Review – Secret of a Painted Lady by Elizabeth Ashby & Christina A. Burke #cozy @christinaaburke

StoreyBook Reviews 

Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000032_00026]

 

Synopsis

If these walls could talk…they’d scream murder.

Alex Jordan, owner of Finials and Facades Renovation and Restoration Services, has been living her dream of restoring Victorian-style homes in the town of Danger Cove. But her recent acquisition of the stately Marlton House has led to a showdown with the town real estate mogul, and now she needs to restore the old house and flip it before time runs out. But Alex gets more than she bargained for when a Hawaiian shirt-clad tourist with a bullet in his head turns up in the home’s bathtub. Pairing up with unlikely partner and town florist, George Fontaine, Alex vows to solve the murder before her flip becomes a flop.

As Alex worries over deadlines, she stumbles across another body on the cliffs of Danger Cove. However, this “body” is a super-sexy man with amnesia…or so he says. Throw in a stash of stolen diamonds, a matchmaking grandmother, a foulmouthed parrot, and a mysterious killer with Alex in his sights, and Alex is in a race against the clock to salvage the job, solve the murder, and save her own life.

goodreads-badge-add-plus

Buy it now for just $0.99!

Amazon Kindle * Barnes & Noble Nook * iBooks * Kobo

Review

This cozy moves along pretty quickly…from finding the dead body, to the mystery at hand to solving the crime. There is a motley group of characters and some I liked and some I didn’t like…but that is what the authors set out out to do. After all you can’t like everyone!

I’m not sure how I feel about George’s character. He is holding a lot back, but perhaps he will loosen up. I’m not sure how I feel about the relationship between him and Alex, it seemed to move rather quickly because they have known each other for awhile (Alex picks up flowers for her grandmother each week from George) it seemed to move rather quickly.

There is a funny section involving bats!

I had no clue who the killer was going to be…it was definitely NOT someone on my radar.

We give it 5 paws up

pawprintpawprintpawprintpawprintpawprint

The Danger Cove books

Secret of the Painted Lady (a Danger Cove Renovation Mystery)
Murder and Mai Tais (a Danger Cove Cocktail Mystery)
Death by Scones (a Danger Cove Bakery Mystery)
Four-Patch of Trouble (a Danger Cove Quilting Mystery)
Deadly Dye and a Soy Chai (a Danger Cove Hair Salon Mystery)
Killer Closet Case (a Danger Cove B&B Mystery)

About Danger Cove

Danger Cove is a sleepy little town in the Pacific Northwest and home to renowned mystery novelist, Elizabeth Ashby. While Elizabeth swears the stories she writes are fiction, you can find the inspiration for her murderous tales all over Danger Cove…from the intriguing cast of local characters to the places to eat, play, and explore in Danger Cove. Don’t let our name fool you—we’re the friendliest (even if deadliest) town in the Pacific Northwest!
Visit us at dangercovemysteries.com

Recommended Posts

excerpt fiction Guest Post mystery

Guest Post & Excerpt – A Change in Plans by Mike Martin

    Synopsis RCMP officer Winston Windflower’s rare afternoon off gets interrupted when a hit and run turns into murder and he must pull together a team of Mounties from Newfoundland to resolve the crime. Following the money and fentanyl— and bodies—Windflower and his team join forces with police officers in southern Ontario to take […]

StoreyBook Reviews 
4 paws excerpt fiction Review

Review & Excerpt – Be Well by Sarah Flocken

  Synopsis Summer 2009: Brand-new college graduate Ann Ward has sent out nearly three hundred job applications, but nobody will employ her. The last thing she wants to do is leave Los Angeles, return to her desert hometown, and live in the shadow of her fame-hungry televangelist father–and it’s starting to look like that’s her […]

StoreyBook Reviews 
Cozy Giveaway mystery Spotlight

Mystery Spotlight & Giveaway – A Cultivated Corpse by Debra Sennefelder

    Synopsis When the local garden club president is killed, food blogger Hope Early will have to dig through the clues to catch a killer . . . The Jefferson Garden Club’s annual plant sale is just around the corner, but Hope Early and other members of the club are more focused on the garden restoration project […]

StoreyBook Reviews