This book really really rubbed my the wrong way.I believe Sefton when she said she wanted to tackle this topic with care (one of the characters gets "attacked" which is code for raped which is kind of danced around in the book) but I didn't like how it was presented in this book.Also, I started these books as light, fun, quick reads, and this felt out of place in that line. Maybe the series has been moving towards more serious and I just didn't pick up on it until now, but it rubbed me the wrong way. I wanted to like it. And I wanted to have deep feels for everything going on, but mostly I felt mad. This seventh novel in the Knitting Mystery series centers on the aftereffects of sexual battery, especially as these effects involve a death and the main character's best friend. As in Sefton's last novel, most of the action takes place "in the wings" and is merely recounted to the main character (Kelly) and, therefore, to the reader. It's an example of why writers are told to "show, don't tell" if they want to really engage their readers. In this case, Sefton missed several opportunities to show us, rather than telling us. Perhaps she made this choice because she finds it hard to write believable action scenes, or perhaps she doesn't think the reader will believe that all of the significant action could have taken place in Kelly's presence. Either way, the technique undermines the intensity of the book and feels like a bit of a cheat.
