Macramé Murder Read online

  No, she’d let it rest for now. It wasn’t the first strange text message she’d ever gotten. Besides, she had enough to do to prepare for the Spring Fling Retreat. Her teachers were already here. The retreaters were arriving tomorrow.

  Cora glanced at her watch. She was already a little behind. She allowed herself one quick check in the mirror. Her 1970s blue minidress suited her more than she thought it would, and the white go-go boots were perfect. She smoothed her pink lipstick on her lips, ran a comb through her red curls, and she was ready for dinner with her guest teachers.

  She opened her door and walked to the half flight of stairs to the third floor, where she almost bumped into Jane.

  “What are you doing here?” Cora said.

  “I have weird news.” Jane’s eyes were wide and she grabbed on to Cora’s arm.

  “What?” Cora said, thinking this retreat could not be any worse than the last one, where a teacher slept with her students and a murder happened right down the street. But the look in her best friend and business partner’s eyes gave her pause.

  “Remember Gracie?”

  “Gracie who?” The name seemed familiar, but Cora wasn’t making the connection.

  “She babysat London a few times. She’s her friend’s nanny, remember?”

  “Oh yes,” Cora said. “We better get going. Can this wait?” she said, pulling away from Jane and walking down the hall.

  “No,” Jane said with urgency, grabbing her arm, stopping her. “You need to know this.”

  “What is it? Spill it. C’mon, woman,” she said.

  “She’s missing,” Jane said.

  “Missing?” Cora’s heart skipped a beat. “What do you mean?”

  “She was supposed to babysit London tonight, so I called Jillie’s mom because she never showed up,” she said. “She’s gone.”

  “Do you mean she took off?”

  “Jillie’s mom is calling the police. She says she’s not been there all day. Her stuff is still there. Her car is still there. Everything. So I either have to bring London with us tonight or stay at home.”

  “I don’t think London will be a problem—just bring her along,” Cora said after a moment. She was the most well-behaved child Cora had ever known—a bit precocious, but manageable.

  Cora stopped in her tracks, remembering the strange text. It wouldn’t have anything to do with the missing girl, would it? She didn’t even really know her. Why would someone send her a text?

  “What’s wrong?” Jane said.

  “I just remembered this weird text I’ve gotten,” Cora said.

  “Hey, Cora. Hey, Jane. You about ready? We’re starving!” Ruby said as she walked up the stairs toward them. Sitting in the foyer just below them was a group of crafting teachers. Cora took in the foyer of Kildare House, a large, old-fashioned room. The Victorians knew how to welcome guests, especially rich Victorians.

  Cora smiled. “We’re here. Everybody ready?”

  London was also sitting in the foyer and peeked up as they came toward her. She hopped up out of the chair and ran to Cora, who scooped her up in her arms. Jane’s daughter had seen way too much change in her short life and yet seemed to have kept it together. Cora was in awe of her.

  “Are you ready to eat?” Cora said.

  “Yep,” London replied, sliding out of Cora’s arms. “I’m in the mood for pizza.”

  “You’re always in the mood for pizza,” Jane said.

  “No pizza tonight,” Cora said as she walked toward the door, the group following close behind her. When she opened the door, she gasped—Officer Glass was standing there, about ready to ring the doorbell. They’d gotten to know him very well during the last craft retreat, when he was investigating a local murder.

  “Can I help you?” Cora asked. “We were just leaving.”

  “Hello, ladies,” he said. “Cora, can we speak for a moment?”

  “Is this important? As I said, we’re leaving for dinner. We have reservations,” she replied.

  “It’s about a text message,” he said with a lowered voice.

  “What? How did—”

  “There were several sent today and the digital forensics team sent me over here to discuss it with you,” he said.

  Jane sighed. “Good Lord, what have you gotten yourself into?” she whispered.

  “Nothing!”

  “It’s getting late,” Jane said.

  Cora took in the group. They were a famished, weary lot. “Why don’t you all go ahead. I’ll meet you there.” Despite her own hunger pangs, she supposed it was the right thing to do—after all, she couldn’t help wanting to help, even if it was the local police, who seemed to be always under her feet.

  MOLLIE COX BRYAN, author of the Cora Crafts Mysteries and the Agatha Award-nominated Cumberland Creek mystery series, is also an award-winning journalist and poet. She currently writes and crafts in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia with her husband and two daughters. Please visit her at molliecoxbryan.com, where you can sign up for her exclusive newsletter. For scrapbooking, recipes, and other crafty freebies, join her on Pinterest at pinterest.com/molliecoxbryan.

  For thirty-something blogger Cora Chevalier, small-town Indigo Gap, North Carolina, seems like the perfect place to reinvent her life. Shedding a stressful past as a counselor for a women’s shelter, Cora is pouring all her talents—and most of her savings—into a craft retreat business, with help from close pal and resident potter Jane Starr. Between transforming her Victorian estate into a crafter’s paradise and babysitting Jane’s daughter, the new entrepreneur has no time for distractions. Especially rumors about the murder of a local school librarian . . .

