At the end of the day, Jo pays Cuddles and leaves for a celebration dinner with Carrie and her family. When Jo returns to the store, she finds Cuddles dead in her storeroom and a police lieutenant who wants to know what she has against clowns. Jo can’t imagine why the police think she killed Cuddles; she is new in town and didn’t even know Cuddles’s name was Kyle until the police told her.

Someone has been “helping” the police, though and has told police that Jo had unpleasant business with Kyle’s uncle while in New York, even though Jo had no idea the two were related. Someone also sends an anonymous note to the police suggesting they check into the accident that killed Jo’s husband. With the encouragement of her crafting groups, Jo begins to look into who killed Cuddles hoping to clear her own name, just as she is beginning to make a name for herself in her new hometown.

Wreath of Deception is the first in a new series of books based around Jo’s Craft Corner. Jo is a likable, if tentative, heroine whose uncertainty with her new life is understandable. She doesn’t seem like one to dwell on the past, and though she misses Mike, hasn’t left his death stop her from going on with her life. Carrie is a good opposite for Jo, a firmly established figure in the community, with a family on whom she dotes.

Carrie’s husband Dan and her son Charlie are having growing pains, but it is these problems that place Charlie in the position to help Jo, and save her life, though participating in an amateur murder investigation is a lot to ask of a teenager, and if Dan doesn’t like Charlie participating in theater, he is not likely to be keen on this pursuit. Jo makes some good, educated guesses, regarding Kyle’s murder, and a subsequent murder, and easily makes friends with people who readily share information with her.

There is a bit of unexpected at the end given that Jo hadn’t spent a lot of time during the book “talking with” Mike from the other side. However, Wreath of Deception is a good start to what could shape up to be a very pleasant series.

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry