Stitch Me Deadly by Amanda Lee

When Louise Ralston wanders into Marcy's shop, The Seven-Year Stitch, shows Marcy a century old sampler, asks for her help finding ivy and collapses and subsequently dies.


Since Marcy gave the older woman a cup of tea, and since the drug that killed Mrs. Ralston is found in Marcy's guest room night stand in a vial with someone's name on it that Marcy has never heard (her mother left the vial there on her last visit), Marcy is considered a suspect. Marcy considers the sampler to be a vital clue, especially when she realizes that the original verse has been removed and replaced with a verse, about ivy, from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Intrigued by the piece, the woman's last request, and in the interest of self-preservation, Marcy begins to do a little detective work, of the genealogical nature, on her own. She learns that Mrs. Ralston was hiding a very big secret. Someone either recently learned of the secret or knew and recently became afraid of its coming to light and that someone is afraid Marcy will uncover it before it can be hidden forever.

Marcy is settling in nicely to life in her new hometown. Her glamorous costume designer mother, based in San Francisco, doesn't understand her daughter's choices, but does understand the appeal, to a small extent, of the small town when she comes to vouch for the origin of the pills. Marcy's best friend Sadie and her husband own the coffee shop down the street. Both Sadie and her husband and Sadie and Marcy experience some ups and downs, adding an additional layer to each character, and more depth and reality to the plot.

The search for ivy, or Ivy, as Marcy learns, is fascinating and involves many of Marcy's new friends, especially the librarian and her husband, the local police chief. After being recently jilted, Marcy is a big gun shy when it comes to men and is enjoying her time with Ted the cop and Todd the brewmaster, though the names are similar enough to confuse readers at times.

There are plenty of threads for readers to pick up and those who pick up the right thread will have the mystery sewn up in short order.

I really enjoy the Embroidery Mystery series. This summary is taken from another site. At times I seem I can't put words together to make sense.