Tightening the Threads

Tightening the Thread
A Mainely Needlepoint Mystery
Lea Wait
Kensington Publishing Corporation
New York, New York
ISBN: 978-1-4967-0628-7
Paperback
2017
$ 7.99
301 pages

A true friend is there when you need them.
Sarah Byrne is in a situation where she needs the friendship of Angie Curtis.   The two have discovered their mutual love of antiques and needlepoint.
Sarah recently found her real heritage.  Since a single-mother in Australia raised her, she valued her short time with her.  When her mother died, she moved in with her grandmother in England.   It was wonderful for her to be in a loving relationship again.  Fortunately, her grandmother also shared the information leading her to her silent father in Maine.  This was the first time his identity was revealed to her.
Her plan was to again move to another continent to meet her father.
Unfortunately, he died just months earlier.
Sarah discovered a love for her new home, Haven Harbor, Maine and decided to open her antique business in her new home, the home of her father. 
How does anyone inform the surviving members that she is also part of the family?
Finding her uncle without revealing her true identity was difficult, but Ted Lawrence quickly figured out her true identity.  Ted wisely insisted on a DNA test as proof for the rest of his family.  This wasn't for either Ted or Sarah but the expected disbelief and doubt from Ted's children.
Ted has cancer and knows that he does not have long to live.   He has called his children together.  Ted plans a family reunion including each of his three children's families.  His hope is to mend fences, reveal then new relative and to discuss his intended changes to the will.   His expectations quickly become an impossible task. 
Ted's father, Robert Lawrence had been an outstanding artist. Teaching many of the techniques to Ted as he grew.  Ted is now a reputable artist but will never be the legend of his father.
Sarah is apprehensive about meeting Ted's three grown children.   She knows that the do not get along and their lives take them in varying directions.  For support, her friend Angie agrees to go along and assist in any way she can.  So how would you react to a new will that is now going to include a new cousin?   Apparently, this means that each of them will now receive less inheritance.
Surprisingly Ted dies from possibly eating a bad clam.   Did one of his children purposely give him a clam from a restricted area?   Did Ted complete the new will?   What will happen to the paintings he gave to Sarah?
Lea Wait writes from what she knows.   She lives on the Maine coast and is a fourth generation antiques dealer, much like her characters.  Her mystery series, Shadows Antique Print have been nominated for the Agatha awards.
Tightening the Threads is a fast-paced cozy mystery that is fun to read.   The story is viewed through Angie's eyes as she unweaves the complex lives of Ted and his children.  As an outsider, she does not have the long history of their animosity towards each other. 
Tightening the Threads is a fun, quick, and enchanting mystery woven into a marvelous tapestry.