Brenda H. (booksinvt) - , reviewed on 11/11/2015 + 467 more book reviews

Thread and Gone is the third in the Mainely Needlepoint series. Angie Curtis has settled into her new position as the director of Mainely Needlepoint and is doing her best to come to terms with the conflicting emotions about being back in her hometown of Haven Harbor, ME.

Angie's Grandmother Charlotte is away on her honeymoon with Reverend Tom over the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Not wanting to be alone Angie invites a few of the Mainely Needlepoint stitchers over for dinner and the fireworks show. A knock on the door brings Mary Clough and her fiancé Rob Trask. Mary is in the process of cleaning out her family home in preparation for sale and has discovered an old piece of embroidery hidden in the attic. A barely legible letter written in French accompanies the cloth and Mary needs the help of Angie and her friends to translate the letter and find the value of the vintage piece.

Angie takes the cloth to local lawyer Lenore Pendleton for safekeeping during their investigation. Unfortunately the next day Lenore is found murdered in her office with her safe wide open, her jewels and Mary's embroidery missing. Angie sets out to discover the identity of the thief and to establish the provenance of the needlework.

I really enjoy this series and had so been looking forward to reading this latest installment. I had a very difficult time getting through it though. I think mostly because I lack any knowledge of American/French History I found the constant references to the "four Mary's" very confusing and ended up skimming over multiple paragraphs at a time.

I was a little disappointed that the Mainely Needlepointers who have figured so prominently in the earlier books were hardly even mentioned. Angie's closest friend Sarah Bryrne does help out briefly with research, but there is very little interaction between the two. I missed the exchanges between Charlotte and Angie, I was sad to see Juno move to the rectory and that there was not a new pet introduced to take his place.

A huge pet peeve for me are storylines that are left unresolved and there were a few. I wanted to know after all of the investigation what the value of the embroidery turned out to be, because wasn't that the whole premise of the plot? While I think Henri and his wife were written into the mystery as plausible suspects, it would have been nice to know the decision they reached in caring for his Mother. I did read a brief excerpt from the upcoming release so am hoping that some of my questions will be answered.

While this one just didn't really appeal to me, I will definitely continue to read this series, and don't want to discourage any of my "cozy" friends from giving this one a try. After all, life would be pretty boring if we were all interested in the same things.

I received an advanced copy from NetGalley via Kensington Publishing and although I was not required to write a review I am more than happy to offer my honest opinion.

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