Dyeing Up Loose Ends

By: Maggie Sefton

Narrated by: Nan McNamara

Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

Four years have sped swiftly by, and Kelly Flynn and her friends are all happily busy with children and careers. Baby Jack is now a rambunctious four-year-old preschooler who keeps Kelly on her toes. She needs all of the coffee she can drink at Pete's Porch Cafe.

Her friends at Lambspun knitting shop are all immersed in the wonderful world of fiber, until they are shocked by the murder of one of the cafe's lovable staff. Kelly's sleuthing instincts immediately go on full alert, and she starts asking questions. The well-liked waitress may have had enemies no one knew about, or she could have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Kelly and the Lambspun crew soon learn that the answers are knottier and nastier than they ever dreamed.

©2018 Maggie Sefton (P)2018 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Phoned in

So I read through this series over the summer. Being an avid knitter myself, the idea behind the series intrigued me. On the positive side, the characters Ms. Sefton has created are very engaging and you quickly come to care for them, which in turn keeps the pages turning. That's pretty much where my positive comments end.

The editing of this entire series, and especially this book, is seriously lacking. There are multiple major mistakes that throw you right out of the story. This latest book, in particular spends the first three chapters reviewing the entire series....BADLY. Several errors are made and the whole idea of reviewing the series to begin with falls flat. The reader is left impatient. Been there, Done that.. Move ON already.

Second this book takes a HUGE jump in the timeline which is very alienating. Then there is a lot of "Mary-Sue"ism and fan fiction scale fantasy fulfillment going on that leaves the reader disgusted and mildly nauseous. The whole portrayal that the police (for example) are totally inept at doing their jobs and only the main character can "investigate" what is as plain as day is really quite revolting. The excuse offered for this, that people are afraid to talk with police, is flimsy at best.

And for some reason it has really annoyed me that early in the series the dog is put through obedience training only to then be parked in the backyard for the rest of the series completely irrelevant to the storyline. There was one book earlier in the series where literally the beginning of EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER began with the main character walking into the cafe for coffee.

This book felt like a very inadequate (phoned in) conclusion to the series that could have been MUCH better if only there was a competent editor used.

Don't waste your time

This was a synapsis of all the previous books-6 chapters of everything that came before this book-disappointing and a waste of my time,

Love the series, but not this installment

I have enjoyed the previous books in this series. This one was a disappointment. It had very little story and was mostly a reprise of previous storylines and plots. Even though it was only 6+ hours I felt it dragged and found it hard to listen to.

The lamest book of the series

I have enjoyed all of the books in this series, except for this one. It is only 61/2 hours long but spends a large portion reviewing all of the other books. Very little interaction with Jack or the other children, and the story is just not there. I was very disappointed.