The Paradise Heights Craft Store Stitch-Up by Kate Solly
Publisher's Blurb - Being invisible is hard, but it’s PERFECT if you want to be a detective.
The Paradise Heights Craft Store Stitch-Up by Kate Solly is a charming 'who-done-it' novel perfect for some light yet fun reading during the cold winter months. Solly takes the 'cottage core' trend to the extreme with her setting in a quaint old craft shop frequented by the local community.
Fleck is the protagonist, the busy, yet socially isolated woman who is deep in the trenches of dealing with three children and possibly ADHD. Fleck enjoys puzzles and quizzes as a nod to her neurodiversity. Readers of the detective genre will be familiar with the idea of the amateur detective as a puzzle solver, Holmes had his pipe and violin, Poirot his obsession with symmetry that leads to so many great breakthroughs in his cases and of course Miss Marple with her gardening as a foil for observation and knitting to keep her hands busy while her mind works. Fleck joins the crafters at Paradise Heights and quickly realises that there is trouble in paradise, when a colleague is accused of stealing from the till. Flick puts her problem-solving abilities to real life use.
However, Fleck is an amateur detective forged in a more modern mold, her love of cryptic crosswords and puzzles makes her sometimes seek in the wrong places and she follows several 'red herrings' a term many will remember from Agatha Christie's Soldier Island (new more culturally appropriate name).
Fleck is good value, as the main character who, although if pitted against Miss Marple, would definitely come off the worse, is a likeable enough protagonist. Solly reboots the village setting with modern touches and writes a great detective style novel The modern reader finds themselves rooting for her as she is a good character who wants to see order and justice restored.
Fleck with her handy sidekick Trixie unravel the case after several blunders and misses clues that will have the audience shouting: "They are behind you". But this is all great fun and a great hook to keep the audience engaged in the novel.
The Paradise Heights Craft Store Stitch-Up by Kate Solly is a perfectly, pleasant and believable winter read and for an audience who prefer their detective novels with less blood and murder.
I enjoyed reading it, even though I prefer more murder - the rule of three murders is a rule in our house. My husband comes in and says, has the third one died yet?
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