Death Among the Doilies

 This is a spinoff series from Mollie Cox Bryan's Cumberland Creek books.  It is not at all necessary to have read the other series to enjoy this one.  In fact, I didn't get the correlation until very late in the story when Cora's Uncle Jon comes to visit.  

The characters of Cora, Jane and Ruby work well together and it is believable to experience their adjustments and concerns over opening a craft retreat.  The information about the crafts are well mixed into the storyline of the mystery.  I found myself entertained by the descriptions of the broom making classes as well as the candle making.  Anyone interested in crafts will enjoy reading the book.  I found it especially interesting as I actually attended a craft retreat in NC myself.  It wasn't quite the same as it was hosted at a hotel but we did visit the hostess' workshop during the weekend.  This book brought back many memories of my crafting/scrapbooking weekends I have taken over the years.  It makes me want to reestablish this tradition.  

As for the mystery, it is well written and has some subplots that fit well with the story.  They all made sense together and complemented each other rather than be a distraction.  I will say I predicted the outcome a little over halfway through the book but this did not detract from my reading enjoyment at all.  I look forward to reading more in this series.

Death Among the Doilies by Mollie Cox Bryan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this cozy since it combined my love for mysteries and crafts. I found the characters to be relatable and a good mix of likeable and annoying. They seemed to experience real life emotions. The descriptions of the different crafts were interesting but not so overwhelming as to take over the book. There were plenty of twists and turns and hidden agendas. I look forward to finding more in this series.

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Challenge Prompts

The Challenge Prompts I will use this for are:  

1. Library Love  #LibraryLoveChallenge  Book #88
2. Virtual Mount TBR #VirtualMountTBR2021   Book #95
3. Back List Reader  #Backlistreader  Book #109
4. Calendar of Crime  #CalendarOfCrime2021   
5. Cruisin thru Cozies  Craft cozy #2
6. Cloak & Dagger  #CloakDaggerChal  Book #94
7. Craving for Cozies  Book #80
8. Medical Examiner Challenge  2 Toe Tags
9. Beachcomber Challenge  
• Crime Scenes 

Row 3
Free square living room

• Weapons
• Row 1 
• Rope
• Falling object
• Poison, poisoned food
• Motor vehicle (wreck)
• Fire
• Row 2 
• Knife
• Detectives- 
10. Six Shooter Challenge  Target #56  Shot #2