Fleece Navidad

A Knitting Mystery #6

by Maggie Sefton

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas for the knitters of Fort Connor, Colorado, who are furiously working on their holiday projects. And it's not a stitch too soon, because some unfortunate resident will be feeling a deadly chill instead of holiday cheer . . . This Yuletide, Kelly Flynn and friends are helping the town's librarian, Juliet, teach children how to knit. Juliet has fallen in love--but just as she finds happiness, death finds her, facedown in her Christmas cape. Suspicion falls on a newcomer, a widow with a puzzling past, who--some believe--was sweet on Juliet's boyfriend. But Kelly and her knitting crew aren't convinced. It's up to them to find a killer--before someone else gets fleeced.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Fiction, Christmas, Knitting, Cozy, Holiday

304 pages, Hardcover

First published November 3, 2009

About the author

Aka Margaret Conlan

From author website:

"First, a little biographical information as introduction: Born in Richmond, VA, I grew up in Northern Virginia in Arlington, close to Washington, D.C. I attended university and received a Bachelor's degree in English Literature & Journalism, married, and started my family there. All four of my daughters are grown and established in careers of their own and are literally scattered around the globe. I now reside in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado with two very demanding dogs."

Reviews

[Valerie Book Valkyrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Cheery Stars
More knitting, baking, and murder for Christmas 🎅.
Happy Holidays to You 🎆☃️🎄❄️🧚‍♀️🙋🏼!

[Moondance · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Is Marty going back for seconds already?"

Kelly Flynn and her friends from the House of Lambspun have amped things up for the holidays. Everyone is knitting furiously for the upcoming art and craft show. Juliet, the town's librarian, has handcrafted beautiful capes to sell at the shop. A newcomer steps on toes when she tries to steal Juliet's gentleman friend. She is of the prime suspect when Juliet is the victim of a hit and run murder.

Kelly and company do a little sleuthing and eventually come up with the killer.

This was a little more obvious than previous books. Still an enjoyable story and I will continue to read the series.

[Linda C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kelly and her gang are working on charity projects and Christmas events where they meet a couple of new women, Juliet, a librarian organizing projects and Claudia, a new knitter and volunteer. Claudia inadvertently moves in on Juliet's beau. But things get interesting when Sheila shows up accusing Claudia of murdering her father and her previous husbands. Kelly and the group have taken to Claudia and try to help her out. Good plot and entry to the series, though the accuser is over the top and Claudia is a drama queen dependent on the support of a good man.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good fun, a cosy read

[ML Blair · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy to read cozy mystery. Nuff said.

[Jeannette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kelly and her friends are volunteering for the holidays when they meet Juliet, a librarian involved in a love triangle with a college professor and a self-absorbed widow named Claudia. When Juliet dies, Claudia is the first suspect. Some of the knitters have a hard time believing one of their own could be involved, and Kelly can't help but dig deeper.

This mystery involved a bit more drama than usual, but still primarily depended on loving relationships among the characters and some silly humor. Cute holiday fun.

[Linda · Rating 1 out of 5]

A lot of things bothered me about this book. If I recall, the last book Kelly and Burt didn't believe in coincidences, yet this lady breezes into their lives with three dead husbands all dying in questionable ways, she doesn't seem to be upset about any of them and moves into their town on the prowl for husband number four and they all just can't imagine her doing any wrong. That person would be the first one I would come up as a suspect.
And this is minor but drove me a bit nuts. Steve has lived in Colorado for how long now with an outside job, and he has no hat or scarves? He has to wait for Kelly to knit him one? Their has to be a retail store around there somewhere selling winter apparel.
Will read a few more of her books to see if they get any better, but his time around everyone seemed to be needing some kind of help, especially Kelly. She is a bit too full of herself.

[Kendra · Rating 2 out of 5]

this isn't a mystery novel. it's a fiction novel with a token, predictable "mystery" thrown into the middle in hopes that people won't notice that the author cares more about developing her characters' romances than challenging the reader. I originally picked up these books because I'm a knitter and I love mystery novels. I can't continue with this series because not only does it fail in the mystery department, the knitting isn't even interesting or realistically described. I'm done.

