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Two Purloined Pillows (A Nimble Needle Mystery) by Allie Pleiter
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About Two Purloined Pillows
When 30-something graphic artist Shelby Phillips reluctantly returned to her small hometown outside Asheville, North Carolina to manage her mother’s needlepoint shop, she thought it was temporary. But getting entangled in murder investigations has a timeline of its own…
It’s been a little over a year since Shelby started managing Nina’s Nimble Needle following her office-romance and career implosion, and Shelby’s mom has finally handed her the reins—technically, at least. Next, Shelby is excited to oversee two well-known needlepoint designers who will be participating in the town’s first two-week-long arts festival . . .
Laura Bitters and Paul Bardo have each stitched up one-of-a-kind pillows that should be big wins for the Nimble Needle at the festival’s auction . . . until the pillows vanish amid a sudden string of shoplifting incidents.
To add to the knot in Shelby’s stomach, Laura proves highly anxious, while Paul is an egomaniac who believes Laura has been stealing his customers for years. But things go from bad to tragic when Laura behaves oddly at the auction dinner, then collapses—dead.
Soon after, Shelby makes a shocking discovery in Laura’s room at the local inn. Then tests reveal that Laura was poisoned. Resolved to piece together the truth, despite the police chief’s determination to keep her on the fringes, Shelby rallies her personal team, including her sister, Jessica, her friend Deb, and Jake, her potentially more than a friend. As an extra twist, a magazine reporter arrives with unsettling—yet useful—dirt that includes Laura and Paul.
What unravels is a skein of suspects, long-held resentment, bitter jealousy, and betrayal, from which Shelby will have to pull the one crucial thread tied to the killer: a murder-worthy motive . . .
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EXCERPT:
I stared in disbelief at my mother. “We are talking about grown adults here, aren’t we?”
Mom offered me one of her more dubious looks. “I guess that depends. Behavior or chronology?”
Based on the series of warnings Mom had just given me about the two supposed grown adults in question, it was a valid distinction. We were discussing an upcoming event at Nina’s Nimble Needle, the needlepoint shop my mother owned and I’d taken over as manager. Event? Maybe. Circus of clashing egos? More likely. “Can’t we expect grown adult behavior from actual adults?”
“With those two? Not a chance!” came a declaration from an outlandish older woman named Dot, seated at the large gathering table in the back of Nina’s Nimble Needle. All the rest of the NYAGs—the Not Your Average Grannies, who have been shop fixtures for as long as I can remember—nodded in agreement. These women gathered nearly every day at the shop to work on their needlepoint and flex their considerable gossip skills. The NYAGs knew about all the goings-on in town and had opinions on most of them. They were some of our best customers, staunchest allies, sources of endless amusement, and some of Mom’s closest friends. I adored them as much as they frustrated me. And I knew enough to take their warnings to heart as much as Mom’s.
Evidently my worry showed on my face, because Dot consoled, “Don’t worry, hon,” with a dismissive wave. “You’re up for it. The trick will be to keep ’em apart.”
“Far apart,” added Tilly, another NYAG, as she looked up from the Christmas stocking she was working on for her fifth grandchild. It’s not at all uncommon to see people working on Christmas stockings in June here at the store. Or baby items the minute a pregnancy is announced (if even before). Needlepoint takes time to accomplish. Lots of it.
“Dot’s right. You can handle ’em,” cheered Livvy, another NYAG, in her musical Charleston accent.
I welcomed the consensus of NYAG support. After all, I’d been taking time to accomplish my work here, too. I’d been stepping farther and farther into my role as the permanent replacement for my mother, Nina. I’d been back in my hometown of Gwen Lake, North Carolina, and running the shop for just over a year now, and almost everyone considered me in charge.
Almost everyone.
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Author Guest Post
What happens when an author combines things she loves?
The best things happen!
I’ve been writing novels with crafting themes and crafting characters for years. When Kensington gave me the opportunity to create an entire series around a small-town needlepoint shop, I jumped at the chance. Growing up on the east coast, my father owned the building on our town’s main street that housed a needlepoint shop. I have fond memories of the little needlepoint kits the owner would send our family inside her holiday cards. What a neat thing to have that come back around in my life over 50 years later!
As longtime knitter, I knew my return to the needlepoint world would include a warm welcome. My local shop was quick to help me get my skills back up to speed. Needlepoint sends me into the world of color and texture at the end of the long days I spend staring at my computer screen. It keeps me company on the tiring days of travel. And it never fails to spark a conversation in the airport or on the plane…often including the statement, “My mother/grandmother used to do that.”
The neat thing is that “granny crafts” (a term I don’t like even if I am a grandmother myself) are experiencing an explosion of popularity right now. It’s not hard to see the appeal of something so far away from our digital deluge. Every age is discovering the power of color, texture, and the creative process. My favorite letters and emails from readers are the ones that say something like “I want to try needlepoint now.” Or “I picked it back up after years away from crafting.” I deeply understand the lure of crafts and am always happy to share them.
Craft theme aside, I knew cozy readers demand a good, juicy mystery along with their cozy. The right story combines a dose of minor chills and “ah-ha!” moments along with the good friendships and small town quirkiness. If I’ve done my job well, the reader had equal vibes of “I never saw that coming!” and “I knew it!”
When the Nimble Needle Mysteries debuted with ONE SHARP STITCH last year, Shelby Phillips thought she was coming back to Gwen Lake to watch over her mother’s needlepoint shop for a short stint. Now as the series continues with TWO PURLOINED PILLOWS, she’s settled in as the shop manager and deepend her friendships with both neighbors and her oh-so-perfect sister Jessica. While the shop boasts a feisty circle of older stitcher known as the NYAGs (Not Your Average Grannies), Shelby has created her own circle of stitchers who prove their chops as crime solvers as well. The intergenerational fun and friction is part of the story’s charm.
Sure, needlepoint is calming and cozy. But as TWO PURLOINED PILLOWS shows, there are some big egos and sinister motives hidden in all that color and texture. Dark secrets lurk under the stitched beauty, and it will take Shelby’s keen eye and clever nature to unravel who did what and why.
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About Allie Pleiter
An avid crafter, coffee junkie, and firm believer that “pie makes everything better,” Allie Pleiter writes both fiction and non-fiction, working on as many as four books at a time. The bestselling author of over seventy books, Allie has enjoyed a twenty-plus-year career with over 1.9 million books sold. In addition to writing, Allie maintains an active writing productivity coaching practice and speaks regularly on the creative process, publishing, and her very favorite topic—The Chunky Method of time management for writers. She lives in the Charlotte area with her husband and the world’s most adorable dog. Visit her website at www.alliepleiter.com to learn more.
Purchase Links - Author Website - Amazon - B&N - Kobo - Bookshop.org
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Prize package will include a signed hardcover copy of Two Purloined Pillows (A Nimble Needle Mystery) by Allie Pleiter, bookmarks, and a Needlepoint starter kit.
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