Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for One Sharp Stitch (A Nimble Needle Mystery) by Allie Pleiter. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!
One Sharp Stitch (A Nimble Needle Mystery)
by Allie Pleiter
One Sharp Stitch (A Nimble Needle Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – North Carolina
Publisher : Kensington Cozies (March 25, 2025)
Hardcover : 256 pages
When thirty-something Shelby Phillips returns to her quiet hometown just outside of Asheville, North Carolina, she reluctantly takes over her mother’s Nimble Needle needlepoint shop—and gets entangled in a murder investigation . . .
It’s only temporary. That’s what Shelby Phillips tells herself when she returns to excruciatingly harmless Gwen Lake after her graphic arts career—and the office romance blooming with it—get tossed like rejected design mockups. Her plan is as simple and fool-proof as a tent stitch: manage the family needlepoint shop during her parents’ RV vacation. It’s just a month. It’s not as if they’re retiring . . . right?
When Shelby becomes responsible for hosting a trunk show with local vendors, she’s determined to pull it off. Even if that means dealing with former classmate Kat Katsaros, a rising entrepreneur specializing in needlework scissors. Kat has changed since high school—and she’s angling to take over the Nimble Needle herself. The tension unspools when Shelby makes a terrible discovery on the morning of the event: Kat’s dead body.
Shelby can’t believe the death was an accident. That’s why she’s set on exposing who committed the murder with Kat’s own equipment. She finds help in a new friend, a potential crush, and the surprising support of her sister and the Nimble Needle stitchers. Still, Shelby must move quickly to stop the crafty culprit before her maybe not-so-temporary new life in Gwen Lake comes apart at the seams . . .
Author Guest Post: Building a cozy mystery world
One thing I hear again and again from cozy mystery lovers is how much they enjoy the sense of community each series brings. Returning to a town for each book feels like a visit with old friends. We root for the ones we like, we groan over the ones we don’t, and we take an escapist delight in the quirks and character of the locale.
As an author, building that kind of place is half the fun. I love to set my imagination running wild over what makes my setting unique and compelling, Gwen Lake is no different. I knew it would be set somewhere in the Carolinas where I now make my home, but that’s about all I started with at first. Then came the lake. North and South Carolina are filled with lakes and lake communities, and I have made my home in one. The name of Gwen Lake came to me as most of my names do—just a pop into my head one day.
I never base my towns on any one actual locale. It’s always a mixture of several towns—the downtown street of this one, the lake of that one, the physical location of another, the landmarks of yet another. It’s like walking through a buffet and choosing all the things you love to eat and putting them together into one delicious meal.
Then there always have to be the quirks. No cozy mystery setting would be complete without a few “endearing” characteristics. As an author who fills each of her books with a healthy dose of humor, this is essential for me. One day a friend told me how her lake community in the middle of Illinois had gotten their model boat club declared a “yacht club” for all the reciprocal benefits. I found this fascinating. When you hear yacht club, you immediately think ritzy coastal society. Model boats hundreds of miles from the ocean? I couldn’t resist. And so the Gwen Lake Yacht Club was born. The more seriously Gwen Lake takes its nautical fleet, the funnier it became.
No cozy mystery would be complete without a cast of lovable and unlikable characters. Job one, of course, is a charming main character. Shelby Phillips is smart, opinionated, blindingly honest, and facing many of the challenges we all face. A recent job layoff (with some near-romantic fall out as well) sends her back home without much clue as to what comes next. Shes trying to navigate her parents’ journey into retirement while dodging her uber-perfect sister’s judgmental jabs. She’s wondering how to make friends and discover the next chapter of her life. She’s trying not to eat the whole plate of brownies.
…And she’s trying to do right by an old high school acquaintance who turns up dead at the worst possible moment.
Of course, Shelby doesn’t inhabit her world alone. Her relationship with the police chief and the mayor of Gwen Lake has its ups and downs. There’s the new friend who owns the clever coffeebar down the street. And because I always love to toss in a bit of romance into all my mysteries, there’s the hint of a more-than-friendship relationship with the town mechanic. After a career admist the wild personalities and posturing of the graphic arts and marketing business, Shelby is drawn to Jake’s no-nonsense authenticity. Okay, his handsome features may have a bit to do with that as well.
Last but not least, we can’t forget the NYAGs—the “Not Your Average Grannies.” This corps of, well, not your average grandmothers, are shop regulars at Nina’s Nimble Needle. They gleefully bust every stereotype of the crafting senior citizen. For anyone who thinks needlepoint is just for folks in rocking chairs, these ladies prove that theory wrong. And it is wrong. Needlepoint—in fact, the whole crafting community—is enjoying a fabulous resurgence among people of all ages. The fact that this crafting crew has a razor-sharp wit and a faster-than-lightening gossip chain just add to the fun.
Like many cozy mysteries, our beloved amateur sleuth needs an animal companion. For this crucial role, I chose to have an ownerless cat appear on Shelby’s porch railing one night. A bit lost herself, Shelby makes friends with the feline, giving him the name Nabbit. I was searching for a good cat name when I trip to the needlepoint shop (there have been oh-so-many of those) uncovered a tool called a Snag Nabbit. Sometimes the world hands you just what you need, yes? Nabbit serves as a good listener, patient sounding board, comforter, and occasional annoyance. I could never imagine a life without pets, so there’s always an animal companion in my books. I’ve mostly stuck to cats and dogs—although there was one romance with a cockatiel—but who knows? I may branch out if the mood strikes me.
I hope you enjoy the marvelous community you’ll meet in ONE SHARP STITCH!
About Allie Pleiter
An avid crafter, coffee junkie and firm believer that “pie makes everything better,” Allie Pleiter writes both fiction and non-fiction working on as many as four books at a time. The bestselling author of over sixty books, Allie has enjoyed a twenty-plus year career with over 1.8 million books sold. In addition to writing, Allie maintains an active writing productivity coaching practice and speaks regularly on the creative process, publishing, and her very favorite topic—The Chunky Method of time management for writers. She lives in the Charlotte area with her husband and the world’s most adorable dog.
Author Links
Website www.alliepleiter.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alliepleiterauthor/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/alliepleiter
Facebook group (books): https://www.facebook.com/groups/firesidewithallie/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allie-pleiter-6a021b139
Twitter: https://twitter.com/alliepleiter
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/alliepleiter/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/453346.Allie_Pleiter
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/allie-pleiter
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Allie-Pleiter/e/B001H6IEUO/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1
Purchase Links
This link on my website gives multiple purchase options:
https://alliepleiter.com/books/nimble-needle-mysteries/one-sharp-stitch/
Kensington link: https://www.kensingtonbooks.com/9781496752000/one-sharp-stitch/
Enter the Giveaway
One Sharp Stitch TOUR PARTICIPANTS
April 1 – Frugal Freelancer – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
April 1 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
April 2 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW
April 2 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – AUTHOR GUEST POST
April 3 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – SPOTLIGHT
April 4 – Storybook Lady – REVIEW
April 5 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT
April 6 – Ruff Drafts – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
April 6 – StoreyBook Reviews – CHARACTER GUEST POST
April 7 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
April 8 – Jody’s Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT
April 8 – Ascroft, eh? – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
April 9 – Reading, Writing & Stitch-Metic – NEEDLEPOINT POST
April 9 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT
April 10 – Reading Is My SuperPower – AUTHOR GUEST POST
April 11 – Socrates Book Reviews – REVIEW
April 12 – Sarah Can’t Stop Reading Books – REVIEW
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Thanks for hosting me today! I’m delighted to introduce this new series to readers,
You’re welcome! Thank you for stopping!
Looks like a FUN book.