Book Review of The Tapestry Bag by Isabella Muir

The Tapestry Bag by Isabella Muir

This English cozy, amateur sleuth mystery features justice, redemption, and a little bit of revenge. It’s the first in the Sussex crime series featuring a young librarian named Janie Juke. Her friend Zara has disappeared, and Janie doesn’t feel the police are taking the case seriously. So, Janie goes looking for her friend.

The story features a good mystery. It’s set in what I believe is a fictional town called Tamarisk Bay in England in 1969. References to things happening in America and around the world center the book historically and add to the ambience.  

Janie Juke is a librarian in a bookmobile. She’s young and married. About halfway through the book she finds out she’s pregnant. Her friend Zara has her life torn apart when Joel, her boyfriend, is killed in a hit and run accident while jogging. Zara shuts down. Janie takes her friend to live with her and husband, Greg. But after a year, Zara disappears without a word. Greg tries to convince Janie to let it go, but instead Janie spends the next several months looking for Zara.

Each chapter is opened with a quote from an Agatha Christie novel called The Mysterious Affair at Styles, featuring Hercule Poirot. Each quote is a foreshadowing of the chapter to come. For me, this feature neither added to nor distracted from the story. It’s significant in another way, as the novel is the handbook Janie uses for her detective work. She constantly wonders how Poirot would handle a situation.

Unfortunately, I didn’t like Janie Juke. She came across as rude, selfish, and bullheaded. Janie was especially rude to people she needed information from but wasn’t getting it. She hides what she’s doing from her husband, who is upset every time he realizes she won’t let go of Zara’s disappearance. Neither one in the relationship tries very hard to see the other’s point of view. Greg doesn’t try to understand or support Janie’s obsession and Janie doesn’t try to bring Greg into it in a way he might be of help. Granted, some of these traits help her solve the case, but that wasn’t enough to endear her to me.

The writing flows well. Few notable typos. No egregious technical issues. The book is clean. No profanity, no violence, and no sex. A true cozy. And I wanted to keep reading to find out why Zara had disappeared. The ending surprised me, so a good job not telegraphing it too early.

I put this at number 9 due to the good mystery and good writing.

1. The Letter Keeper by Charles Martin
2. Right Behind You by Lisa Gardner
3. Moonlight Awakens by John Matthew Walker
4. Win by Harlen Coben
5. Murder Board by Brian Shea
6. Anna: A Cliff Ford Mystery by Terry Toler
7. The Man Burned by Winter by Pete Zacharias
8. Born to Die by Lisa Jackson
9. The Tapestry Bag by Isabella Muir
10. The Mechanic by Tom Fowler
11. Into the Flames by Liz Bradford
12. You Are Invited by Sarah A Denzil
13. Girl, Alone by Blake Pierce
14. One Night in Sedona by Carrie Latimer.
15. Coffin Cove by Jackie Elliott

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