Silence of the Lamb's Wool (Yarn Retreat Mystery, #2) by Betty Hechtman

Silence of the Lamb's Wool (Yarn Retreat Mystery, #2) Reviews

• 
  JoAn

  I am really enjoying this series by Ms. Hechtman even though I know nothing at all about knitting. Her descriptive writing makes me feel as if I am visiting Cadbury by the Sea as Casey Feldstein attempts a second Yarn2Go retreat at the resort. I really like Casey, Bree, Olivia and Scott. They make an awesome team at this retreat. The plot was quickly paced and there were plenty of red herrings to keep me from catching on to "who done it" until the reveal. Now I just have to wait until the library has the next book available.
• 
  Christine (KizzieReads)

  I loved this installment in this series. I love it when books have a nice twist at the end that I don't see coming. I never thought of this person being the one who did it, and the other little twist was nice as well. I look forward to the next one, as it leaves off on a bit of a cliffhanger, and I want to see how all the storylines keep progressing.
• 
  Micky Cox

  Excellently plotted to leave you with a host of potential viable suspects, but with a twist that I should have seen coming yet did not! I loved that I had no idea of who the culprit was until the end and then it all fell into line. Strong characters with realistic traits and flaws to draw you in and make you really like them. I can't wait to see what happens in the next book!
• 
  LORI CASWELL

  Dollycas’s Thoughts
  
  Casey’s retreat sounds like a lot of fun. Seeing the sheep getting sheared, cleaning and combing the fleece and spinning and then knitting with wool we made ourselves would be a blast. Too bad she had to face one roadblock after another including the death of the woman that was supposed to lead the whole retreat. Casey channels her aunt and does what she would have done and handled each problem head on, even chasing down a killer.
  
  I really love these characters. Casey has landed on her feet pretty well and following in her aunt’s footsteps continuing the yarn retreats while challenging definitely keeps her busy. Even though her mother still thinks she needs to get a “real job”. What I really enjoyed was the friendships she continues to make. Three retreaters from the last retreat return in this story and they really step up and help Casey with this retreat. Her best friend Lucinda and her husband Tag are back too as is her ex. Dr. Sammy has moved to town and has found an unusual way to stay close to Casey.
  
  Betty Hechtman has spun a fine mystery too. Was it suicide or murder? If it was murder who did it? She keeps trying to get her handsome neighbor who happens to be a cop to see things her way but she leaves each meeting with him either hot and bothered or furious that he is not taking her seriously.
  
  If you are knitter you will want to grab your needles, if you are not you will wish you were. This is a captivating page turner and I thoroughly enjoyed it!!
  
• 
  Lori

  Casey's "Sheep to Shawl" retreat seems doomed before it begins. The hotel decided to rid itself of wifi to provide a more introspective environment. Casey isn't sure this new policy will go over with her retreaters. The hotel manager won't allow the sheep on the grounds so they can get the fleeces. Before the event, her spinning instructor dies from a poisoned cup of coffee. Although police rule it a suicide, Casey doesn't believe it. Another spinner seems overly eager to take over the spinning instruction, and Casey really has no choice but to accept her somewhat pushy offer. One of the elderly sisters owning the hotel plans to marry a man Casey realizes wants to take over hotel operations and place his daughter who is attending the retreat as manager. Casey realizes if this happens she'll no longer have a venue for her retreats. Casey quickly realizes she needs to be more familiar with processes for future retreats so she feels in control of things in the future. On the murder front, with lots of suspects and different motives--and even the possibility the cops are correct that Nicole committed suicide, Casey places herself in danger many times. A secondary plot line ends with a cliff hanger. I missed the interaction in the retreat situation in this installment. We never really got to know many of the new attendees--just a trio of those returning from the first series installment. I hope the author makes the retreat seem a bit more realistic in future installments by introducing us to these persons.
• 
  Mayda

  Casey soon realizes that as a retreat leader, she could use some help. Her Sheep to Shawl event is troubled from the very beginning, but when the instructor is found dead, Casey knows she needs help and fast. Unwilling to take the police verdict of suicide seriously, Casey falls back on her true calling: detecting. She much better at being a private eye than she is at leading a yarn retreat. This second installment is not quite as good as the first book, but there is a continuing mystery which will entice you to keep reading the series.
• 
  Leah

  I didn't enjoy this as much the previous book. It ends with a cliffhanger, so I want to read the next one to find out what happened. This story involves a hotel, a ledger, poison, a coffee shop, and yarn. The knitting and yarn were mys favorite parts of the story. The mystery was interesting, too.
• 
  Pat Cray-Hollis

  Great series
• 
  Diane Beck

  I’m hooked... although that’s not really the appropriate word to use considering this is a book about knitting. Lol! Casey, Lucinda, Tag, Bree, Olivia, Scott, of course Julius and even Kevin St. John have won me over. I honestly had no idea ‘who done it’ until it was revealed. I’ve always liked Betty’s crochet mysteries and the yarn retreat books are just as good. I’m almost tempted to learn to knit.
• 
  OpenBookSociety.com

  
  http://openbooksociety.com/article/si...
  
