Quilting is a peaceful pastime.
Until somebody turns up dead.
Beatrice Coleman spent thirty years curating folk art at an Atlanta museum. Newly retired and newly relocated to the mountain village of Dappled Hills, North Carolina, she barely has the boxes unpacked before her new neighbor Meadow drags her into the local quilting guild — and into a decade-plus run of murders that the local sheriff would very much prefer she leave alone. Twenty cozy mysteries set among Blue Ridge dappled light, old farmhouses, and stitches that never quite match.
A mountain village deep in the Blue Ridge foothills — dappled light through old hardwoods, an old-timey hardware store, art galleries on Main Street, rocking chairs out front of the quilt shop. Beatrice arrived an outsider: a retired Atlanta art curator who came north to be near her daughter Piper and never planned to learn how to bind a quilt corner. Two days in, her neighbor Meadow showed up uninvited and dragged her into the Village Quilters guild. Twelve days in, somebody turned up dead. Twenty books later, neither of those things has slowed down.
"As warm and cozy as a favorite quilt."
"So cozy! Feels like Murder She Wrote vibes — but quilts!"
"This is what cozies are all about! A one-sitting read that sucks you in from page one."
Beatrice spent thirty years curating folk art at an Atlanta museum, which means she knows quite a lot about quilts as objects and almost nothing about actually making one. Newly retired, recently relocated, she moved to the mountain village of Dappled Hills to be near her daughter Piper, an elementary-school teacher. She intended to read more, walk her corgi Noo-noo, and finally have time to think.
That lasted about forty-eight hours. Her next-door neighbor Meadow Downey — wildly mismatched outfits, gray braid to her waist, energy of a much younger woman — introduced herself by walking through Beatrice's open front door and announcing she'd just signed her up for the Village Quilters guild. Twelve days after that, the body of a guild member turned up. Beatrice has been stitching, sleuthing, and trying to keep a polite distance from her neighbor's enthusiasms ever since.
She's surrounded by a wonderful supporting cast: Posy Beck (gentle, bespectacled, owns the Patchwork Cottage quilt shop and anchors the community); Ramsay Downey (Meadow's husband, the police chief, who would rather be reading Thoreau); and Miss Sissy (ancient, cantankerous, sharper than she looks). And a rival guild called the Cut-Ups, who are exactly what their name suggests.
Twenty books in, Beatrice has solved more murders than most police departments and made more friends than she expected. Each book is a standalone mystery, but read in order they're a slow, satisfying portrait of a transplanted city woman becoming a small-town fixture.
Best read in order — but each book stands on its own. New readers usually start with Quilt or Innocence. Click any cover for buy links.
"I loved getting to know all the wonderful and zany citizens of Dappled Hills. It's a one-sitting read that sucks you in from page one. This is what cozies are all about!"
"Elizabeth Craig has created a charming world of quilting, friendship and intrigue. The characters are quirky and personable — and who wouldn't want to live in a lovely town with the name of Dappled Hills?"
"I came to love her neighbors and friends as much as she did. I'm going to suggest this series to many patrons at the library."
"Since I discovered this series, it has become one of my favorites. Beatrice isn't some young brainless breathtakingly beautiful heroine — you can see her as a real person."