Love is in the air in Sea Harbor, Massachusetts, which is the home of the Seaside Knitters who have all pitched in to knit a gorgeous wedding shawl for Izzy Chambers, whose wedding is only in a few weeks. As Izzy's wedding will be held in her aunt Nell's backyard, Nell has hired a gardner, Claire (who used to live in the area and has recently moved back), to landscape the area. In a short amount of time, Claire has transformed the area into a beautiful space befitting a wedding.

Unwittingly, though, a local writer stirs up bad memories when he's asked to give a talk at the local bookstore. Danny discusses how some of the best fiction springs from actual events, and he uses an example from Sea Harbor's history - the case of a Harmony Farrow, a young girl who died on the night of her high school graduation by drowning at the nearby Markham Quarry. For many, the case is ancient history; for others (such as Claire), it seems like Harmony died only yesterday and the discussions take them back to a dark period in their life.

The general pall surrounding Izzy's wedding is complicated even more when her hair stylist, Tiffany, is found dead at the hair salon. Tiffany had been acting strange lately (she had recently missed an appointment with Izzy and Nell, she got emotional at the rescheduled consultation), but no one can understand who would want Tiffany dead. The police chalk up her murder to a robbery gone wrong, but who would rob a hair salon?

As is wont to happen in small towns, rumours quickly swirl. Tiffany was best friends with Harmony Farrow; could the two deaths be connected - even decades apart? And could Claire's sudden return possibly be related? Or are these the kinds of coincidences that only happen in movies?

Sally Goldenbaum's story-telling is exquisite in THE WEDDING SHAWL. The story moves along beautifully, and she has an amazing ability to set a scene. As I read along, it was all too easy to picture the salon, the knitting shop, the bookstore, or whatever else she was describing. It was also easy to imagine each character, as each one was multi-dimensional.

The downsides of THE WEDDING SHAWL, though, were the mystery and how it came together in the end. I appreciate mysteries that I can solve along with the protagonist, and the Seaside Knitters uncovered clues that were not only not revealed to the reader (leaving the reader completely unable to solve the mystery) but were also not things the reader could have possibly known or intuited on their own. When I get to the end of the book and find out "whodunit" and discover that I was unable to play along with the characters even if I had wanted to, it takes the fun out of having read a mystery. On a slightly less critical note, I felt that the red herring character was overplayed.

Book Summary

Readers can't help but get entangled in this national bestselling series... Izzy Chambers is about to get married, but much remains to be done. Then the wedding plans get complicated when the wedding party's hair stylist begins missing appointments. When she's found dead, things really begin to unravel. Rumors circulate about the stylist's past and her connection to an unsolved murder years ago. All the Seaside Knitters really know is they must rally to find some answers, so Izzy can don the wedding shawl they're surprising her with- and replace the whispers about town with wedding bells.