  Brought to you by OBS reviewer JoAnne
  
  Casey Feldstein lives in Cadbury by the Sea, having moved there after a failed run of semi-careers. While her mother wants her to go to culinary school, because she knows Casey loves to bake, Casey has other ideas. She has inherited her aunt’s business of running knitting retreats, and wants to keep doing it. So, in her latest retreat, her hiree, Nicole Welton, is found dead the first morning, of what is an apparent suicide. But Casey thinks things don’t add up, and although she can’t convince Lieutenant Borgnine that Nicole was murdered, she herself is convinced and won’t give up trying to find a killer.
  
  But this may not be as easy to do as she thinks. Given free reign of Nicole’s workshop by Nicole’s grieving widower, Will, she finds bits and pieces of what might point to blackmail. When she starts thinking back of things she’s seen, and begins to see things around her differently, she starts to piece together the whole picture.
  
  To make matters more complicated, her crush on Dane, her policeman neighbor, is halted temporarily when she finds out there’s a woman staying with him; a replacement knitting instructor has appeared out of nowhere; Cora Delacorte has become engaged to a smarmy man; and there has been another attempted murder – which only convinces Casey she was right all along.
  
  This book was engaging indeed, and quite difficult to put down, so I just kept on reading until I finished. Casey is intelligent, and thinks things through, which I like; but no one really seems to want to take her seriously except her friend Lucinda, whom she bakes for. She is different in that she doesn’t just rush off on tangents putting herself in danger, and I really like that a lot. It’s nice when you find a main character who actually has the foresight to think of a way out of a situation before she puts herself in a situation. An excellent read and highly recommended.
  
  *OBS would like to thank the publisher for supplying a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review as part of their ongoing blog tour*
• 
  Kristi

  In this second installment of the series, Casey Feldstein is hosting her second yarn retreat, "From Sheep to Shawl". However, the retreat quickly begins to fall apart when the teacher Casey hired for the event is found dead. Was it suicide or was it murder? Will Casey be able to keep the retreat together?
  
  I enjoyed the book. I was glad to see the core group of retreaters from the first book reappear in this book. The mystery was entertaining. I did feel as though a few of the clues were hidden from us, which took away from our ability to solve the mystery.
  
  Once again, I found the knitting aspect of the book a little disappointing. I don't understand how anyone attempting to host a yarn retreat would expect beginners to go from "sheep to shawl" during the span of a few days. Otherwise, it was a fun read. I definitely plan to read the next book in the series.
• 
  Andria

  This book is a step up from the last one so if I could, I would rate it 3 1/2 stars. At least the main character realized that you have to plan out activities for the group by the end of the book, that doesn’t mean she didn’t just hope things would go ok during each session because she did and usually someone else, someone not being paid to run the retreat...someone who paid to be at the retreat...steps up and comes up with an activity or leads something. The editing was again pretty atrocious enough to yank me out of the story at times. However, I do like the premise and the setting so I will continue to read and the overall arch and supporting characters are strong and interesting.
• 
  Mary Ann

  I enjoyed this as it made Casey seem real. Problems coming from every turn, but it did make one character seem unapproachable and harsh, so that you felt she was the person to blame.
• 
  Carol

  Casey Feldstein has never been one to stick to things. Currently she lives in Cadbury by the Sea, having inherited her aunt’s house and knitting business, and bakes deserts and muffins for the local Blue Door restaurant and local coffee shops. Not that she knows much about knitting, but she’s planning to keep on her aunt’s business of running yarn retreats at the nearby Vista Del Mar conference center and hotel. Her mother, Dr. Feldstein, calls from time to time to see how she’s going and mention that Casey’s ex-boyfriend, now living in Cadbury, is still mad about her. However, a Cadbury cop named Dane Mangano also has eyes for Casey. Julius, the black cat who adopted Casey, is in and out of the house. When the retreat teacher Nicole Welton, married to a local man, turns up dead at the yarn retreat, Casey tries to solve the case, much to the concern of the head cop Lieutenant Borgnine. This is a cute murder mystery series. I started in the middle and had no trouble with the characters. I did hope that Julius the cat would have more input into solving the murders, but it seems his only task is to ask for cat food.
  
  
• 
  Katie

  Casey is back to it, holding another retreat for yarn enthusiasts. This time is a sheep to shawl program, where they start with shearing the sheep, and end the last day with working on a shawl made from their own hand-spun yarn. Well, the manager of the retreat center won't let the sheep on property, and then the expert Casey hired to teach spinning is killed. In top of all that, it looks like one of the owners of the retreat center is going to marry a money-grubbing man 30 years her junior, abs turn the place into something completely different! What else can go wrong?
  
  I was honestly surprised with the killer this time. There weren't many clues laid out about the killer's identity, and the end result really was a jumble of info all at once that brought everything together. It almost felt like the author was so focused on getting the retreat explained and telling all the stuff that was going wrong there, as well as pointing out how awful the owner's fiancé was, that she cobbled the killer motives together at the end.
  
