Pattern of Betrayal

March 1, 2015
A murder-mystery weekend goes awry. Antiquities bounty hunter Julie Ellis and her friend Hannah have spiced up the Quilt Haus Inn with gourmet meals and a bit of adventure. The retired owner, Millie Rogers, insisted that they add a mystery weekend to their usual quilting specialty. A mixed bag of guests arrives, filling the inn to capacity, but as they're beginning the festivities, the lights suddenly go out, and one of the guests, Alice Peyton, is found dead. Detective Everett Frost, who's already had some experience with Julie and her historian friend, Daniel Franklin (Threads of Deceit, 2015), is not entirely surprised. In the course of Googling her guests, Julie discovers that Alice worked for a book appraiser who'd told Julie that the Civil War journal she'd recently discovered wasn't worth much. When another expert calls asking to see the book and hinting that it may be much more valuable, Julie wonders if the journal could have been the motive for the crime. She wonders too if all the other guests really are who they claim to be, especially a self-effacing young woman and a well-known mystery writer masquerading as a college professor. The journal is stolen, a snake appears in a guest bathroom, and another guest almost dies from a peanut allergy. While the police force the guests to remain in town, Julia does her best to solve the theft and the murder. More suspects, more red herrings, and more historical tidbits than Julie's debut.