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Jeanie's Reviews > The Lacemaker's Secret
The Lacemaker's Secret (Chloe Ellefson Mystery #9)
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I really enjoyed this latest Chloe Ellefson novel, how well the author skillfully weaves the past and present together to sd in this novel, people who have left behind lives and family members to find a better life in America.
A pair of sisters in Belgium were sent to a convent school after the death of their father; their mother passed away years earlier. At the convent, one of the things every girl learned was how to make lace. It was one of the ways the convent supported itself, as Belgium lace was one the finest in the world. One sister found her calling as a nun, and the other as a lace maker, who would begin designing her own patterns to make lace from. The description of how the lace was made is stunning, making each accomplished lace maker a true artist.
Chloe Ellefson, a curator at the living history museum, Old World Wisconsin, is to Door County for a week to help prepare a list of furnishings for the new Belgium farm exhibit. She is looking forward to learning more about the Belgian customs and lives in 1800's Wisconsin. She also looks forward to meeting Elise, a woman she had worked with years earlier, who is visiting the area to learn more about Belgian lace. Elise has secrets she isn't willing to share, and at times her secrets seem to be dangerous lies to Chloe.
When almost at the B&B, Chloe spots a farm with an old summer kitchen, a separate structure from the boarded up farmhouse. Interested in the structure, she stops to examine it. Sometimes she is able to feel the emotions of those who have inhabited a place in the past, so she is open to those feelings. Finding only positive expressions, she looks in the oven of the kitchen, large enough to bake many loaves of bread at a time, but finds a body, the cousin of the woman who owns the neighboring B&B.
Chloe has helped solve murders and other mysteries in the past, and has no desire to do so now. She wants to stay focused on the Belgian farm she is there to study. As other threats are faced, however, then Elise disappears, she is drawn into the series of occurrences.
There are several plot twists, both with the history of the early settlers and how they relate to their descendents, including the woman who owns the B&B and her murdered cousin at the neighboring farm, as well as the present-day mysteries. I enjoy how well-written and plotted this novel is, and how fascinating both past and present are. The "present" setting is in the 1980's, a simpler time for technology, when we had to rely primarily on personal intellect and study of real print books, to learn and determine courses of action. I was unable to find who the real killer was, and was surprised at the solution and satisfied with each of the other situation outcomes. I highly recommend this to anyone who appreciates historical cozy mysteries that are intriguing and informative; one does not need to read the earlier books in the series to fully enjoy this one.
I received an e-arc from the publisher and this is my honest review.
A pair of sisters in Belgium were sent to a convent school after the death of their father; their mother passed away years earlier. At the convent, one of the things every girl learned was how to make lace. It was one of the ways the convent supported itself, as Belgium lace was one the finest in the world. One sister found her calling as a nun, and the other as a lace maker, who would begin designing her own patterns to make lace from. The description of how the lace was made is stunning, making each accomplished lace maker a true artist.
Chloe Ellefson, a curator at the living history museum, Old World Wisconsin, is to Door County for a week to help prepare a list of furnishings for the new Belgium farm exhibit. She is looking forward to learning more about the Belgian customs and lives in 1800's Wisconsin. She also looks forward to meeting Elise, a woman she had worked with years earlier, who is visiting the area to learn more about Belgian lace. Elise has secrets she isn't willing to share, and at times her secrets seem to be dangerous lies to Chloe.
When almost at the B&B, Chloe spots a farm with an old summer kitchen, a separate structure from the boarded up farmhouse. Interested in the structure, she stops to examine it. Sometimes she is able to feel the emotions of those who have inhabited a place in the past, so she is open to those feelings. Finding only positive expressions, she looks in the oven of the kitchen, large enough to bake many loaves of bread at a time, but finds a body, the cousin of the woman who owns the neighboring B&B.
Chloe has helped solve murders and other mysteries in the past, and has no desire to do so now. She wants to stay focused on the Belgian farm she is there to study. As other threats are faced, however, then Elise disappears, she is drawn into the series of occurrences.
There are several plot twists, both with the history of the early settlers and how they relate to their descendents, including the woman who owns the B&B and her murdered cousin at the neighboring farm, as well as the present-day mysteries. I enjoy how well-written and plotted this novel is, and how fascinating both past and present are. The "present" setting is in the 1980's, a simpler time for technology, when we had to rely primarily on personal intellect and study of real print books, to learn and determine courses of action. I was unable to find who the real killer was, and was surprised at the solution and satisfied with each of the other situation outcomes. I highly recommend this to anyone who appreciates historical cozy mysteries that are intriguing and informative; one does not need to read the earlier books in the series to fully enjoy this one.
I received an e-arc from the publisher and this is my honest review.
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