Parker Holt has started gobbling up properties housing small businesses in town, and Jo worries that her Craft Corner shop will be next. But when she arrives at Holt's home to learn his intentions, she finds him dead – the victim of an insidious electrical trap.The police draw a bead on the construction crew working on the house, led by Jo's good friend, Dan. Anxious to clear him and his workers, Jo and her beading crafters set to work. Motives are dissected as necklaces are created, and Jo follows a chain of clues back into the past, hoping to unknot the current crime – and catch a murderer before he pulls any more deadly strings.