by Barb, in a B&B on Cape Cod with 20 of her closest family members for Thanksgiving
Many of you know the Wickeds lost a good friend this summer. Lea Wait was the author of two mystery series, along with several books of historical fiction for children.
The last book in her Mainely Needlepoint series, Thread and Buried, was released on Tuesday.
Our friends over at Maine Crime Writers have run a series of posts to celebrate the release of Thread and Buried. Lea’s dear friend Kaitlyn Dunnett provided a lightly edited series of the emails Lea sent her as she wrote the book here and here. And Lea’s editor, John Scognamiglio (also editor to all the Wickeds except Sherry), wrote a lovely tribute about working with Lea here.
Our friends over a Miss Demeanors reproduced the words I spoke about Lea at the recent New England Crime Bake here. I was honored to be asked to do this by the 2019 co-chairs Edith Maxwell and Michele Dorsey.
Reviewing Thread and Buried here, Kaitlyn Dunnett says she was concerned about the quality of the book because she knew how sick Lea was as she wrote it. However, Kaitlyn reports, “I worried for nothing. True professional that she was, with a clever, inventive mind and incredible determination, she left us with yet another excellent mystery. There are plenty of twists and turns and a satisfying conclusion, plus a couple of tasty recipes added on at the end.”
So if you’re a fan of Lea’s books, purchase Thread and Buried or borrow it from your library. If you don’t know the books, to celebrate the new release Kensington has put most of Lea’s backlist in the Mainely Needlepoint series on sale for $1.99 on Kobo and Amazon.
Readers: We hope you enjoy Thread and Buried and that in this crazy, holiday season you get a little time to do something you love.
How sad that this will be her last book. But it is wonderful that her stories will live on even though she is no longer here. I wish I had met her.
She was a lovely person.
Oh my! I didn’t realize she had passed. RIP Lea. Thank you for the wonderful stories about Angie and her friends.
Thanks to Edith’s mentioning Lea Wait on her Facebook page, I ended up picking up the book she wrote as Cornelia Kidd, ‘Death and a Pot of Chowder’. I read it and I just loved it. It made me very sad that it would be the only book in the series because I could see how she could take the series in a whole lot of murderously fun ways.
Then I picked up the first book in the Mainely Needlepoint series. I read it and loved that one too. Despite not knowing the first thing about needlepoint (and for some reason getting called out on that fact by my sister when I posted my Goodreads review of the book on my Facebook page), I was really drawn into the book and it was interesting to learn the basic facts about the craft that were in the first novel.
Recently I was in a B&N store and came across Book 2 in the series so I grabbed that one up too. I plan to make my way through the series because while I may have come to an appreciation of Lea’s talents too late in the game, I definitely want to read all she had to offer the mystery readers of the world.
I’m glad I helped you discover her writing, Jay.
And I’m glad that I paid attention your posts Edith!
I really loved the Cornelia Kidd book. Lea’s plan was to have the two half-sisters alternate as the POV character every other book, which I thought would have been the perfect insider/outsider view.
Barbara,
Obviously I didn’t know that tidbit so now I’m a bit sadder over the loss of the series because that would’ve been a great way to explore the settings of the series.
I’ve read many tributes to Lea since she passed. I saw her once in passing at a conference and I wish I could have met her.
You would have really liked her. She was wonderfully supportive of other writers.
I have loved every book in the Mainely Needlepoint series and I will definitely be getting this one to read. She was a wonderful author, person and friend based on all the tributes posted. I wish I had met her. Hugs to all of you who will miss her dearly.
Thank you so much. I hope you love Thread and Buried.
Here’s to Lea!
Lea was an amazing woman. I enjoyed reading all the tributes to her — thanks for sharing the links.
I was happy to share the links. So many people are supporting this book.
This is why I love the mystery community. So many people coming together to promote a book for a friend who can’t.
The mystery community is amazing.
Lea was such an inspiration. Thanks for this heartening post about her work, Barb!
She was amazing!
What a loss. Lea was an amazing woman whose very life was the epitome of grace. I wish I could have known her, I feel as if I do from following her blog posts. Thank you for the Amazon link. I just completed my Lea Wait collection and will cherish the books.
I am sure you will enjoy this last book.
Wow, Lea’s emails.. May I extend my condolences to all the authors who knew and admired her. As a reader I love her books. Thank-you.
Aren’t those emails something?
As an addendum to my earlier post, because like a dummy I forgot the book was coming out Tuesday I forgot to get it when I hit the store for a couple other books. So in order to make up for the brain cramp, I waited until around 3pm this afternoon and braved the traffic to the mall area where the B&N store is located in order to pick up my copy.
Mission accomplished…and with only a couple of cuss words for stupid drivers along the way.
Thank you so much for doing this, Jay. Fandom above and beyond.