[Elliott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have super low expectations of cozy mysteries. this book had some seasonal cheer, fairly shallow characters, and a fairly obvious mystery.

I had a hard time connecting to the characters in this one - so many people were introduced in the beginning, and with curt and burt and meagan and mimi and marty I was just not keeping everyone straight. basically everyone has a partner, but their relationships weren't always defined, and I wasn't given any information about what anyone looks like (except marty is tall, thin, and has red hair. and he seems to be 16 years old and practicing law.)

I'm not a knitter, so I can't speak to the knitting details, but all of the festive bits (decorations, baking, etc) were appreciated (although I agree with other commenters that the church pageant was a weird digression. plus, the "teen" dialogue made me kinda cringe. maybe kids are like that in CO).

it's interesting to me to observe how authors give hints that characters are guilty or should be unlikable to the readers. I think I would have appreciated if there were a few fewer characters in these stories, and then each of those folks was given a bit more depth. the mystery was really not much of a mystery . . .

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved my visit with my Lambspun family. I even solved the mystery early. #readforkimberly

[Maggie Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fluffy reading, but who doesn't need a little cozy mystery now and again.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The knitters in Fort Collins are hard at work trying to finish enough hats for the charity bazaar (not to mention their own Christmas presents). With all this, Kelly and her fellow knitters take on helping Juliet, the town librarian. Juliet is dating Jeremy, who happens to also be dating Claudia, a newcomer (and fellow knitter). Juliet is crushed. Then Sheila shows up, Claudia's step-daughter, who accuses Claudia of murdering Sheila's father, Claudia's deceased husband. Is it any wonder that a death soon follows all this drama!

This was a quick read. I figured it out very quickly, which took some of the fun out of the remainder of the read. I felt the clues were blaring from billboards it was so obvious.

I'm also a bit leery of books that have to give me a cast of characters at the beginning of the book. Way too many people. It was confusing at first and I did have to go back to that page a couple of times to figure out who was who. A few of the characters we needed, but the rest, who cared.

Anyway, overall it was well written which is why I give it 3 stars. There are so many other series out there that have a bit more complexity to them; I'l probably not continue with this one.

[Cozy Reader Lady · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Fleece Navidad (A Knitting Mystery #6)" by Maggie Sefton is a Christmas themed. It has several Holiday/Christmas themed events the characters take part in. Despite a couple plot things, the overall story was pretty decent and well suited for a holiday/winter read.

The mystery was around a hit and run of a well liked person. I had a suspicion of who did it right away but it was solely based on me thinking, "why is this character even here?" Also, I feel like there was a missed opportunity with the book's main suspect to investigate the odd deaths of her three dead husbands. That totally got swept under the rug with the main characters not even considering looking at those even to find out more.

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book rivals Kate Kingsbury in writing Christmas books in general.

I love Kate Kingsbury. So to say that it rivals her, is a big deal! I loved this book. I had not read any previous books in this series and it was perfect as a standalone!

One heck of a murder mystery and it took me towards the end to figure the killer. I loved all of the characters and it was easy to remember who was who. Not too many that you became confused.
I loved that it took place in Colorado. The end of the book is full of recipes and surprisingly it had several knitting patterns including the actual patterns visually placed on the page.

You gotta include this in your Christmas TBR!

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Siiiiiigh. I mean, it is what it is and I am cranky and impatient with mysteries (and almost never read the cozies) but it's Christmas so here, have an extra star for a Christmas present.
But there were SO MANY implausible things, not the least of which being cops and lawyers and everybody just blathering about case details and questioning in the public cafe that is like the locus of all these events.
Several of the characters are really one-dimensional and borderline ridiculous.
There was some other annoying stuff along the way but not worth wasting time critiquing.

They put on a pretty good Nativity show though. 😀🐑

[Castor Akers · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was fine. This is a cute seasonal/holiday read and maybe around that time i'll reread it and see if i feel differently about it, but even the plot was just not as good in this one either. Vibes were still immaculate though so I did still enjoy my time with it quite a bit.

