Thai Die

by Monica Ferris Narrated by Connie Crawford

Overview

As owner of the Crewel World needlework shop and part-time sleuth, Betsy Devonshire has become skilled at weaving suspicious threads together. Just back from a trip to Thailand, Doris Valentine is eager to show her stitching friends her souvenirs, which includes dazzling Thai silk. She also has a small stone Buddha that she agreed to deliver to an antique store in St. Paul. It's wrapped in a dirty rag, which she throws away. When she meets the dealer, he is surprised that she unwrapped it, though relieved the statue's delicate hands aren't damaged. The next night, Doris's apartment is broken into, and the things she bought in Thailand are taken. The antique shop owner is found murdered and his shop ransacked. The Buddha is gone. Then someone confronts Doris with a gun, demanding the “Thai silk.” Meanwhile, Betsy starts to wonder about the dingy wrapper she retrieved from the trash.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Thai silk to die for plunges Betsy Devonshire, the proprietor of Crewel World in Excelsior, Minn., into danger in Ferris's winning 12th needlecraft mystery (after 2007's Knitting Bones). Among the many souvenirs Betsy's friend Doris Valentine brings home from a Thailand vacation is a stone Buddha to be delivered to a St. Paul antiques dealer. When Doris discards the dirty cloth the Buddha was wrapped in, Betsy rescues the cloth, which turns out to be valuable silk more than 2,000 years old. Has Doris become an unwitting pawn in an international antiquities theft operation? After someone ransacks Doris's apartment and murders the antiques dealer, Sgt. Mike Malloy of the Excelsior police and "civilian detective" Betsy find themselves involved in a case more complicated than any needlework pattern she's ever attempted. With more action and a stronger plot than Knitting Bones, this entry in the popular cozy series offers such choice knitting tidbits as how to spin hair from a 14-pound angora rabbit. (Dec.)

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Kirkus Reviews

Exotic objects, doubtful imports, theft and murder-what's going on in a quiet Minnesota town?Sleuthing needlework shop owner Betsy Devonshire is happy to welcome Doris Valentine home from her trip to Thailand. In addition to her own purchases, Doris has brought back something for a St. Paul antique dealer. Her friends all admire the stone Buddha and ignore the dirty rag in which it's wrapped. When Doris throws it out, Betsy rescues it from the trash. The dealer's murder naturally arouses Betsy's curiosity. Although she's appalled when Doris's apartment is wrecked in a search, the outrage just increases her interest. After Doris is attacked while she's snowed in at a bed and breakfast with her boyfriend Phil and some other friends, the attacker is killed in a fall down the stairs, but Doris's troubles have only begin. The searchers clearly want the Thai silk, but Doris has only the material she bought for herself. Betsy astutely suspects the dirty rag the Buddha was wrapped in may be of more interest than its looks suggest. Research shows that it's an ancient and very valuable item stolen from a Chinese tomb. In the end, Betsy and her friends are lucky to escape alive from a obsessively determined thief. Betsy's adventures (Knitting Bones, 2007, etc.) are always pleasantly cozy. This one adds a bit more excitement to the mix.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169747584
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	12/01/2008
Edition description:	Unabridged

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