DEATH BY CASHMERE

A quartet of knitters probes the death of a restless young researcher on Cape Cod.

Childhood sweetheart Tony Framingham predicted that Izzy Chambers would become “a female Atticus Finch.” But his crystal ball didn’t foresee that they’d both come back to Sea Harbor, Tony to help his widowed mother Margarethe with the family business and disillusioned corporate lawyer Izzy as proprietor of Seaside Knitting Studio. Although her aunt, Nell Endicott, frets about Izzy’s upstairs tenant, former wild child Angelina Archer, Izzy assures her that Angie has a respectable job planning an exhibit for the Sea Harbor Historical Museum; that she is dating reliable Pete Halloran; and that she even spends time listening to dotty old Angus McPherron talk about the old days. So when Angie’s drugged and pushed off the breakwater, Izzy and Nell meet fellow yarn buffs—80-something Birdie Favazza and Pete’s lobsterwoman sister Cass—over Nell’s soup and Birdie’s wine to dispute the prevailing wisdom that the malefactor must have been a passing stranger. And since the creepy town watchman, George Gideon, is certainly no protection, the four stout needlewomen agree that it’s up to them to root out the menace that threatens tranquil Sea Harbor.

Even the genuine charms of its characters can’t save Goldenbaum’s series debut from its glacial pace and obvious ending. Her indecision about whether to make Izzy or Nell the headliner further tangles this cozy skein.