Sins and Needles

A Needlecraft Mystery, Book 10

By: Monica Ferris

Narrated by: Connie Crawford

Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

When adoptee Lucille Jones comes to town researching her roots, Betsy Devonshire notices that she bears a remarkable resemblance to local Jan Henderson. Betsy introduces the look-alikes and they quickly hit it off. But then Jan's wealthy great-aunt is found dead, helped to her grave by a stiff metal wire—a double-zero knitting needle, in fact. Just like the kind Jan knits with.

Lucille begs Betsy to help clear her new friend's name. And while going through her aunt's effects, Jan finds an old pillow lined with an embroidered map of Lake Minnetonka. Betsy intends to follow the threads. Who knows—it could just possibly lead to buried treasure. Or, perhaps, to a secret that someone will kill to keep buried.

©2006 Mary Monica Kuhfeld writing as Monica Ferris. All rights reserved. (P)2009 BBC Audio

Good plot but too much filler.

The mystery plot was very good and kept me interested, but there were way too many detailed tangents that went on and on.

Just Okay

What did you like best about Sins and Needles? What did you like least?
The storyline of this book had potential, and there were multiple suspects until shortly before the ending, but it could have been brought to life more effectively in the telling. I didn't care for the narrator at all, and the ending seemed rather abrupt. I would have preferred to see the family relationship resolved more fully, including the effect on the inheritance. An epilogue would have been nice. Also, the overly detailed descriptions of items became somewhat tedious.

Who was your favorite character and why?
None of of the characters really stood out or drew me to them.

How did the narrator detract from the book?
Her character voices aren't very enjoyable, and I had to increase the speed just to make listening tolerable. Obviously, this diminished my enjoyment of the book. Plus, the pronunciation of Betsy's last name (Devonshire) has changed back and forth over the last few books. One would think the author would make sure this at least was consistent.

Was Sins and Needles worth the listening time?
Yes, but probably only because I've enjoyed the series in the past and I'm trying to make it through the three books performed by this narrator to get to books once again performed by the original narrator.

Any additional comments?
I think Betsy's character is becoming a bit flat, and her "talent" for solving murders is being stretched a little thin. I have hope that the next book will show more life and personality, although with the same narrator, it could be false hope.

Terrible Narration

This Narrator is terrible! The characters don’t even sound the same. It was painful to listen to.

Sins and Needles

Actually I started reading books from this author. I was very glad to find that her books were on audio. Her books are light and fun and she keeps you guessing until the end!! I would recommend.

Narrator 😟

Story just doesn’t have the same ‘feeling’ as the past narrator - the previous narrator gave me a happy sort of feeling - this one more angry 😟

Disappointed

I didn't like the shift of the usual main character having a minor part. The usual charters also were missing. Story line was okay. It seemed there was a new narrator.

Really good story but bad narration

This is one of the best plots in this series, but the monotone reading ruins the characters. Especially Betsy Devonshire- she seems deadpan and un relatable.

Narrator

Connie Crawford is not a good choice for this book because she doesn't have the range of voices needed.. It was difficult to know who was speaking at any time.
The story is a very good one, as all of Monica Ferris' are.

good book

what happened to the dog when Jan found her aunt? Did I miss something there?

Love the Author - Disliked the Narrator

Would you consider the audio edition of Sins and Needles to be better than the print version?

For me, no. Even though I have a preconceived notion of what the characters look and sound like from the book, with this narration, it was so poorly done that I would have had a better time reading the book.

What other book might you compare Sins and Needles to and why?

Reminds me of the Benni Harper Mystery series by Earlene Fowler. Also, The Ghost and Mrs. McClure, Haunted Bookshop Mystery series by Alice Kimberly and Cleo Coyle. Both series are similar and thoroughly enjoyable.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Connie Crawford?

Johanna Parker, Susan Boyce. Both do an excellent job of the pace of reading, enunciation and differentiating the characters with believable tones that are consistent throughout.

Any additional comments?

I did not enjoy this narrator at all. She ended most of her sentences on a down note. The characters always were made to sound cranky. There was little difference in the tone of her voice for the different characters and the pace she spoke at tended to be dragging. I'm sure with more practice she could be a fine story teller, but this one just didn't cut it.

The only problem that I had with this book is that there were times that there was too much filler. It was like the editor kept telling the author to make it longer. For example: Her finisher brings in a huge box of projects that she finished. Betsy goes through all of the items...like nine of them...and describes each one in minute detail, who designed the canvas, etc. There seemed to be too many times when they had that piece where the heroin reviews all the facts...again and again. Other than that, it was a delightful story. I wouldn't talk someone out of reading the book because of that, it just wasn't up to the normal par of the author.