Cutwork (Needlecraft Mysteries Series #7) Book

SPOILERS! It was a struggle to read this book. In the past books, the main character Betsy did most of the sleuthing through talking to other characters. In this one, she didn't. About two thirds of the book was other characters talking about the person who died. I didn't feel the title had anything to do with the murder except maybe both things were cut. In the previous books, the needlework was directly tied to the murder. I almost didn't finish the book, I didn't like any of the characters and still can't quite understand Jill and Lars' relationship. And the guy Betsy was seeing, there could have been so much more added to their relationship if Betsy had done more legwork than at the very end of the story.

In the previous book, #6, was glad that Jill finally told whining Betsy to either claim being a sleuth or drop it. In this book, Betsy starts out saying she's a sleuth. Really? What happened to the shop? And she got so serious about it that she didn't do it in this book. There was no real interaction with the other characters in her shop. The old man who was recently hired didn't make an appearance at all and the way Shelley reacted to her new beau being pegged just bothered me. He's a killer and she's still pining after him. This was a hot mess and it took so long for me to get through the huge cast of characters, I didn't know who's story it was. If I pick up the next book in the series, it will be maybe next year. I did like the patterns in the previous books, except in this book because it didn't fit with the murder.