Threaded for Trouble
by Janet Bolin

Welcome back to Threadville, Pennsylvania, where crafts are king, and a “killer” sewing machine lives up to its name...

Darlene Coddlefield, the winner of a national sewing competition, has come to Willow Vanderling’s embroidery shop, In Stitches, to be presented with a top-of-the-line Chandler Champion sewing and embroidery machine as her prize. But Darlene’s triumph is short-lived after she’s found dead under her sewing table, apparently crushed by the heavy machine.

It soon becomes clear that this was no freak accident. Who had it in for Darlene Coddlefield? The long string of suspects includes Darlene’s fire chief husband. So Willow and her best friend, Haylee, become volunteer firefighters to uncover the truth. But when a second sewing machine sparks trouble, the friends realize they may have jumped from the frying pan into the fire...

Other Books by Janet Bolin

Seven Threadly Sins
A Threadville Mystery #5

Night of the Living Thread
A Threadville Mystery #4

Thread and Buried
A Threadville Mystery #3

Dire Threads
A Threadville Mystery #1

Janet Bolin's Bio

I was about seven, and for years (!), I'd been offering really helpful suggestions about the clothes my mother designed and sewed. Now I was going to make my own skirt.

At the fabric shop, I ran my fingers along each bolt of cloth, probably about sixteen times. My mother didn’t mind. She was doing the same thing. Finally, after much indecision and heavy consultation, I chose a navy blue cotton broadcloth with a red pin stripe.

Back home, under my mother’s close supervision, I cut out a couple of large rectangles and a strip for the waistband. Using my mother’s old black Singer, I carefully stitched the rectangles into a tube, then gathered the tube to the waistband. I made a buttonhole and sewed on a big red button. We folded a deep hem, and my mother, whose ability to stitch a straight line was far superior to mine, sewed the hem with her machine. For the finishing touch, she showed me how to wind red embroidery floss under one machine stitch and over the next.

I had made my own skirt and embroidered it, too. I was hooked.

I also loved reading. I asked where books came from. People wrote them? Wow! I knew what I wanted to do when I grew up.

Whether I grew up or not is debatable, but now I’m writing books in which my main character solves crimes. She also embroiders the way I do now, with sewing and embroidery machines.

What could be better?