Book 46, 2025

[chez_jae]

Knit Fast, Die Young by Mary Kruger

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


View all my reviews

Finished reading my work book at work today, with time left at lunch to spare! It was Knit Fast, Die Young by Mary Kruger. This is the second book in the “Knitting Mysteries” by the author. The main character is Ariadne “Ari” Evans.

Ari is pleased to be attending the Freeport Wool and Yarn Festival, where she encounters old acquaintances and meets new people. One of the attendees is familiar to Ari—Felicia Barr, of Knit it Up! magazine. Felicia is known to be a mean girl, and no one wants to get on her bad side and get dissed in the magazine. When Ari dashes out in the rain to get coffee at one of the other buildings, she didn’t expect Felicia to stumble into her arms, any more than she expected to see a knitting needle sticking out of Felicia’s back. Now the woman is dead, and there are several suspects on-site, including Ari. She swore she wouldn’t get involved in another murder investigation, but Ari is uniquely suited to assist her kinda-sorta boyfriend, Detective Josh Pierce. Josh is hoping Ari can help unravel the mystery before anyone else dyes. Hah!

I didn’t really care for this. Fabric arts are not my cuppa tea, but I could have overlooked that if the story itself had been more enjoyable. Most of the action took place over the course of one day and in one location—the fairgrounds where the murder took place. As a result, I was left feeling like I didn’t learn much about any of the characters nor the (typical series) setting. Ari did provide some helpful clues, but she made a cringe-worthy false accusation of one of the other suspects. I also didn’t like that her friend, Diane, took every opportunity to snipe about Josh. Give it a rest! Also , there was this whopper:

Page 276: Ari stood in the back of the room. Okay, fine.
Page 284 (same scene): She hadn’t meant to do anything, Ari thought, shifting in her chair. When did Ari take a seat?

I realize I tend to nitpick (knitpick?) editing in my reviews, but come on! I’m just casually reading and caught that, yet someone who is (presumably) being paid to catch errors like that missed it? Ugh.

Favorite lines:
♦ “Spinners and knitters and murderers, oh my.”
♦ “I’ll put the skating back on. Michelle Kwan can take your mind off anything.”

I’d give this 2.5 stars if I could. I’ll be kind and bump it up to a three. It was no better than average, in my opinion.


1. Does the mc work at/as one of the following: baker/bakery/sweet shop/tea shop/coffee shop, library/librarian, antique/vintage shop, book store, fashion/boutique, bed & breakfast? Yes, a fabric arts store
2. Does the mc live at her (or his) place of occupation? No
3. Is the love interest involved in law enforcement? (Police officer, sheriff, detective, PI, FBI) Yes
4. Does the mc have a dog/cat as a pet? I don’t think she has a pet…? She was barely home to find out.
5. Is the mc's BFF either a gay guy or a ditzy/zany woman? No
6. Did the mc find the body? Yes
7. Did the mc wind up in mortal danger at the end of the book? No
8. Is the mc's mother either: dead, absent, far removed, ditzy and dithering, or overbearing/disapproving/meddling? Yes, she’s overbearing and meddling
9. If mother is dead/absent, does the mc have another mother-figure (grandmother, aunt, mom's friend, or an older friend)? No
10. Is the mc child-free? (Either no children or else grown children--i.e. no small children to look after) No, she has a young daughter, who spent the entirety of the book (all 2 days of it, I guess) with her father, Ari’s ex-husband.