  But when Jane’s fingerprints match those found at the grisly crime scene, Cora not only worries about her friend, but her own reputation. With angry townsfolk eager for justice and both Jane’s innocence and the retreat at risk, she must rely on her creative chops to unlace the truth behind the beloved librarian’s disturbing demise. Because if the killer’s patterns aren’t pinned, Cora’s handiwork could end up in stitches . . .

  Having traded in her career as a successful investigative journalist for the life of a stay-at-home mom in picturesque Cumberland Creek, Virginia, Annie can’t help but feel that something’s missing. But she finds solace in a local “crop circle” of scrapbookers united by chore-shy husbands, demanding children, and occasional fantasies of their former single lives. And when the quiet idyll of their small town is shattered by a young mother’s suicide, they band together to find out what went wrong . . .

  Annie resurrects her reporting skills and discovers that Maggie Rae was a closet scrapbooker who left behind more than a few secrets—and perhaps a few enemies. As they sift through Maggie Rae’s mysteriously discarded scrapbooks, Annie and her “crop” sisters begin to suspect that her suicide may have been murder. It seems that something sinister is lurking beneath the town’s beguilingly calm façade—like a killer with unfinished business . . .

  The ladies of the Cumberland Scrapbook Crop are welcoming an eccentric newbie into their fold. A self-proclaimed witch, Cookie Crandall can whip up a sumptuous vegan meal and rhapsodize about runes and moon phases with equal aplomb. She becomes fast friends with her fellow scrapbookers, including freelance reporter Annie, with whom she shares shallow roots in a community of established family trees. So when Cookie becomes the prime suspect in a series of bizarre murders, the croppers get scrappy and set out to clear her name . . .

  Annie starts digging and discovers that the victims each had strange runic patterns carved on their bodies—a piece of evidence that points the police in Cookie’s direction. Even her friends begin to doubt her innocence when they find an ornate, spiritual scrapbook that an alleged beginner like Cookie could never have crafted. As Annie and the croppers search for answers, they’ll uncover a shockingly wicked side of their once quiet town—and a killer on the prowl for another victim . . .

  Spring is in the air, but the ladies of the Cumberland Creek Scra
pbook Crop hardly have time to stop and smell the roses. Not when famed Irish dancer Emily McGlashen is found murdered in her studio just after the St. Patrick’s Day parade—and one of the Crop’s own members is the prime suspect. Vera’s dance studio may have suffered when Emily waltzed into town, but the croppers know she’s not a vengeful murderer. Lucky for her, co-scrapbooker Annie is a freelance reporter eager to vindicate her friend. What she discovers is a puzzling labyrinth of secrets that only add question marks to Emily’s murder. Just when it seems they’ve run out of clues, an antique scrapbook turns up and points the croppers in the right direction—and brings them face to face with a killer more twisted than a Celtic knot . . .

  Summer’s in full swing, and it’s time once again for the Cumberland Creek County Fair Pie Competition. DeeAnn Fields just knows this is her year to finally win with her brilliant apple green chili pie. But after the judges take one bite and spit it back out, ordering DeeAnn to leave at once, she’s baffled as to what went wrong . . . until she discovers someone sabotaged her pie.

  Banding together to find out who hated DeeAnn enough to ruin her chances of winning, the ladies of the Cumberland Scrapbook Crop scrap their summer plans to get to the bottom of this mystery so that they can return to what they do best—cropping and crafting!

  Springtime may be for lovers, but for one of the ladies of the Cumberland Creek Scrapbook Crop, it’s turning into a season of conflict. Still smarting from her divorce, Vera can’t decide whether to accept a marriage proposal. She doesn’t want to spoil a good thing by putting another ring on her finger. On the other hand, her mother Beatrice has flown off to France with the man of her dreams. But when folks claim to have seen Bea around town and Vera can’t reach her, she starts to search for her mother. Is Bea still in France? And if not, what has happened to her?

  As Vera tries to solve the mystery of her missing mother, other problems crop up for the scrapbookers, including a health crisis in Sheila’s family and a surprise announcement from Paige’s son. If only life could be as neat and pretty as a scrapbook album! Some of the answers to their recent dilemmas will bring surprises that the croppers could never have predicted!

  Halloween means spooky scrapbooks for the Cumberland Creek Scrapbook Crop, but what’s been happening around town is truly frightening. First a dead woman is found in the freezer at Pamela’s Pie Palace, and the next day a second woman is found murdered by the river. Reporter Annie Chamovitz learns the victims were sisters and is certain their deaths are linked. Most bizarre of all, both women were found clutching scrapbook pages.

  As their Saturday night crop quickly becomes an opportunity to puzzle out the murders, the ladies begin to wonder if Pamela is hiding more than her secret recipes for delicious pies—or if the crimes are related to the startling discovery that there are gangs in Cumberland Creek. As All Hallows’ Eve approaches, the crafty croppers must cut and paste the clues to unmask a deadly killer.