Old Maid's Puzzle is a quilting block pattern and as it is explained, "the block is made from six half-squares triangles and three plain blocks which when set side by side cause secondary patterns to emerge". In much the same way, mysteries are solved by putting the clues together and moving them around until they form secondary patterns that lead one to the proper conclusion. In Terri Thayer's Old Maid's Puzzle, Dewey Pellicano has most of the clues, whether she realizes it or not, and to solve the puzzle she must recognize the pattern once the clues start to come together to form shapes.

The difficulty for Dewey is to get beyond her fears that she'll have to close her mother's quilt shop. So much of her attention is on that one goal to the exclusion of everything else that the reader will be mumbling as Dewey ignores all the signs. Dewey sees but doesn't process the information. What saves the book for this reader is that Dewey's inattention is so understandable -- frustrating but understandable. Dewey is dating a man that insists they must be celibate to get to know each other better because on first meeting they fell into bed. Her sister-in-law works in the shop and seems intent on undermining Dewey with customers, workers, and relatives. The shop has to change because it is not competing with other quilt shops in the area. Dewey could loose everything if the sale fails, hence her inattention.

However, even with all these things going on she manages to maintain her awareness of the emotional states of her workers and the regular quilting group that meets at the shop. The quilt group were friends of her mothers and are Dewey's way of keeping in touch with her mother's love for the shop and for the craft.

As much as this is a murder mystery, this is also a story of women, their crafts, and their lives and loves. To Dewey the shop is more than a store; it is a piece of her mother and her history. For the women who come each week to quilt, it is a part of their lives and a community of friends. Murder impacts more than the victim and the killer, it touches many other lives and Thayer manages to show the reader just how one event can trigger others that effect many more lives than those involved in the crime.

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