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Murder Can Mess Up Your Masterpiece by Rose Pressey

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


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I got through Murder Can Mess Up Your Masterpiece by Rose Pressey earlier this evening. It’s the first book in her “Haunted Craft Fair” cozy mystery series. The main character is artist Celeste Cabot.

Celeste is excited to take her vintage Shasta travel trailer to a local arts and crafts fair to display and sell her paintings. She’s doing well until a customer returns one of her paintings, insisting it’s haunted. Another vendor at the fair notices hidden images in all of Celeste’s paintings—images she doesn’t recall creating. Adding to the weirdness is when Celeste is visited by the ghost of the woman in the allegedly haunted painting. Worst of all, however, is when Celeste finds the snarky manager of the craft fair, murdered outside of his own trailer. Determined to find out what’s going on, she begins snooping for clues in hopes of finding a killer before the end of the fair.

The story was cute and lite for the most part. The paranormal element was fun, and I liked Celeste’s chihuahua, Van Gogh. I love cozy mysteries with female amateur sleuths, but I want them to have a reason to investigate. In a typical first-of-series, it’s because the main character finds herself at the top of the suspect list and is desperate to clear her name (Note to authors: this trope has been done and overdone to the point of being boring). However, Celeste had no good reason to investigate. Worse, she was clumsy and ham-handed about it and ended up alienating most of the other vendors with her snooping and spying. Characters were a bit flat, the writing was somewhat stilted, and the narrative was rife with plot holes and editing errors. ( SPOILERS )

This is purely subjective on my part, but I didn’t like that Celeste had two potential romantic interests vying for her attention. Pressey has used that same device in at least one other series of hers. Finally, most of the narrative was consumed with Celeste and her awkward investigation. If you’re there to sell paintings, why waste so much time acting like Nancy Drew? I prefer it when a story depicts more balance with the main character’s investigation, occupation, and relaxation.

Favorite lines:
♦ She was a few strokes short of a finished portrait.
♦ “He’s as useful as a pogo stick in quicksand.”

I wanted to like this story, but too many errors and inconsistencies ruined my enjoyment. Two stars.

( Trope Test )