cover image Murder by Artifact: The Murder Quilt

Murder by Artifact: The Murder Quilt

Barbara Graham, . . Five Star, $25.95 (311pp) ISBN 978-1-59414-828-6

In Graham's quirky second quilting mystery to feature Sheriff Marc Antony “Tony” Abernathy (after 2007's Murder by Serpents ), what appears to be the stabbed corpse of Queen Doreen, the despised wife of the mayor of Silersville, Tenn., turns up under a “murder quilt” (an antique quilt with bloodstains). When Doreen appears at her own funeral, folks realize the victim is actually Doreen's look-alike half-sister. Meanwhile, Tony's wife, Theo, who owns Theo's Quilt Shop, has found skeletal remains behind her best friend's house, and a dying tipster has informed Tony that a female serial killer is on the county tax rolls. In addition, a rash of garden gnome thefts has the down-home locals in a tizzy. Cozy fans with a taste for tongue-in-cheek humor will enjoy the wacky crime solving. Quilters will welcome the pattern of “a mystery quilt” attributed to Theo, “Night on the Mountain.” (Nov.)