Knit to Kill - Anne Canadeo

The idyllic cover of Knit to Kill by Anne Canadeo lets you know this is a cozy mystery. Do not expect any sex or violence, but there is a truly evil villain. He doesn’t put our group of knitting ladies in jeopardy because he is dead before these ladies on holiday get involved.

How evil was our corpse, Julian Morton? We meet him at a poker game where he is accused of cheating after he gloats about his winnings. However, this bout of bad manners is overshadowed by the incidents later revealed. In high school, he pushed a rival into a rally bonfire causing lifetime scars. Later in his career, he steals a valuable invention from a junior employee. He divorces his first wife, leaving her destitute. He refuses any support to their son. When she becomes critically ill, he refuses to help with the medical expenses. His second wife also receives nothing from him, even though she is still in their unhappy marriage. If that is not enough, he poisons his next-door neighbor’s dog.

As might be expected, the narrative progresses as the police follow various leads, some they uncover themselves, and others found by five girlfriends on a last-weekend-before-the-wedding fling. The book has its share of cooking, knitting, spa-going, and wedding planning, but the main event is tracking down the murderer and clearing friends with obvious motives to push the despicable Julian Morton off the cliff on the shore of Maine.

If you are an Agatha Christie fan, you will enjoy considering all the suspects. Julian Morton is evil enough that any one of them had ample motive. About halfway through I was expecting a Murder on the Orient Express ending but was not disappointed with the actual conclusion.

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