Something Borrowed, Something Bleu (Home Crafting Mystery Series #4) »

A former resident of the Pacific Northwest where her novels are set, Cricket McRae has always dabbled in the kind of practical home crafts that were once necessary to everyday life. The magical chemistry of making soap, the satisfaction of canning garden produce, and the sensuous side of fiber arts like spinning and knitting are just a few of the reasons these activities have fascinated her since childhood.

Love—and smelly cheese—is in the air. Sophie Mae accepted Barr's marriage proposal, but when her mother finds a cryptic suicide note her brother wrote two decades earlier, Sophie Mae makes a trip to her old hometown to help unravel the mystery.

As Sophie Mae pokes around in other people's business while learning the finer points of artisanal cheese making, a new murder is committed—and it's evident that aging cheese isn't the only thing in Spring Creek that doesn't pass the smell test.

Publishers Weekly

Artisan cheese making and a really stinky cold case (or two) occupy soap maker Sophie Mae Reynolds of Cadyville, Wash., in Macrae’s well-constructed fourth Home Crafting mystery (after 2009’s Spin a Wicked Web). Sophie heads home to Spring Creek, Colo., after her mother, Anna Belle Watson, receives a disturbing letter, lost for 18 years, that never reached its intended recipient. Sophie Mae’s late brother, Bobby Lee, wrote the letter to his teen sweetheart, Tabby Atwood, shortly before hanging himself. Tabby, now married to Joe Bines, Bobby Lee’s best friend, is shocked when Sophie shows up at their dairy to take Tabby’s cheese-making class and show her the letter. The plot thickens after someone fatally beans Joe with a glass bottle of heavy cream. Likable characters and an easy-to-follow plot that doesn’t require knowledge of previous entries in the series are a plus. (July)