The Postman Always Purls Twice by Anne Canadeo is an Extra Cozy Cozy Mystery

The Postman Always Purls Twice is the seventh book in the Black Sheep Knitting Mystery series. I have read them all and am constantly checking the library to see if the latest one is in. These are extra-cozy cozies. In each of them, a group of women get together to knit, chat, and eat delicious food. Somewhere along the line, someone is murdered, and the women pool their resources to figure out who did it and why. There's not much gore, and the victim is usually someone the women like, but not someone the reader has necessarily gotten too fond of. In other words, they're perfect for those times when you just want a really relaxed read. It's like snuggling in a warm blanket.

The focus in these is really on the friendship between the women. They generally walk over to Maggie's shop, Blacksheep Knitting, at least once a day to exchange news and speculate, often carrying something edible—this is in addition to the regularly scheduled meet and knit. They chat, exchange news about their lives, and generally enjoy being together. The Postman Always Purls Twice is no exception. In this one, a studio is filming in Maggie's Black Sheep Knitting shop, and a series of suspicious accidents has everyone on the alert even before someone dies. Feeling a proprietary interest in things, the women get to work right away. With an entire film's worth of people to suspect, there is no shortage of suspects.

Much as I enjoy these books, there is one caveat: Each and every one of them has several typing errors. This one has what looks as a Find-Replace error running through the whole book. I can more or less ignore them, but they are there. Also, Anne Canadeo has yet to meet a sentence she can't fragment. That is a little harder to overlook. For me, the atmosphere and friendship overrides the grammar and punctuation concerns, but others may find it harder to overlook.

I will say, though, that she has recovered nicely from her desire to show everyone's texts and emails. The first couple of books were rougher going as each email would summarize events that had already been described in the book, usually right before the email or text. Now, if someone texts, she just writes "she texted" rather than detailing the text.

If you're looking for a really relaxing cozy with good friends working together and can overlook some grammatical faux pas, The Black Sheep Murder Mystery books are perfect.