Book Review: "Dyer Consequences: A Knitting Mystery"

"Dyer Consequences" by Maggie Sefton
First published in 2008
My rating: 3.5 out of 5
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"Dyer Consequences" had two major things going for it: it involves knitting and it was quickly apparent to me that the "fictitious" town of Fort Connor, Colorado, in which the book is set is actually Fort Collins, Colorado, the very same city where I went to college! The murder victim in the novel was even a student at Colorado State University, my alma mater.

Unfortunately, that was really all that wowed me about "Dyer Consequences." If you're not a knitter and/or have ties to Colorado, I'm not sure this book would hold your attention. There weren't any glaring issues; rather, the whole book was just kind of mediocre. The plot was ok, the mystery was predictable, the main character was mostly likeable, and the writing style was fine. The plot is pretty simple: a young woman is drowned in a vat of yarn die in the basement of a quaint little knitting shop, and amateur sleuth/amateur knitter Kelly Flynn is on the case. Nothing too dazzling.

I'd classify "Dyer Consequences" as "murder mystery lite." (I believe Barnes and Noble calls books like this "cozy mysteries," which is also apt.) And that genre has some steep competition, especially in these niche categories like knitting, quilting, tea shop, library, bakery and dog- and cat-lover mysteries, and the list goes on and on from there. My favorite "mystery lite" authors are Donna Andrews with her quietly humorous bird-themed series and Tasha Alexander with her Lady Emily books, which are set in 1800s England. Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books are on the edge between mystery and mystery lite for me, but she's one of my favorite authors in general. These writers all manage to hook me into their stories and keep me flying through the pages. And when I'm done, I'll inevitably get online to see when the next book is due out. Maggie Sefton just didn't wow me like that.

I will add, in her defense, that "Dyer Consequences" is the fifth of her knitting mystery series and perhaps I would have enjoyed her more if I'd started with book one. Maybe I'll pick up the first installment, "Knit One, Kill Two," at some point. Even if it doesn't blow me away, it's not such a bad thing to be transported to a knitting shop in my home state of Colorado for a couple hundred pages.

Happy reading (and knitting)!