Book Review: Buried in Quilts

Reviewed By: Carol Schwaderer Dickinson - RAM

Buried in Quilts     Amazon US PB Amazon US TPB Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada TPB
Sara Hoskinson Frommer
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Woman Main Character   Amateur Sleuth
Series: Joan Spencer # 2
St Martins 1996, 250 pages

This book was given a good enough mention to me by someone that I went to the trouble of tracking it down at a used book store. Any mystery with quilts in the title intrigues me. This was the author's second book in a series apparantly, and set in a fictional Oliver Indiana. The heroine sleuth Joan Spencer, while preparing for a symphony performance at a quilt show in which the body is found buried under one of the quilts featured in the show, solves the murder. Usually mysteries about quilts seem to have little to do with the quilts themselves. In this particular story, the quilt is strongly featured in unraveling mystery in a way I've only ever seen in the stories of Jennifer Chiaverini and this book predates most of hers. It was a clever telling of a mystery from a quilters perspective. When I look at what the book offers as a setting, theme, charcters, and even the plot, and the understanding of how quilters feel about their craft. it meets all my criteria for a favorite read. I should have liked it more than I did for that reason alone but I really didn't get invested in the sleuth or her famly. I like everyday people to populate my cozies. But these folks were just a little too ordinary I guess.

Carol Schwaderer Dickinson - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Carol Schwaderer Dickinson - RAM