The Silence of the Llamas

“The Black Sheep knitting series has it all: Friendship, knitting, murder, and the occasional recipe create the perfect pattern. Great fun.”

—
New York Times
bestselling author Jayne Ann Krentz

Praise for
Till Death Do Us Purl

“An entertaining mystery.”

—
Kirkus Reviews

“[A] smooth fourth knitting cozy.”

—Publishers Weekly

“
Till Death Do Us Purl
has intriguing mysteries and a slew of interesting characters.”

—
Single Titles

“Enthusiastic, engrossing, and exciting.”

—The Mystery Gazette

Praise for
A Stitch Before Dying

“Sure to hook cozy fans.”

—
Publishers Weekly

“Congenial characters and a mystery that keeps you guessing.”

—
Kirkus Reviews

“Sure to attract readers of Sally Goldenbaum and Barbara Bretton.”

—
Library Journal

Praise for
Knit, Purl, Die

“The fast-paced plot will keep even non-knitters turning the pages.”

—
Publishers Weekly

“An intriguing mystery with a few surprising twists and turns.”

—
Romance Reviews Today

“An engaging story full of tight knit friendships and a needling mystery.”

—
Fresh Fiction

Praise for
While My Pretty One Knits

“The crafty first of a cozy new series. . . . The friendships among the likable knitters . . . help make Canadeo’s crime yarn a charmer.”

—
Publishers Weekly

“Fans of Monica Ferris . . . will enjoy this engaging amateur sleuth as much for its salute to friendship as to Lucy’s inquiry made one stitch at a time.”

—
The Mystery Gazette

“Delightful. Enchanting. Humorous. Impressive. Witty. Those are just a few adjectives to describe Anne Canadeo’s effervescent cozy debut.”

—
Book Cave

“A unique murder mystery. . . . Fast-paced and electrifying. . . . A series you are sure to enjoy.”

—
Fresh Fiction

“The diverse group of friends and their heartwarming camaraderie is what makes
While My Pretty One Knits
an enjoyable read.”

—
Kwips and Kritique

Maggie Messina
, owner of the Black Sheep Knitting Shop, is a retired high school art teacher who runs her little slice of knitters’ paradise with the kind of vibrant energy that leaves her friends dazzled! From novice to pro, knitters come to Maggie as much for her up-to-the-minute offerings like organic wool as for her encouragement and friendship. And Maggie’s got a deft touch when it comes to unraveling mysteries, too.

Lucy Binger
left Boston when her marriage ended, and found herself shifting gears to run her graphic design business from the coastal cottage she and her sister inherited. After big-city living, she now finds contentment on a front porch in tiny Plum Harbor, knitting with her closest friends.

Dana Haeger
is a psychologist with a busy local practice. A stylishly polished professional with a quick wit, she slips out to Maggie’s shop whenever her schedule allows—after all, knitting is the best form of therapy!

Suzanne Cavanaugh
is a typical working supermom—a realtor with a million demands on her time, from coaching soccer to showing houses to attending the PTA. But she carves out a little “me” time with the Black Sheep Knitters.

Phoebe Meyers
, a college gal complete with magenta highlights and nose stud, lives in the apartment above Maggie’s shop. She’s Maggie’s indispensable helper (when she’s not in class)—and part of the new generation of young knitters.

Epigraph

Acknowledgments

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Epilogue

Notes from the Black Sheep Knitting Shop Bulletin Board

Laughing Llama Perfect Pie Crust

Carrot Muffins with Applesauce

About Anne Canadeo

Good fences make good neighbors.

—
ROBERT FROST

A story is told as much by silence as by speech.

—
SUSAN GRIFFIN

I would like to thank Paige Gaffett for the helpful information about the production of handmade yarns and exotic fibers. I can’t imagine a more beautiful, or unspoiled, location for such an enterprise than Northern Light Fibers, LLC, located on Abrams Farm, Block Island, Rhode Island, where I researched this book. You can visit Northern Lights on the web at:
www.northlightfibers.com
to learn more about their handmade products and classes.

