It’s my stop today on the blog tour for Paint Me a Crime by Holly Yew. Many thanks to Lori from Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours for the invite.
Paint me a Crime is the first book in Holly Yew’s Rose Shore Mystery series.
The story begins with Jessamine looking forward to hosting her first watercolors class in her community art center. The students are all here but the guest artist, Gabriella is late. She offers no explanations for being late. Later on, when the guests and students are mingling, there’s a power cut. When the lights are back, a prestigious art collector is found dead. Or rather, murdered. The precious painting that Gabriella had loaned to Jessamine to be displayed in her art center has gone missing.
Soon, rest of the guest artists start to cancel and rumor spreads about the tragedy on Jessamine’s art center’s opening day. Jessamine must find out the truth and solve the murder in order to save her business.
This was an easy read. Likable characters and the mystery behind the stolen painting and the art collector’s murder kept me guessing till the end. This book has all the elements that one looks for in a cozy mystery – amateur sleuth, a murder, a furry baby (no cozy is complete without a pet), gossip, baked goodies, and red herrings.
I love painting themed mysteries and since this one’s based on a stolen painting, I was eagerly waiting to see how things end for Jessamine. Halfway through the story we have a twist. I loved it. The first half of the story was a tad slow but the twist in the second half made up for the slow pacing.
We also have a dash of romance… well, a bit more than just a dash. As the story proceeds, we are introduced to rest of the characters – some of whom we might see in the future installments.
The only niggle I had with this story was Jessamine’s role – especially when she dons her detective hat. She starts to question those in her suspects list – asks them where they were and what they were doing when the murder happened. We all know how that ends, don’t we. Amateur sleuth asks the wrong question to the wrong person and… game over!
Overall, Paint Me a Crime by Holly Yew was a promising series debut. If you love painting-themed cozy mysteries, consider adding this book to your TBR.
There’s a giveaway for this tour. Rafflecopter Giveaway details are here.
The Book Decoder 
Spunds a nice series. I like books set around art too.
And that’s why we are the best of friends. 🙂
This is a kind of book I’d love to read – stolen art, murder, and amateur sleuth!
Great😊 I too love mysteries set around stolen art … or anything to do with art.