[Meredith Waggoner · Rating 3 out of 5]

an immaculate title

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read all of the Maggie Sefton knitting books and this one did not disappoint. I love Kelly and the other characters, especially Mimi, Jayleen, Steve and Curt. I like the way the characters and their relationships have developed throughout the series.

In this book a few new characters are introduced, some that live in the town and some that are new to the area. This story centers on the Lambspun Knitting Shop where the cast of characters spend most of their time and the events that take place there as well as at St. Mark's Church. Juliet Renfrow, the local librarian, is volunteering at St. Mark's to help the children knit Christmas gifts. Kelly and Megan also volunteer to help. They learn about Juliet's romance with Jeremy, a widowed university professor, and that recently it has not been going so well. We later learn that Jeremy has been romancing Claudia, a woman who recently moved to Ft. Connor from Florida. Juliet ends up dead and Claudia is suspected of murder. Kelly and Mimi believe that she is innocent and Kelly gets involved in helping to solve another murder.

This book is set during the Christmas season and has some nice winter knitting and recipe ideas at the end of the book. I would recommend this book for people who enjoy a cozy mystery!

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

As something interesting to read, this fails. As a study in what passes muster in the publishing world and in a niche market, it was kind of interesting. I kind of can't believe there are at least five more of these. Though there are not glaring grammatical or spelling mistakes, tt is *not* well-written. None of the dialog differentiates characters from each other, but all sounds like the author's own stilted voice. I read the whole thing and I still can't keep the characters straight nor do I have any idea how many chirpy women friends there are in the main friends group. I could not keep up with which ones were married and to whom, or which were dating and who they were dating, or what jobs they each had. And frankly, nothing about the story made me care. The "mystery" was obvious from the moment all the characters involved in it were introduced. The only things explained in any detail were knitting details, and even those didn't make sense. Baking was consistently called cooking, even though one of the characters can't "cook" and learns to "cook" one special kind of cookie, partly by being taught by a kindly older woman who inexplicably never tells her the difference between the two ways of preparing food. I don't plan to read any more from this author.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author Maggie Sefton has a hook - she writes about a charming yarn shop in the fictional town in Colorado. Like the author, the heroine Kelly, is a transplant to Colorado from Washington DC. The story is formulaic and like most cozy mysteries pretty predictable. The story tries to keep us guessing by hosting two villains. One is a gold digging 3 time widow in town to trap a new husband. The other is the daughter of the third husband convinced the widow killed him and her 2 former husbands. As a knitter, there are knitting details that are a little off. Sefton's descriptions of knitting and knitters is quite limited and repetitive as though she actually knows very little herself all any of it. Nonetheless I finished the book and appreciated that like many cozies it was around 250 pages.

[Margarita · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've read and enjoyed this whole series until this one. What a clunker! There has been no growth in these stilted one-dimensional characters. The dialog is so generic and impersonal. What irritated me the most, though, was Kelly and Burt's (who is a retired police officer) "advice" to a character accused of car theft. They tell her that she will have to prove her innocence! Even the most basic civics lesson should clarify this crazyness. It will be tough for me to keep going with this series, which had started so promising.

[Jennifer Hodges Young · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this Sefton's 6th entry of this series Kelly must help a newcomer in town prove that she did not kill the town librian. Cluadia is a totally unlikable charector and you wish she had done the deed. Her step daughter is even more shrill and crazy. I did not enjoy this book as much as the previous ones the mystery was to obvious, the newcomers to unlikable and the main charectors stuck in the same place they were in the last book

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another fun and fast read. Once again - "who done it" was clear well before the end and I found myself telling the main character to put the clues together a little faster, but I still found it to be a really enjoyable read. A TON of recipies in the back of this one too. YUM!

[Kathy Davie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first in the Knitting Mysteries series which I picked up...I could not resist the title!

Very homey and cozy. It made me want to hang out in a knitting shop...even...maybe...take up knitting!