I’d also like to thank some good friends for donating recipes: Linda Bryce Sheldon, health coach and nutritionist, who passed along instructions for Carrot Muffins with Applesauce, and Reverend Mark Bigelow for the Perfect Pie Crust recipe. I have personally tested both and the outcomes were delicious. (Yes, all this research is tough work. But somebody has to do it.)

J
ust this last stop . . . please?” Suzanne reached over the driver’s seat and grabbed Lucy’s shoulder, nearly causing her to veer into a field of pick-your-own pumpkins.

“Suzanne, calm down—”

“But they’re gigantic. You never see pumpkins that big at the supermarket.”

“We’ve already bought enough stuff to open our own supermarket.” Dana sat beside Lucy in front and suddenly turned to look back at Suzanne—as if they were two parents, calming a child on a long car ride, Lucy thought. “You’re a shopaholic on a farm stand binge today, Suzanne. One more stop and we’ll definitely be enabling.”

Dana’s diagnosis was in jest, of course, though a PhD did qualify her to offer the opinion.

And it was true. Lucy could barely see through the Jeep’s rear window. The cargo space overflowed with autumn’s bounty—huge pots of mums, kale plants, and enough
cornstalks to decorate every house on Suzanne’s block. A pile of pumpkins, bushels of apples and vegetables, jars of apple butter, and containers of cider filled the cargo area, along with a homemade pie, balanced on Suzanne’s lap.

“Thanks, Dana.” Suzanne’s tone was grumpy. “Joy sucker.”

Lucy laughed. “Sorry, pal. She’s right . . . and we’re already way late.”

Suzanne seemed to have forgotten that their leisurely drive through the country had a definite destination: a fiber festival at the Laughing Llama Farm.

Suzanne sat back and sighed. “Fine. We don’t want to keep the llamas waiting.”

“Never mind the llamas. What about Maggie? I’m surprised she didn’t call yet to track us down.” Dana checked her phone, then glanced at Lucy.

“She’s probably too busy. Luckily.”

“I hope we don’t miss her spinning. Then we’ll really be in trouble.” Lucy couldn’t tell if Dana was kidding or truly worried.

Lucy thought Maggie might wonder where they were but wouldn’t really be upset if they missed her performance. They had all seen her spin dozens of times at the knitting shop she ran in the village.

Lucy, Dana, and Suzanne, along with Maggie and her assistant, Phoebe, met officially every Thursday night to stitch, chat, and unwind—either at the Black Sheep Knitting Shop, which Maggie owned, or at one of their houses. Their meeting time was a sanctuary, carved into busy schedules, a time to share their triumphs and challenges, in knitting as well as real
life. Though sometimes it was hard to tell where one realm left off and the other started.

Dana had been looking out the passenger side window and suddenly turned to Lucy. “The farm should be coming up on the right, a few miles more.”

Lucy had never been out to the farm before, though Dana had come out several times to see her old college friend Ellie Krueger, who had bought the property with her husband, Ben. Suzanne was familiar with the place, too, since she was in real-estate sales and the farm had been on the market a while.

Ellie and Ben had recently moved to Plum Harbor from Boston, trading in their urban lives for a new start in the idyllic countryside. They had taken over the farm in July, but the festival was their grand opening event. Dana had quickly introduced Ellie to the Black Sheep Knitting Shop and its inner circle.

Ellie had even come to a few knitting group meetings over the past few months, though starting up her business and living some distance out of town kept her from being a regular member.

Dana and Ellie had lost touch over the years but had reconnected on Facebook. When Ellie had come out to visit the previous spring, she and her husband fell in love with Plum Harbor and the farming community just beyond the village center. She and Ben had been talking about relocating to the country and starting some sort of home-based business. Ellie had run a successful public relations firm for years and recently had sold the company for a good price. She was more than ready to turn a page in her life and start a whole new chapter.

Combining Ellie’s love of knitting and spinning with Ben’s
entrepreneurial experience, they’d decided to look for a small farm where they could keep a llama herd and profit from the sale of the animals’ coats and from Ellie’s hand-spun yarns. This farm was perfectly suited to their plan, and a moneymaking apple orchard on the property made it even more attractive.