Showing results by author "Betty Hechtman" in All Categories

When a charismatic life coach and his devoted followers descend on Vista Del Mar, Casey Feldstein and the yarn retreat group she's hosting literally get pushed aside, out of sight and out of mind of the struggling participants seeking enlightenment. But Casey can't help overhearing the rancorous argument between two members of the guru's staff, and when one of them turns up dead after ingesting poisonous mushrooms, Casey finds herself tangled up in a murder investigation while the self-help group looks on helplessly.

Dessert chef Casey Feldstein is running a new retreat called From Sheep to Shawl at a resort on the atmospheric Monterey Peninsula. Participants will learn about sheep-shearing, fixing up the fleece, and spinning, and will eventually knit a lovely shawl. Nicole Welton has been hired to teach the fleece-to-fiber portion of the retreat. She's an expert spinner, and her small shop in Cadbury by the Sea houses a beautiful assortment of spinning wheels and drop spindles.

Casey Feldstein has her hands full with preparations at the Vista Del Mar hotel on the scenic Monterey Peninsula as another yarn retreat begins. The retreaters will be thrown for a loop this time, learning the trendy art of arm knitting and finger crocheting. But not everyone is enthusiastic about trying something new, and Casey is forced to come up with an alternative craft for her less adventurous pupils. Things go from worst to worsted when a travel writer from a neighboring retreat group is found dead in his room among a sea of feathers.

Eager to show some town spirit, Casey Feldstein finds herself fluttering back and forth between setting up a yarn retreat, baking, and helping out at the Cadbury by the Sea festival. But when a former butterfly queen is found dead with a knife in her back after a Bless the Butterflies service, Casey must set her loom aside to hook a killer with a score to settle.

Veronica Blackstone has been hired to write an end-of-life book for a woman whose wedding vows she completed only a year earlier. Saddened by the task and confused by the seemingly callous reactions of family members, Veronica sets forth to create the booklet the woman’s mother desires. But not everything is as it seems, and the more Veronica digs the more she comes to realize that maybe the young woman’s death wasn’t the accident her wealthy family keeps insisting it was.

The Tarzana Hookers are a motley crew of women, all of whom are not afraid to speak their minds. Except Sheila, a timid, anxiety-ridden crocheter in desperate need of money, who sells her beautiful scarves at a local consignment store. When the owner stiffs Sheila, the boisterous ladies rally to her support. Then the shop owner is found dead. Molly Pink ignores the warnings from her homicide-detective boyfriend and sets out with her stitchmates to clear Sheila's name.

Annie Hart has transformed the yarn shop she inherited into a thriving business and tea shop. Now she needs to sell it so she can move back to LA. She just has to ensure that young Toby Swanson is kept on as the supplier of their famous scones. Annie decides to secretly enter Toby in a new reality TV cooking show. But his application video takes a deadly twist when Annie and her business partner, Gray, discover a body on the beach while filming. Even worse, it looks like the young woman had been enjoying Toby's cherry scones and the shop's rose tea before her death.

The yarn retreat group visiting scenic Vista Del Mar has already planned their own activities, so part-time dessert maker and retreat host Casey Feldstein is looking forward to a stress-free weekend. But the rustic locale is also playing host to a mindfulness retreat for Silicon Valley start-up entrepreneurs along with a flock of bird-watchers, and soon everyone at the resort is getting wound up. And when Casey discovers the dead body of one of the tech gurus on the rocky shore of the Pacific, she begins to suspect that what looks like an accident is actually a calculated murder. 

Molly and her friends can't wait to get people hooked on crochet at the annual SoCal Knit Style Show. This year, for the first time ever, the knitting show also features crochet, including crochet classes and a crochet competition. The show's organizer is K. D. Kirby, publisher of several knitting magazines and owner of an elite Beverly Hills yarn store. Concern when K. D. doesn't show up for the opening reception turns into shock when she's found dead in her hotel suite.

With two yarn retreats in the bag, Casey Feldstein is looking forward to running her third one at Cadbury by the Sea's Vista Del Mar hotel on the Monterey Peninsula. This time, each knitter will get a Mystery Bag of knitting materials to turn into a personal project. But Casey gets tangled up in another retreat at the same hotel, when the organizer and his wife have a very public spat.