[Cathy Hannigan]

I've read # 7 ~ don't remember this one

[The Mystery Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐⭐⭐
Fleece Navidad by Maggie Sefton brings the holiday spirit to Fort Connor, Colorado, along with a side of murder that Kelly Flynn and her knitting crew need to untangle. The setup is heartbreaking. Juliet, the town librarian who's been teaching children to knit, finally finds love only to end up dead in her Christmas cape. Everyone assumes the new widow in town is guilty (because she might have had eyes for Juliet's boyfriend), but Kelly and her friends aren't buying it.

What works here is the holiday atmosphere. Sefton really captures that cozy Christmas feeling with everyone working on their holiday knitting projects while trying to solve a murder. The knitting shop continues to be a warm, welcoming place, and the friendships between the characters feel real. I also appreciated the subplot about teaching kids to knit, which adds a nice community element.

The mystery has enough twists to keep you guessing, though I saw parts of it coming. The motive made sense once revealed, and the pacing was pretty good throughout. My only issue was that some of the red herrings felt a bit obvious.

Book six in the series, and if you're already a fan of Kelly and the gang, you'll enjoy spending the holidays with them. It's a comforting read with just enough mystery to keep things interesting.

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[Eileen · Rating 2 out of 5]

So many characters were introduced in the beginning and there was so little information about them that it was hard to keep track. I had to keep referring to the list in the front of the book for a reminder. The characters were not developed including the protagonist, Kelly. They didn't have much to say either, other than some bland banter. Though I have to admit that I kept putting this book down for days at a time, I was not able to get into the story and this contributed to my confusion about the characters.

The mystery was so obvious and straightforward that I said to myself "That's it? " when I got to the denouement. Neither of the suspects was a likable person, I thought that this might be the author's way to keep the mystery going but it was an onion skin thin attempt.

Kelly just thought things through and solved the mystery for the police who could not perceive the obvious or put two and two together for themselves. But to give credit to Kelly she knew some things they maybe didn't know yet and props to the police because acted immediately on the information she provided. Still there was almost no sleuthing involved on the part of Kelly and this made for little action and a lot of time at the knitting shop listening to gossip and chatting with Bert.

Still I enjoy cozy mysteries like this, they're a nice distraction from a busy, stressful life.

[Ingrid · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's been a while since I read a book in this series, and I was waiting for December to read this Christmas themed installment. I don't think this book has he same level of writing as the earlier volumes.

At some point it's mentioned that Kelly only moved to that area 18 months ago, which means the first six books take place over a year and a half. That's a really tight timeline for all of the murders and crimes committed in that area, plus the amount of new businesses and changes. The characters felt a bit flat this time, especially the new ladies that show up as the main plot. The mystery was not hidden well at all and I figured out everything from the start. The delivery of the clues make Kelly seem a bit thick in the head. If she's so great at sleuthing she should have had this one in the bag.

I think the author does a great job of relaying the knitter experience and writing about the shop, yarns, and projects, so I will pick up another, but in my opinion the plot needed some serious help.

[Nicolette Kernohan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although Kelly Flynn is a relatively new knitter, she is keen to join her friends with a charity knitting project, in Fleece Navidad by Maggie Sefton. Kelly also must solve the unexpected death of one of her knitting companions, in the sixth of the Knitting Mystery series.

Caffeine addict, Kelly Flynn lives adjacent to the House of Lambspun in Fort Connor, Colorado knitting shop. This Christmas, Kelly and her fellow knitters are working on charity knitting projects. The local librarian, Juliet Renfrow, is organising the season’s good will venture to create knitted gifts and all of the regulars are helping out.



Juliet Renfrow is a quiet “little brown wren” of a woman who is known for her stunning handmade capes. Her creations have been in great demand in the lead up to Christmas. But Juliet also has another reason to be happy; she is in love! Juliet’s beau is Jeremy Cunningham, a retired university professor. The couple are the perfect match and are so sweet together.

