Quilting Mysteries Books In Order

Publication Order of Quilting Mysteries Books

Quilting Mystery is a series of mystery novels written by Mary Marks. The series is set in San Fernando Valley in California where Martha Rose and her circle of quilters are living a good life on the side of retirement until murder interferes with their good retirement life. Mary Marks began her Quilting Mysteries in 2014 when Forget Me Knot was published.

Forget Me Knot

Forget Me Knot introduces us to Martha Rose is a divorced woman with an excruciating condition living in San Fernando Valley California. When she cannot cope with the pain, she pops pills and relies on her Jewish roots to overcome most of the challenges that life has to offer. She has a daughter living very far away. Martha, Birdie, and Lucy are two close friends and meet every single week to create their quilts. They are professionals in the own right and are shocked when a famous and award-winning quilter who is younger wishes to join their group. Unfortunately, they find her brutally murdered when they arrange to meet her.

The murder is what sets off a who mysterious set of events. The dead woman quilts are stolen together with some of Lucy and Martha’s. The women soon discover that even though she was living a luxurious lifestyle, the woman did not lead a very happy life and they conclude that she was trying to send them a message through her quilts.
Martha then teams up with the dead woman’s mother and tries as much as possible to avoid her overbearing father. The pragmatic investigator on the cases sends Martha’s hormones to peak, and she tries to look for him but also finds him intensely irritating. Additionally, Martha’s life is in danger when her house is plundered, and she is also threatened. However, her resilience shines all through, and she slowly unravels distinct threads of the dead woman’s life which begin to seem even seedier each day.

Forget Me Knot is a brilliant series open with a lot of layers just like the quilts Martha is fond of making. There is a play on words here, but as one reads further, you will discover how deep the play is. The entire art of quilting seems more complicated and the friendship that the women have built over the years simply due to their common hobby is quite appealing.

Knot in My Backyard

Just a couple of months ago, Martha became getting involved in helping a solve a murder case of the newcomer who had joined their quilting circle. She loved it not having to look behind her everywhere she went until when she stumbles upon the body of Dax Martin, the head coach of a newly established eyesore in her neighbor’s backyard- the Joshua Beaumont School. After the cops are called, Martha’s neighbor, Ed Pappas is taken in for questioning. It appears that Dax and Ed had a series of arguments previously- very public to be specific.

But Martha knows well deep down that Ed is not the murderer but proving it would be a challenging undertaking. She doesn’t have the listening ear or the support of her boyfriend, a cop named Arlo Beavers. But Martha does not let this lack of support demoralize her, and therefore she begins her own investigations. Her road to finding the truth is full of danger that continues to get bigger as she gets closer to finding the real truth.

Her investigations send her to protect land that has become home to several displaced people. When she decides she needs to ask the displaced people a series of questions, a scheme to get to them paves the way for compassion. Her neighborhood gathers urgently required toiletries, and blankets to donate to those in need. The heartbreaking aspect of the novel is the all too real but overlooked people in the society we live in- the homeless and when fear and spite takes over, the Army Corp group does something unthinkable.

Martha’s young love life from the first book in the series takes a twisted turn after she accidentally causes injury to her boyfriend’s best friend. The second book in A Quilting Mystery series is an excellent read with a typical heroine. She is definitely not a crime fighter/solver but makes it her responsibility to dive her head deep whether there is water in the pool or not. She puts herself into perilous situations and breaks the law just to prove that her neighbor is not a murderer. Martha is a likable character.

It is evident that Mary Marks knows how to tell a great story. Her writing style is smooth; the entire plot is engaging thanks to her nosy heroine. Lucy and Birdie play the faithful servant dogs to Martha’s superhero thus adding a new dimension to the narrative. Mary Marks does a brilliant job of building up an intricate mystery but never disclosing the clues to the identity of the suspects. The murder mystery is solved at the perfect time after sending the readers on various wild goose chases. Danger builds up as the mystery begins to unfold- there are several storylines into the narrative that takes place, and the murder case is only but just a beginning of a very long line of deception, other illegal activities, and the undesirable series of events involving the local school and everyone involved in its construction.

Gone But Knot Forgotten

Categorizing through the estate of a wealthy recluse might sound like an overwhelming task, but when the rumored deep hidden turn out to be true, Martha and her quilting team wish they had stuck to their basting and batting.

Martha is shocked when she learns that her good friend (Harriet Oliver) from high school has died. Her shock even doubles when she learns that her dead friend made her the executor of her estate. But the cops conclude that Harriet was killed. In response, Martha mobilizes her fellow quilters to help bring the killer to justice. She has master the art of piecing together pieces to create beautiful quilts but piecing together the clues of her best friend murder will prove to be even a much more challenging task.