Seams Like Murder (Grace Designs Mysteries)

Seams Like Murder (Grace Designs Mysteries)
Tilly Wallace, 2023

Premise: Grace is hoping that things are about to turn around for her struggling boutique, but when she's accused of a client's murder, everything gets more complicated. 

I picked this up cheap on Kindle on a whim. Every so often I try a new historical cozy mystery in hopes of discovering a new obsession. They are usually underwhelming, and I often don't even bother to review them.

This book was good, but it didn't quite scratch that itch for me. It's set in 1920 in New Zealand, and the setting puts me in mind of Phryne Fisher, but Grace is no Phryne (probably for the best).

She has a minor supernatural ability which seemed less important than I felt like it should have. She has a complicated and slightly mysterious past having to do with the truth about her deceased husband-who-she-probably-wasn't-married-to that I didn't enjoy; it was teased constantly and then not actually spelled out in this book, unless I missed something. Rounding out the requisite cozy mystery recurring cast are her sketchy brother-in-law, an obvious future beau in the police force, an elderly father and a young son for her household, an elderly patron/mentor, a shop assistant, and a lesbian childhood friend. 

That last is a bit weird, only because the fact that Grace is so extremely comfortable with her friend feels a tiny bit forced by the modern author rather than completely true to the time. It's certainly not impossible for that to have been true, but it's explained that most people don't approve of her, and there's not really any explanation or reason given for Grace to be so accepting. It would be fine if there had just been an aside that she wasn't sure when the friend first came out to her but then she got over it because of the childhood friends bit, but I don't remember that (I did read this book in pieces at a busy time, though, so I could have missed it.) It just pushes into the "my historical character is better than her time" trope that sets my teeth on edge.

The mystery is fine; the bits about her dress shop are interesting to me as a seamstress myself. It was overall a fun little read, but there were enough bits that rubbed me subtly the wrong way that I don't know whether I'll try out the next one. 

2 Stars - An Okay Book