LAST WOOL AND TESTAMENT by Molly MacRae

Publisher:   Penguin

Date published:   September 4, 2012

ISBN:  978-045123785-8

Genre:   cozy mystery

Book format: Paperback

Obtained via:  Publisher

Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina Ginalrmreviews@gmail.com

Kath McClellan isn’t having the best of days.  She’s driving as fast as she can from Richmond, Virginia to Blue Plum, Tennessee for her beloved grandmother’s funeral. After spending happy times at her grandmother’s yarn shop, Weaver’s Cat, this trip is the end of an era. Making matters worse is getting caught speeding by a less than charming deputy named Clod…I mean Cole Dunbar and a storm brewing over the cemetery. At Granny’s funeral Kath reconnects with and meets a host of mourners as well as meeting up with the Spivey Twins.  Mercy and Shirley Spivey are up to something and it ain’t pretty.  After the funeral life throws a few more ugly turns at Kath beginning with learning her grandmother no longer owned the house Kath felt so at home in.

But all is not lost. A friend of Granny’s has a place Kath can hang her hat in while she makes plans for her future. But the house comes with its own host of problems, not the least of which is a burglar and a ghost and not necessarily in that order. Before Kath can turn around the man who acquired Granny’s house turns up where she least expected him and danger begins to dog her steps.

There is a mystery within a mystery…one around just what her grandmother was hiding, another surrounding her beloved cat, Maggie, yet a third as to why the house Kath is staying in is being burgled and not least of all, just where did her ghost come from. Kath isn’t alone in her sleuthing. There’s her grandmother’s friends and the Spivey twins. Well not the twins so much … or are can they really help Kath unravel the mystery of just what was going on in her grandmother’s house?

I had a fun time reading LAST WOOL AND TESTATMENT by Molly MacRae. I wish we had a place like Weaver’s Cat in my town or at least nearby and that it was populated by people just like the posse who hang out with Kath. Fun, creative and caring people who are there in a pinch no matter what comes up. I particularly liked Joe the burglar. He was a fun character that I hope we readers get to know a bit more.

I was a bit troubled by Kath’s seeming disconnect as to what was going on with her grandmother’s cat, Maggie. As a cat person Maggie would have been the first thing I checked up on when I arrived, but then again, Kath was dealing with the sudden death of the person she loved most in the world.

Geneva was a hoot. I cracked up every time she warbled about her “Darling Em”. Since the series is called the Haunted Yarn Shop Mystery I suspect we’ll be seeing more of Geneva and learning about just what happened to her.

The introduction of Larry towards the end of the story was a nice twist and brought the threads of Granny and Kath’s lives together nicely.

You don’t have to be a fan of needle work or really even cozy mysteries to enjoy LAST WOOL AND TESTAMENT although it may get you hooked on cozies. There are some nice twists in the story that keep you turning the page to find out what happens next. While the interweaving of several mysteries might seem like it would make it hard to keep them straight, Ms. MacRae does a fantastic job of sorting out one after the other, even the ones that weave back into each other.

Check out LAST WOOL AND TESTAMENT.  You’ll be in for a fun read.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.