A Knit Before Dying

Small business and murder share the stage in Hartwell’s agreeable second Tangled Web mystery (after 2015’s Yarned and Dangerous). Josie Blair, the owner of Miss Marple Knits in Dorset Falls, Conn., returns to her shop one afternoon to find her new tenant, antique dealer Lyndon Bailey, dead behind the counter. Standing over the body is Lyndon’s business partner, Harry Oglethorpe, who says he just got there. If Harry didn’t do it, who did? As the suspect pool expands, a California filmmaker arrives in town, as does Lyndon’s beautiful but obnoxious niece with plans for an antiquing reality show. Another new business is readying to open, a craft brewery out on the farm of Bea Ryder, a local who disappeared decades earlier. Josie’s gut tells her that much of what’s going on is connected, and her hunch leads to a clue that it really is a tangled web. Meanwhile, the ongoing feud between Josie’s cantankerous great-uncle Eb and curmudgeon Roy Woodruff brings Josie closer to Roy’s handsome bachelor farmer son, Mitch. Hartwell’s charming, humorous, and villainous characters will please cozy fans. Agent: John Talbot, Talbot Fortune Agency. (Sept.)