it. She has to go to Denver a lot, and often stays the night in a nice Inn, a great suite with a lovely Jacuzzi for herself.
She has to attend a lot of boring meetings for the new project her boss is starting, but at those meetings she just might meet the man who mends her broken heart. If only Steve was not attending some of the meetings as well on behalf of his new boss! So what to do if and when he approaches her? Does she still love him?

One of Kelly’s bosses is Arthur Housemann, one of the few still successful builders in Colorado. Due to the many homeowners losing their houses, his rental properties are filling up, which is of course good for his bottom line. But now he is very happy, he has been looking for some property for himself in the Canyons near Fort Connor, and he has found the perfect place. A place he has been admiring for many years now, in Poudre Canyon. The only drawback is that the seller is Fred Turner, another real estate tycoon but with a very bad reputation. So he has decided not to negotiate, just offer the asking price, so Turner has no chance to be difficult. There is some previous bad blood between them.

Kelly’s friend Jennifer is a real estate agent, but there is almost no work for her either. So she works at lot in the catering business with their friend Pete, and at the university, so she can make ends meet. As Turner is such a difficult client, her boss has given her the listing, and Kelly uses that to find out more about the property and about Turner. That weekend, they decide to go up to the place, and check it out. Then Jennifer finds out from Anita, Turner’s assistant (who has an office in the same building as the real estate agency) that Turner had an other offer on the property, and did not discuss it with her, and has gone to meet that interested person, she is not pleased! She fully intends to barge in on that meeting. But when Kelly and Jennifer arrive, they find Turner dead on the floor. Apparently he killed himself with an old pistol. Still, something does not feel right to Kelly, and she takes a few pictures of the gun in question while Jennifer calls the police. The only person they saw on the road to the property was Renee Turner, his wife. According to gossip, they were going through a rough divorce, and Renee was accusing Fred of hiding money from her. Which is why she had Anita tell her about his business dealings.

Kelly is not really interested in the case, until their friend Jayleen asks her to sleuth on behalf of her good friend Renee. She just knows she is innocent; it is just not in her to kill her husband like that. But if not Renee, who did it? Her boss Arthur Housemann is also acting strange, not taking her calls, avoiding her at the office. Could he have done it? Especially when he asks her to make a survey of his properties in case he needs to sell them to pay for legal fees…..


To be honest, I did see it coming, the real murderer, still, the why was fascinating. It is so often the newcomer to the books, even if you really do not expect it. But I still very much enjoyed this book. I do have to warn you though, if you do not like romance in your cozy mysteries, there is much more of it than usual in this series.

I like Kelly a lot. She handles everything very well in my eyes, she misses Steve, but she does not ignore him, but she also does not forgive him instantly. They cannot go back to the way they were, if ever, they will have to start again. She also has a big dog named Carl, who is always trying to catch Brazen Squirrel, but ofcourse, the squirrel is much faster than Carl. But it is fun to read about.

Kelly belongs to a great group of friends, they support one another, and they do hope Steve and Kelly will get back together. They know that Steve was a total ass, but they can also see that he is very sorry, and still in love with Kelly. I do like their attempts to bring them together, and that they did not dump one of them over the other. I really like catching up on all their lives. Like Megan, finally finding a wedding gown she loves, and decisions about the catering and stuff. And of course Burt has a large role in all the books, acting as Kelly’s sounding board and inroad on the ongoing police investigations (he is a retired cop). If only I liked to knit or something, the descriptions of the House of Lambspun, and all the skeins of wool and silk and angora and whatever, all the colors, it is so vivid!

To all knitters, I heartily recommend this series. It has a knitting pattern and a recipe in the back of all the books.

8 stars.

It was kind of bittersweet reading this book. It takes place in March, when spring is just around the corner, and the snow is melting. And Kelly admires the sights up in the canyons. She loves it up there. And in real life, today, and for a few weeks now, there are raging wild fires in that region. Yes, Fort Collins and the canyons in this book, and even the knitting shop are real places. My thoughts keep returning to the pictures Maggie Sefton posted, and I do hope the fires will be controlled soon, and the area will survive this. So much nature and houses are destroyed already.

© 2012 Reviews by Aurian