Crochet Mystery

By hook or crook, Molly will clear her name in On the Hook, national bestseller Betty Hechtman's irresistible twelfth Crochet Mystery. The Tarzana Hookers crochet club could come apart at the seams when thwarted ambition, shady ethics, and a puzzling murder converge. Molly Pink and the Tarzana Hookers are busy crocheting baby blankets for charity, but before long, they're tangled up in a mystery that may be their unraveling. The Hookers are a tight-knit group, but some of the members harbor secret aspirations. Adele dreams of becoming an actress, and her acting coach has filled her head with promises of a career as a crochet show host. Elise Belmont has earned her real estate license and is itching to show her first house. But when the house's tenant turns up dead from a pink squirrel cocktail laced with cyanide, the Hookers could be in double treble. It turns out that the dead man was Adele's acting coach, Timothy Clark. And Molly gets wound up in the case after accidentally leaving a scarf she designed at the murder scene. Detective Barry Greenberg, one of Molly's exes, quickly stitches together that the scarf is hers. Lawyer Mason Fields (another of Molly's exes) has her head swimming in legalese. For Molly, the only way out is by learning who really killed Timothy, and why.

Molly Pink's excitement level is off the hook: The Craftee Channel's new cable talk show "Creating with Crochet" has scheduled an upcoming taping at the bookstore. While she's there, TV host Rory Graham is to work with the Tarzana Hookers on a Make and Take bracelet project to draw bookstore customers to the yarn section. It's a win-win...or so it "seams." The situation gets a bit knotted when channel producer Michael Kostner confides to Molly his concern that Rory may have oversold her ability as a crocheter. When the producer's worst fears are realized, it's up to Molly to make sure Rory comes through. Guiding Rory through crocheting-for-beginners will have to wait, though, as Molly suddenly has to untangle the mysterious death of a new Tarzana Hookers member. Marianne Freeman and her live-in companion, Connie Richards, haven't exactly been gabby since they joined the Hookers, but Connie's voice is silenced permanently when she is electrocuted while walking on a wet lawn-electrified by an old radio plugged into a faulty extension cord. The fingers point at Marianne, but Molly is fast on the case to protect one of her own. Was Marianne the killer...or the intended target? Why does her younger brother want to keep her from talking to the cops? And why is this whole case starting to remind Molly Pink of an old TV movie?

These are the dog days of August, but you won't catch the Tarzana Hookers crochet club napping. While Molly Pink knits together an idea for a new project, Miami Wilson busily converts a house she inherited into a rental property. But Miami is left shorthanded when Sloan Renner, the woman helping her clean out the house ends up dead under a pile of smelly seafood. A large drone had flown over the property discarding mollusk shells all over the backyard. Was it an accident? An ill-fated prank by neighbors up in arms about a rental house in their cul-de-sac? Witnesses clam up when Molly's ex, homicide detective Barry Greenberg, tries to get information, but he thinks Molly may be able to get them to open up to her. When Molly learns about Sloan's seafood allergy, she suspects that the woman's death was no accident. Can she bait the hook to catch the culprit, or will the killer keep raising shell?