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About Sconed to Death
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A brand-new series from the queen of culinary cozies. Full to the brim with crochet, crumpets, and crime! The perfect ingredients for murder . . . Annie Hart has transformed the yarn shop she inherited into a thriving business and tea shop. Now she needs to sell it so she can move back to LA. She just has to ensure that young Toby Swanson is kept on as the supplier of their famous scones. Annie decides to secretly enter Toby in a new reality TV cooking show. But his application video takes a deadly twist when Annie and her business partner, Gray, discover a body on the beach while filming. Even worse, it looks like the young woman had been enjoying Toby’s cherry scones and the shop’s rose tea before her death. With the help of her misfit group of local yarn artists, can Annie find a killer and save her reputation?
Readers who love super cozy culinary mysteries will eat up this new charming cozy mystery series.
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EXCERPT:
It was early Monday morning as I rushed ahead to unlock the door to the school house—not to let students in. It had been eons since the red brick building had been used for that purpose. Now it was home to a yarn shop and tea room. There were some books and gift items too. I felt a sense of pride as I looked at the distinctive structure that belonged to me.
The air felt languid here in Franklin, Indiana and I struggled to get out of the hoodie I had put on automatically before I went outside. When I was home in L.A., going to work at the children’s boutique in Malibu, the hoodie was needed even on a late June morning. Not here for sure.
I had expected to be back in L.A. by now, but, well, things hadn’t worked out as I had planned. When I heard my uncle Cyrus had left me the school house, my original thought was to just take a look at the property in person and put it up for sale. I had no idea that it housed a yarn shop until I got here and saw the sign hanging at an angle that said Classy Yarn. It fell off when I tried to right it.
Then it made sense why he had left the property to me. He knew I had a passion for yarn and had been crocheting and knitting since I was a kid. He must have thought I would be happy to have access to all that fiber.
When I arrived, the whole place looked unsettled and neglected, as the shop had been closed since the previous owner, Eleanor Danton, died. Bugs had feasted on some of the yarn and the skeins appeared to have been stuffed haphazardly into the cubbies that lined the large room.
I had never planned to get involved with anything more than clearing it up to make it presentable to sell. But then I had met Jenny Swanson and her son Toby, along with Liv Stein. They were all part of the group of yarn crafters who used to have get-togethers at the school house and prevailed on me to let the group meet while I was clearing the place up.
Jenny and Toby owned the local bakery and won me over with friendship and delicious treats. Liv acted like an advisor from the start and gave me the lowdown on the town. She even convinced me to let Eleanor’s cat Jack stay while I was working on the place. She let me find out for myself that the white Persian had some magical skills.
I hadn’t meant for it to happen, but in no time, I felt part of the group and listened when they pitched me on how having a tea room would make the place more sellable. To make a long story short, I added the tea room, and there were some complications, like getting too attached to the place and being concerned about what would happen to it when a new owner took over. So, here I was still running the yarn shop and tea room.
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Author Guest Post
'Yarns About Yarn'
By
Betty Hechtman
You don’t have to know how to crochet or knit to read my books. But I am always happy to hear that reading them has either inspired someone to learn how to crochet or knit or has been inspired a lapsed yarn crafter to pick it up again. No judgement here, but personally, I prefer crochet. It is easier to me and works better for creating things like elephants and pots of flowers.
Annie Sara Hart, the main character in my Crochet and Crumpet series calls herself a crochet artist. After going to art school, she discovered that yarn was her medium of choice and crochet her favored form. Rather than making blankets and scarves, she prefers making what could be called yarn sculptures. But really what they are, are toys. Making toys means a lot to her because something she makes can become that comfort toy they sleep with and will be part of their childhood memory.
In SCONED TO DEATH, the second book in the Crochet and Crumpet series, she makes a red hen that becomes a beloved comfort toy to its owner. In solidarity to my character, I made a red hen too.
One of the cool things about is how accessible learning how to crochet or knit has become. When I learned, I had to teach myselfhow to make a granny square by using a kid’s kit I bought at FAO Schwartz. I can’t complain though, since it was learning how to make that granny square that opened the golden door of crochet to me and gave me the idea of mixing it with a mystery which became the Crochet Mystery series featuring Molly Pink and the Tarzana Hookers who hang out, crochet and solve murders. I am just beginning to write the seventeenth book in the series and Molly and the Hookers are already in trouble and it’s only page one.
Back to learning yarn craft. There countless videos online and companies that offer crochet kits aimed at rank beginners to make things like a penguin or rabbit. And then you have a little support creature to tell your troubles to.
I think of crocheting flat items like scarves and blankets as being a different experience. While making the fun toys is challenging and takes all your attention-- unless you are as experienced as Annie Sara--working on a scarf or blanket can be meditative and relaxing.
My Yarn Retreat series has a mixture of different yarn crafts in it. Each book has Casey Felstein putting on a retreat for a new group of strangers at the moody hotel and conference center on the tip of the Monterey Peninsula. They get to know each other, deal with whatever they’re retreating from, and solve a murder while they work on their projects.
Even the Writer for Hire series has yarn in it. Veronica Blackstone crochets squares when she’s tense and chamomile tea doesn’t help-- which happens a lot. She is struggling to write a follow up to a successful mystery while working as a writer for hire who will write love letters, copy for celebrations of life—anything as long as it's legal. She also runs a writers’ group. And then when she finds herself in the middle of a murder, she uses her skills to figure out who did it. When she has enough squares she sews them together into a blanket. I bet she could really use a support crocheted. Rabbit. I should have Annie Sara make one for her. I have gotten suggestions about crossing over characters in my series. We’ll see.
When I made that first granny square with the kid's kit, I had no idea that it would be the beginning of thirty-some books and counting.
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About Betty Hechtman
Despite completing a Fine Arts degree, all Betty Hechtman ever wanted to be was a writer. She wrote a weekly column in her college newspaper and later wrote magazine and newspaper pieces, along with short stories and a prize-winning screenplay. She has published over thirty books across four cozy mystery series, all of which have yarn craft. She lives with her family in Southern California.
Author Links:
Website: https://www.Bettyhechtman.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bettyhechtmanauthor
Blog: https://www.killerhobbies.blogspot.com
Purchase Links: Amazon Barnes and Noble
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