St. Rose Goes Hawaiian: A St. Rose Quilting Bee Mystery

Mahon takes the Quilting Bees of St. Rose Catholic Church in Scottsdale, Ariz., to Hawaii on a quilting tour in her pleasing fourth Quilting Bee cozy (after 2010’s Bits and Pieces). On the ladies’ first day on the big island, their harried guide, Lurline Ilima, spends an inordinate amount of time reining in her flirtatious tour-bus driver husband, “Sam” Samson, who resembles “actor Cary Grant in his heyday.” On the second day, during the musical entertainment portion of a luau, Sam turns up dead from an apparent heart attack, though the author makes it clear a killer is at work. The tension was palpable between the no-nonsense Lurline and the boorish Sam, but she wouldn’t have wanted him dead, despite his advances toward stepdaughter Makana, a recent University of Hawaii grad. Readers will feel like picking up crafting tools and solving the case right along with the Bees. (July)