  Honestly, though, these are fun books to listen to while I'm working on other things, so I'll probably keep going.
• 
  Pat Timpanaro

  This series is a lot of fun to read! So many times mystery series based on a craft feel forced and unnatural, but not this one. The protagonist is thrust into the position of arranging yarn-centric retreats and the reader learns about the retreat and techniques in a realistic manner that feels natural to the story, not forced as in some series. The author is herself an avid crocheter and this shows in the books. I have read a series about hand needlework where the author is a mystery writer who learned about needlework so she could write the books and the difference between the two is very obvious to people who are familiar with the techniques.
  
  As in many traditional mysteries, the plot is nothing special; the characters and the environment are fun and engaging. The conference center where the retreats are held is too rustic for my taste, but it works in the book.
  
  I look forward to reading future books in the series, particularly when I need some "fluff" in between more serious books.
  
  
• 
  Stormi (StormReads)

  Dessert chef Casey runs a yarn retreat she inherited from her aunt and this year she has a retreat called from Sheep to Shawl and things are not off to a really good start. The manager of the resort that she works in doesn’t really like her running the retreat and thinks he should be in control so he makes things hard for her. Then the lady who is suppose to run the retreat and show them how to turn wool into yarn turns up dead.
  
  Casey starts to look into things because everyone thinks it was suicide even the police and they won’t investigate but she just doesn’t think that is what happened. It seems there could be a few different reasons that someone might have killed Nicole.
  
  It had been a while since I listened to the first one but once I got going it was easy to get into and I really enjoyed the characters. I like Casey, the old ladies who own the resort and all the others. It had a pretty good mystery because I didn’t figure it out.
  
  If you like crafting cozies then check out this series!
• 
  Barb Martin

  Casey is improving her sleuthing skills, but her retreat leadership skills sure need improvement.
  
  Sure, the murder of the woman she had engaged to basically handle the entire sheep-to-shawl event put a knot in the plans. But, boy, Casey doesn't know how to punt. She didn't bother learning anyone's names. Her returning retreaters ended up picking up much of the slack because she was so ill-prepared. She hardly spent any time at her own retreat.
  
  The first book in this series got me all excited about the idea of a yarn retreat. I would not have enjoyed this one.
  
  I'm choosing to think of this as a bump in Casey's road to improvement as a retreat leader.
• 
  Snap

  I'm enjoying the Yarn Retreat series by Betty Hechtman. Some clever titles in the series. Casey has always had a hard time finding the perfect career for herself. She finishes what she starts (law school) and moves on to other things -- like substitute teaching. But she has always loved to bake. When her Aunt died and left Casey her home in Cadbury by the Sea, Casey started baking for different establishments. Her Aunt also left her Knitting retreat business to Casey. Fun watching Casey learn to knit and find out just how much she enjoys the craft. Fun characters that I'm getting to know. Great series to settle down with a cup of tea, my knitting, and a kitty or two.
• 
  Anna Hanson

  Feeling sheepish
  
  Casey continues her aunt Joan’s retreat business, implementing an idea of a Sheep to Shawl retreat, where retreaters would learn to prepare wool, spin it into yarn, and make a small shawl from their hand spun yarn. Her plans are dealt a heavy blow when the woman who was to teach the wooly portion of the retreat is found dead of an apparent suicide, but Casey can’t quite accept that as true, and begins finding indicators that perhaps the woman’s death was not by choice. Someone is trying to pull the wool over her eyes - can she expose the wolf in sheep’s clothing before it’s too late?
• 
  CZ

  This was pleasant! That's probably the best adjective. I love knitting, spinning, and whodunits, so this series felt like it was made for me. I've definitely found my new favorite cozy! I'll be reading every book in this series for sure.
  
  I had to dock one star, however, because I saw the killer coming from a mile away - and I don't try to solve the mystery while reading. But I enjoyed Casey, the residents of Cadbury, and the descriptions of the retreat. Makes me want to go on a yarn retreat myself! But maybe one that's a little better planned...
• 
  Lise

  This is definitely a popcorn read series, especially as an audiobook. Entertaining and easy to keep going with! Very enjoyable.
  
  I didn't get the right killer this time, instead I fell down the wrong rabbit hole. I had the suspect pegged as significant in a completely different role. Still enjoyable as read, but I don't know how many books she can drag the romantic tension out through, it's beginning to get stale already.
• 
  Brandi

  A decent mystery. Maybe too many components that the sleuth kept to herself until the big reveal. I like the opportunity to try and solve it as I read but this book's plot line with the sleuth's secrets made that impossible. I will continue with the series but I hope to see some better details in the next one...
• 
  Colleen Earle

  This book was a lovely follow up to the first. I love how the characters grew and how their rolls expanded. There are a lot of added complexities to the story that I’ve also really been enjoying.
  I also really like the recipe at the end of the novel and I’m looking forward to trying it oit.
  Onto the next book!