Unfortunately, it soon becomes apparent that Jeremy has been seeing another woman. This other woman is Claudia Miller who arrived in Fort Connor from Florida a couple of months ago. Recently widowed, Claudia is determined to hook husband number four! Hot on Claudia’s heels is Sheila Miller, Claudia’s step daughter. Sheila is soon spreading vicious rumours about how Claudia killed Shelia’s father and stole a car to get away from Florida!



The House of Lambspun knitters are soon shocked to hear that their quiet Juliet has been killed in a hit and run incident! She is found lying on the pavement by the police, early one morning.

Before long, suspicions from the police and the community are focused on Claudia. The knitters in the House of Lambspun are split, however. Half of them are certain that Claudia murdered Juliet but the others vehemently proclaim her innocence. As the police close in on Claudia, Kelly must start her own line of investigation. If she can solve the mystery, not only could she clear Claudia’s name but she might also prevent the knitting group from imploding through in fighting!

There are numerous knitting projects on the go for the holiday season. The House of Lambspun knitters create lots of hats, gloves and mittens to be sold at Mimi’s shop. Kelly creates a blue-green hat on circular needles. And although she is quite a slow knitter (by comparison with some of the others) she is determined to do her bit for the homeless, as well as finishing her long term project; an alpaca scarf for boyfriend Steve.



There are lots of winter knitting patterns and recipes to try out at the end of the book. I may try the ribbed hat and will definitely give the gingersnap cookies a go. They sound scrummy!

The knitted garment in the photos attached to this blog is a woolly hat which I knit using the Sockhead Slouch Hat pattern. I wrote about the project here. The lovely Regia Snowflake yarn is available here.



There are not many new characters introduced in Fleece Navidad. It is generally the same cast that we have learned to love in the previous five books. One of the strongest facets of this knitting murder mystery series is the development of the characters and the dynamics of the friends. I always like the camaraderie amongst the knitters in Maggie Sefton’s books. The group are closer than some families that I know, despite the bickering in this tale!

There are a number of romances on the go (as we are used to in this series). I have enjoyed the development of Kelly and Steve’s relationship which seems to have become long term now. There is a new romance too which starts up between two regular characters. I look forward to seeing how all of the relationships develop in future books.

One of the most enjoyable story lines is a sequence which sees Kelly and Jennifer directing a group of unruly local teenagers in a Christmas nativity! The kids have no interest when the girls take over the coaching. I also liked the addition of an adorable “celebrity” lamb into the setup!



I enjoyed this book better than Dyer Consequences.

I thought that the inclusion of the list of characters at the start of the book was a bonus. It was a handy aid for me as it had been a while since I had read the last book in the series.

That said Fleece Navidad takes a while to get going. There is not much action in the first 100 pages, except for a cringe worthy scene where Marty is once again “teased” about his overeating.



Although there are a number of plot lines developed in this story, the main murder mystery is a bit of a letdown. The interest is not so much in who-dun-it as in how to Kelly solves the crime. In that way it is more of a Columbo than a Miss Marple.

I would like to see some of the romances go a bit further. Not one of them has got engaged yet (except Juliet and Jeremy shortly before Juliet is run over). Dare I hope for a marriage in the next book?



This story is a fun read for the holiday season. You don’t have to be a knitter to read it; in fact there is only one lengthy knitting section where Kelly changes from circular needles to DPNs. It is a good read to get you into the mood for the Christmas season. If you want a knitting mystery with interesting characters then Fleece Navidad is a good choice.

I read this book on softback version. My review is available at: https://www.theknittingsquirrel.com/f...

[Anna Hanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holiday madness

The lead up to Christmas is always full of things to do, and Kelly finds herself helping out her friends in all sorts of ways - knitting for charity, helping lead the Nativity pageant, and even digging out her Aunt Helen’s gingersnap cookie recipe for the Lambspun booth. Things get even busier when the Lambspun “family” of knitters is caught up in a drama between two women from Florida - one the vivacious many-times-married stepmother of the other, who is certain the woman killed her father. Sides are taken, disrupting the joy of the season - and deepening the tension is the hit-and-run death of a well-loved local weaver. It brings Kelly to suspend her decision to abstain from sleuthing, as she begins to think there is more than first appears about the whole situation.