ONE FOR THE HOOKS

4 stars out of 5

Fifty-ish widow Molly Pink returns home to find the back door wide open and her precious pets outside - clearly, someone's been inside. She's got a phone. Does she call the police? Does she go pound on her neighbor's door for help? Nope. She picks up a makeshift "weapon" and charges inside all alone. Right off the bat, nonsense typical of the heroine in a cozy novel - and the biggest reason I don't exactly cozy up to the genre. With a heavy sigh, I thought to myself this was the start of a pattern for disaster. 

But I love to crochet, which is what attracted me to the book in the first place - so I kept going. And I'm happy to say that in very short order, Molly, and an entertaining and clever plot, had me hooked. Not only is she the organizer of the Tarzana Hookers crochet group, she's developed a bit of a reputation for sleuthing (honed, no doubt, in the 13 previous books in this series). When a friend tells her that a local homeowner wants to get rid of an enormous amount of yarn, she consults with the owners of the California bookstore at which she works (in part managing the yarn shop inside), and off she goes for a looksee. The owner, who inherited the property, wants to turn part of the house into rental units - and the first thing Molly learns is that the neighbors are in a snit about it. 

But then, the woman who is helping the owner get the rooms ready to let gets bombarded by a drone - first by hitting her on the head and, as she falls, dropping a huge pile of smelly garbage on her. To the rescue comes Molly's former BFF, homicide detective Barry Greenberg. Since their breakup, he's been keeping his distance, but there are hints that the old flame could rise from the ashes at any given minute even though Molly has a new main squeeze named Mason, lawyer to the stars. He's hot to trot toward marriage, but so far she's holding steady at a canter.

Meantime, the older of Molly's two sons has unexpectedly returned home to quite literally take over her house, complete with a pregnant significant other and an attitude that would guarantee I'd kick him to the curb (if Molly has a fault, it's that she can't seem to say no to anybody). But since she spends a lot of time at work, sharing stories with her crocheting buddies and out following clues on behalf of her once-loved detective, she seems content to let her son have the run of her place. 

I was bothered a bit by some repetition - descriptions and utterings by characters in one chapter that had appeared in earlier chapters. But all's well that ends well, bringing a few gasps and a twist that most likely will get the attention of series readers (as for me, I was just happy that she finally said yes to something). The end also brought a couple of nice surprises, one in the form of a tasty-sounding recipe and the other the pattern for the "Serendipity scarf" that was featured in the story. Overall, I'm very happy to have read it - and yes, I'll be watching for No. 16. Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy. Good job!

One for the Hooks by Betty Hechtman (Crooked Lane Books, August 2021); 320 pp.