What can you say about a collection of mystery short stories that have titles like - "Collage to Kill For" (Susan Wittig Albert) or "Oh, What a Tangled Lanyard We Weave" (Parnell Hall)? Murder Most Crafty, edited by Maggie Bruce, is a fun, quirky book. I think you have to like crafts or be a crafter to understand some of the humor in this collection. And yes, crafting can be dangerous - there are dead bodies all over the place.
Some lines from one of my favorite stories - "Call it Macaroni" by Jan Burke
"I don't have anything against the Crafty Fox itself. I am not immune to its charms. When we walked in, I gazed about me in wonder: here were gimcracks and gewgaws out the yingyang.
I was in the modern equivalent of the medieval woman's witch hut: everything for anything, and the knowledge that men didn't really approve of it. For the modern woman, it was a combination toy store, hardware store, and magic shop."
"The spell? It makes this say this to yourself. "I have the time, patience and skill to complete any project. The process will be fun and frustration-free. Friends, neighbors and total strangers who encounter the discreetly placed finished masterpiece in our home will eye it covetously and ask "Where did you buy this?" They will be amazed when I answer, 'I made
it.' "
I nearly fell out of bed laughing at that one. Maybe you had to be there. Read the book. It is fun and frothy and maybe you will discover a new author to boot.
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