Saturday, November 20, 2021

Book & Audio Review: The Vampire Knitting Club by Nancy Warren

The Vampire Knitting Club

Author:
Nancy Warren
Narrator: Sarah Zimmerman
Series: Vampire Knitting Club (Book 1)
Publication: Tantor Audio (June 11, 2019); Ambleside Publishing (October 4, 2018)
Length: 6 hours and 6 minutes; 226 p.

Description: Vampires who knit. A troublemaking witch. Who killed Granny — and is she really dead?

At a crossroads between a cringe-worthy past (Todd the Toad) and an uncertain future (she's not exactly homeless, but it's close), Lucy Swift travels to Oxford to visit her grandmother. With Gran's undying love to count on and Cardinal Woolsey's, Gran's knitting shop, to keep her busy, Lucy can catch her breath and figure out what she's going to do.

Except it turns out that Gran is the undying. Or at least, the undead. But there's a death certificate. And a will, leaving the knitting shop to Lucy. And a lot of people going in and out who never use the door—including Gran, who is just as loving as ever, and prone to knitting sweaters at warp speed, late at night. What exactly is going on?

When Lucy discovers that Gran did not die peacefully in her sleep, but was murdered, she has to bring the killer to justice without tipping off the law that there's no body in the grave. Between a hot 600-year-old vampire and a dishy detective inspector, both of whom always seem to be there for her, Lucy finds her life getting more complicated than a triple cable cardigan. The only one who seems to know what's going on is her cat ... or is it ... her familiar?

My Thoughts: Lucy Swift is having a run of bad luck. Her job is downsized. Her boyfriend butt-dials her while having sex with another woman. And, after running to her Grandmother in Oxford, she learns that her Grandmother had died three weeks earlier. 

Now Lucy finds herself the new owner of a knitting store, but she absolutely can't knit. She also finds that her Grandmother was murdered by someone who broke into her shop, was saved by a vampire, and turned into a vampire herself. She also learns that the vampires routinely meet in the back room of the shop for their own knitting club.

Lucy wants to find out who murdered her grandmother even if everyone, including the police, believe she died of natural causes. She has quite a few suspects. There is a real estate developer who wants to buy her grandmother's shop and other near-by shops. It's an all-or-none deal and Lucy and her grandmother don't want to sell. There have been shop break-ins and an ancient grimoire is missing. Lucy didn't even know that she had a family heritage as a witch. She's suspicious of a new cousin she didn't even know she had because she might be the one who wants the grimoire.

I liked Lucy. She is very uncertain about what she wants for her future when she arrives in Oxford. She wasn't expecting to inherit the knitting shop and doesn't know if she wants to do so. She knows business but not knitting. But she doesn't want to disappoint her grandmother either. 

She solves the murders, and there ends up being three counting her grandmother, and finds a future, a couple of potential boyfriends, family, and a cute black cat. This is the first of a thirteen book series. I think Sarah Zimmerman did a great job with the voices and accents.

Favorite Quote:
Gran wanted me to run her knitting shop and spend my spare time reading an ancient family diary I barely remembered. And I thought my life in the corporate cubicle had been dull.
I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

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