This is an extremely cozy mystery, perfect for readers who love learning more about the lives and activities of characters. However, this book progressed a bit too slowly for me.

Like many cozy mysteries, Knit of the Living Dead is set in a small town. The setting of Arborville, New Jersey seems to exemplify what living in a small town is like - a close-knit community where everyone knows everyone, where life goes at a slower pace than in the big city. Arborville is a charming community; minus the crime of course!

Ehrhart writes with a lot of detail. Everything from the appearance of background characters to the meals that characters eat is described with care. This paints a very vivid picture of the scenes. I especially appreciate that she took the time to detail the reasoning of the sleuths and how the clues in the mystery fit together.

At the same time, I felt that the detail made the book tedious to read at times. I found myself skimming over some scenes, unfortunately. I think that the fluff could have been cut down to make the book more exciting at key points. There are scenes in the book that could be quite suspenseful, but in my opinion, the additional detail just bogs them down.

This book is a clean mystery, as there is no (explicit) violence and no foul language. There is a brief discussion of romance but it isn't a major part of the story.

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Knit of the Living Dead is book 6 in Peggy Ehrhart’s Knit and Nibble mystery series. Okay, first off, how cute is the cover? This one is set in the fictional town of Arborville, New Jersey. Without giving too much away there’s a knitting group, a yarn blogger, a Halloween murder, a set of friends who play mystery sleuths and plenty of mention of cozy comfort foods. What more could you want from a cozy mystery?

As the story begins, friends Pamela, Bettina and Nell and are dressed up on Halloween night attending the town’s parade down Arborville Avenue which ends with a bonfire in the park. During the festivities a body is discovered nearby behind trees. The victim is dressed as Bo-Peep. Not too satisfied with the local police investigation, the ladies decide to do some investigating of their own. As the story flows there’s a few people who seem suspect and I didn’t guess who dunnit it until the author revealed it.

This is book 6 in the series and while this one reads as a stand-alone I would have liked to read the first book to get more of a feel for these characters.

Knit of the Living Dead was a quick and easy read and I would recommend it to fan of cozy mysteries revolving around knitting. I don’t knit, I crochet but the knitting group in the story Knit and Nibble sounds like fun and I enjoyed the descriptions of the yarns and the stitches etc.

I could also envision the Autumn setting and all the good food mentioned was making me hungry. The book ends with knitting instructions for a Halloween tote as well as a couple of simple recipes for a few of the goodies featured in the story.

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Pamela and her friends are at the bonfire celebrating Halloween when a dead body is discovered. Pamela and Bettina start thinking about who did it. Then a week later another murder occurs. And finding the murder is a priority. As Pamela and Bettina look for clues and pass them to the police and Nell joins their investigation, another murder occurs. They double their efforts. There are a lot of people they don't want it to be but who is it.

I liked this story. I am coming to like Harold more and more. I guess the song "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell is right. "...You don't know what you got till it's gone. They paved paradise and put up a parking lot..." when it comes to Pamela's feelings for Richard.

I kind of figured out who it was. Well, I got it down to two people. The mystery was interesting and the reasoning sound. Although I don't know why the last murder unless it was vengeance. I would have thought the murderer would have been happy to make the last victim suffer rather than kill for vengeance. At least that's what I would do.

I was hoping the pattern for the little Halloween dolls (shown on the cover) would have been given. They are so cute. I look forward to the next book. ( )

Pamela Paterson lives in Arborville, New Jersey and works for a magazine editing articles online. Her daughter attends college in Massachusetts, so it's only her and her two cats, Catrina and Ginger. She's attending a Halloween evening out complete with bonfire, and all her friends are dressed in costume. But when she and her friend Bettina Fraser hear a female screaming, they follow the voice and come across a dead woman. Another friend, Nell, assumes it's her neighbor Mary Lyon, because of the distinctive costume.

But when it's discovered that it's indeed a stranger, they start to wonder if Mary wasn't supposed to be the real victim. What can they do except warn Mary that someone might actually be after her. When she doesn't pay any attention to them, they worry but decide to leave it to the police. That is, until something else happens and now there are more worries than one...

I know; I said I wasn't going to read any more of these, but I figured since I'd already purchased them I may as well go ahead and finish. Actually, once you skip all the parts about eating and dinnerware, the book goes really fast, so there's that. Reading them together as I have, I got tired after book two about how Pamela uses her wedding china, and the color and shape of every dish every piece of food is served on (including the diner, where they use oval plates (does anyone really care?)

There is one thing that grossed me out though; Pamela mentions not once, but twice, how she's been wearing the same clothes all week. Eeeww. Does she have a washing machine? Other clothes? It's bad enough she doesn't care about her physical appearance (yet has time to comment on her friends' looks), but now not caring how wrinkled her clothes are getting? Seriously? Sorry, but I really don't go for bad hygiene, and not changing your clothes falls into that category, even if you work at home (I do, and trust me, I'll wear the same pair of jeans two days, but never more than that). Then there's the fact that she didn't want Richard, but now that he has someone else suddenly he's desirable? Yeah, how's that working for her? So Pamela is really going downhill in my eyes, in all areas.

I also didn't like the fact that she was describing college professors; the men are professional, as in wearing suits and ties, but the women all have grey hair, wear clothes that have no form and wear no makeup. What college is this?

Other than this, the plot was pretty decent, and even though I knew who the murderer was early on, it was still interesting to see how Pamela came to that conclusion. However, I really began to wonder how inept the police in this town were a couple of books ago, because there's never any police presence - except at the initial murder scene. We never see them question anyone; we get all our information secondhand through Bettina. They're never on top of the case and they're never anywhere at all where there might be trouble. What kind of police department is this?

So naturally, Pamela plays both detective and police department, getting the person to admit to her they committed the murder and then holding them until police arrive. You'd think the police would be embarrassed by this, but since they take all the credit, they never are. Well, you get my drift about this series, I hope..

Anyway, since there's only one more to read, I will probably go ahead and do so, and see if the author has decided to allow Pamela to do laundry. ( )

This is the first book in the Knit and Nibble Mystery series that I have read. It's the 6th book in the series. I don't often jump into a series in the middle....if fact, I pretty much always start at book 1 and go from there. But...I made an exception for this one! The front cover and the cute title sucked me right in....and I dove right in and read it! Glad I did...this was a fun Halloween theme cozy!

Arborville is having its annual Halloween parade. Costumes, candy, crowds of revelers....the festivities are all good fun until....

There's always an "until'' in a mystery novel....

Little Bo Peep is found dead....right in the middle of the party.....strangled with loops of yarn wound tightly around her neck.

Who strangled the peep right outta Bo Peep?? Pamela and her bestie Bettina....and the rest of the Knit and Nibble gang.... are on the case!

This book was so much fun to read that I'm backtracking to start this series at the beginning! The characters are fun and I like the background theme. The book also includes knitting instructions and recipes! :)

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Kensington. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.** ( )