After reconnecting with some old college friends on social media, part-time dessert chef and muffin-maker Casey Feldstein has gotten herself roped into hosting a knitting retreat for the group. Tangled up in worries over how they'll judge her unconventional life and the rustic atmosphere at Vista Del Mar, she watches in dismay as the women arrive and their old personalities - and old grudges - come trickling to the surface. But Casey discovers these are the least of her problems when one of the women is found dead.

Her crochet group, The Tarzana Hookers, is working overtime for the holidays - but Molly Pink is having trouble finding time to crochet so much as a snowflake. The bookstore where she works is adding a yarn department and planning a huge launch party where the mysterious author of a popular series will reveal his or her true identity. But before the author appears, another person disappears. The husband of Molly's neighbor is missing. When a suicide note arrives, it appears the husband has jumped off the Catalina Ferry - but Molly smells something fishy.

There's never a dull moment for amateur sleuth Molly Pink. Without warning, her infant granddaughter has been dumped in her lap for babysitting duties, her son has reluctantly enlisted her help investigating a potential investor in his business, and now she has to manage a high-profile bookstore event for a former Hollywood columnist who's dishing the dirt in a juicy tell-all.

When the perennially cloudy skies of Cadbury unleash a torrential downpour, yarn retreat host Casey Feldstein watches in dismay as the streets surrounding Vista Del Mar become flooded and she and her retreat guests are trapped there. But the storm is the least of their worries when a man is found dead in his room, and the guests begin to speculate that he may have been murdered. With the police unable to reach them, Casey is forced to fill their soggy shoes and investigate.

When the bookstore where she works closes for renovations, Molly Pink and the Tarzana Hookers hit the road for a relaxing crochet weekend in the quaint town of Pixie. The getaway comes at the perfect time for Molly, who's been asked by her former beau to help finger a thief in Pixie who's been pilfering personal items from a friend. Molly's plan is to attend a pre-wedding party at the friend's home and catch the culprit in the act, but her simple sleuthing turns deadly serious when the groom-to-be is found murdered.

When dessert chef Casey Feldstein finds out that her late aunt's business, Yarn2Go, has one more yarn retreat scheduled, she decides to go ahead and host the event, despite her complete lack of experience as a knitter. At least the retreat is on the beautiful Monterey Peninsula. But the idyllic setting is soured when a retreat regular is found murdered in her hotel room. Feeling a sense of responsibility, Casey begins to weave the clues together and detects a pattern which may shed light on her aunt's suspicious death.

Molly's been handed the reins for this year's creative retreat - an exhilarating weekend out on the Monterey Peninsula, complete with crochet classes. Unfortunately for one teacher, though, the breathtaking scenery is where she'll take her last breath. Now Molly will have to find a new instructor, and, if she can squeeze it in, solve this murder - with the help of her pals from the Tarzana Hookers.

At the urging of Vista Del Mar's owner, Casey Feldstein takes on the job of combining a murder mystery game with her next weekend yarn retreat. Enlisting the help of the hotel's staff to play the roles of victim and suspects, she lays out a plot and plants some red herrings. And as her intrigued guests watch the murder play out and the clues unfold, Casey is certain she's pulled off the perfect make-believe murder—until a real murder intrudes and everyone at the hotel is named as a suspect.

Molly Pink and the Tarzana Hookers are busy crocheting baby blankets for charity, but before long, they're tangled up in a mystery that may be their unraveling. The Hookers are a tight-knit group, but some of the members harbor secret aspirations. Adele dreams of becoming an actress, and her acting coach has filled her head with promises of a career as a crochet show host. Elise Belmont has earned her real estate license and is itching to show her first house. When the house's tenant turns up dead from a pink squirrel cocktail laced with cyanide, the Hookers could be in double treble.

When a television crew descends on Tarzana, Molly Pink and the rest of her crochet group, the Tarzana Hookers, put up with the inconvenience as best they can—until the residence of one of their own becomes a real-life crime scene.