On the Road to Threadville

A new series I am reading takes place in Elderberry Bay, Pennsylvania. The first book in the series by Janet Bolin is Dire Threads and features Willow Vanderling the owner of  In Stitches embroidery shop - not any embroidery shop, but a high tech machine embroidery shop. Threadville, as the town is called features many shops related to sewing and draws tourists by the busload.

Willow hopes to improve the Blueberry Cottage on her property, but runs into problems with the zoning inspector Mike Krawbach. He's prefer to condemn the building and convert the area into an ATV trail. When Mike is found dead on Willow's property, the mayhem begins.

I can't decide if I liked this book as there are some extremely stereotypical characters in the book, such as the sheriff, who is called Uncle Andy, his grumpy wife Aunt Betty, the handsome handyman Clay Fraser and the eccentric beekeeper Smythe Castor. The town seems hostile to Willow and the other shopkeepers, even though tourists visit regularly, drawn by the shops. Yet when the river behind Blueberry Cottage starts to rise, everyone is out filling sandbags.

And whoa, there's way too much going on in this book including a fundraising memorial for the dead guy, a dinner dance the next day and the flooding.The plot is convoluted and leads in several directions before it is resolved. I'm not giving up on the series though, so I plan to read the next one in hopes that it improves.
Click here for other books in this series.