And Then You Dye

by Monica Ferris

Berkley Prime Crime

Mystery

December 4, 2012

ISBN-10: 0425252817

ISBN-13: 9780425252819

Available in: Hardcover

And Then You Dye
by Monica Ferris

Betsy Devonshire, full-time owner of the Crewel World needlework shop and part-time sleuth, has hooked more than a few crooks in the USA Today bestselling Needlecraft Mysteries. Now Betsy learns the hard way that a murder is still murder, any way you color it...

Betsy is a natural-born yarnsmith—so it’s only fitting that some of her favorite items to stock come from the dye-works of Hailey Brent. Hailey makes hand-dyed knitting wool, silk, soy, and corn yarns. She uses only natural vegetable dyes, creating soft and beautiful colors. Which means her yarns are expensive, but well worth it.

Unfortunately, someone thinks they’re worth killing for.

When Hailey’s body is discovered shot dead in her workshop, Betsy discovers that there was a lot about Hailey she would have never guessed. Like her penchant for stealing other’s property for her own use. Her use of dangerous additives to create her so-called all-natural fibers. And a scheming mind that had made her more than one enemy.

Now, Betsy must wring the truth from a bevy of colorful suspects. Because the truth just might mean the difference between living—and dyeing...

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Monica Ferris' Bio

Monica Ferris spent the later part of her childhood and early adult life in Wisconsin, graduating from high school in Milwaukee. She was a journalist in the U.S. Navy for six and a half years (two in London), and later attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She is married to a museum curator.

Monica sold her first short story, "Pass the Word," to Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, in 1983, and has since sold two dozen short stories to anthologies and magazines, including some in Germany, England and France. She has two stories each in the anthologies, The Mammoth Book of Historical Detectives and The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits, and a story in Shakespearean Mysteries, Royal Whodunnits, and Unholy Orders.

Her first mystery novel, Murder at the War was nominated for an Anthony as Best First Novel. The Unforgiving Minutes and Ashes to Ashes followed in 1988; and in May of 1992 Original Sin and Show Stopper were sold.

Berkley published six medieval mysteries Monica wrote in collaboration with Margaret Frazer: The Novice's Tale, The Servant's Tale (nominated for an Edgar as Best Original Paperback of 1993), The Outlaw's Tale, The Bishop's Tale, The Boy's Tale, and The Murderer's Tale. Margaret Frazer presently continues the series alone.

In 1998 Monica began writing a new series for Berkley featuring a needleworking sleuth. Crewel World, now in its ninth printing, came out in March and was followed by Framed in Lace, A Stitch in Time, Unraveled Sleeve, A Murderous Yarn, and Hanging by A Thread. Cutwork is her seventh novel and she is working on a Christmas hardcover set at the Nashville Needlework Market. These light and traditional novels are set in her home state of Minnesota.

Monica has taught courses on mystery writing to children at North Hennepin Commnity College, gifted children in District #287, and adults at one-evening seminars at Hennepin and Ramsey County libraries. She does lectures and signings, and has appeared on panels at mystery and science fiction conventions. She has won a place on national and local best-seller lists, including USA Today and the independent mystery bookstore compilation. She is a member of Sisters in Crime (a national organization that promotes women who write mystery fiction), remains a paid speaker on the life of a mystery author, and is a volunteer at Westwood Nursing Home and in area public schools.

Monica studies the medieval period as an amateur, and does needlework. She is a lector and usher in The Cathedral Church of St. Mark in Minneapolis. She collects exuberant hats and is not afraid to wear them in public.