The Art & Craft of Murder (Whistler’s Cove Cozy Mysteries Series Book 1)

Author: Cozy Cat Parker

5 out of 5 stars

Misty Williams runs a tea house in Whistler’s Cove, a coastal, artist community. One day, the owner of the town’s art gallery, Hilary Short, is poisoned and dies in the tea house. Misty and her friend, Karen, try to determine who could have had the opportunity to poison Hilary and what the motive was. As the pieces begin to come together, Misty soon finds herself in danger of becoming a victim as well.

Overall, this was a very good short story. The murder of Hilary was well done. The beginning of the story had set up motives for many people in town, and later, it’s revealed that multiple people would have had an opportunity to do it. The confrontation between Misty and the killer was also very well written as I wondered how she would get away from him. I did figure out who the killer was, but the clues came together naturally without being too obvious.

My only nitpick would be that I got the impression that Hilary’s gallery is the only one in town. All of the artists have a motive because Hilary is lowering the commission she’s going to pay for their art, so they’ll be losing a lot of income. So I wondered, are there no other galleries? Why don’t they just sell their own work without Hilary? Still, this was just a minor detail. I really enjoyed the book, so I’m rating it 5 out of 5 stars.

Price through Amazon Kindle: $0

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015VPF918

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