A painter and a murder!

-

Landscape of Murder ( Art of Murder #2) by Michael Jecks  

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️



Nick Morris is a portrait painter who seems to paint more cats than people. He’s driven his Morgan (I’m in love already!) up to Devon to do a water color of a house before it’s sold. It’s owner, Derek Swann has an AI business. The house is a Georgian place in the Peak District. Derek wants a painting of the property before the sale’s finalized. Nick’s banker mate got him the job.       

(I feel even warmer towards Nick when it’s revealed he always takes his Aeropress to make his coffee. Snap, so do I.) I’m loving this guy twice over.

Anyway, things of course aren’t kosher, either at the house or in the town of Ashbourne nearby. Nick meets a varied group of people from Derek’s glamorous, yet guarded assistant, to a couple of bikers, and flamboyant woman Megan who’s staying in one of the holiday chalets he’s booked into. It’s when he’s walking with Megan that they discover the body of a young man. Now Nick’s unfortunately involved in another murder.

Nick does spend his time sketching everything as he walks around, people and places.

Ok, it seems to me that writing about an unlikely sleuth gives Michael Jecks a playful way to  incorporate some of his own passions and foibles into the story. What fun!

I loved every word of this cosy mystery and now have to backtrack and read the previous title in this series.


A Severn House ARC via NetGalley.                                              

Many thanks to the author and publisher.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Things aren’t as they seem!

-
Image
A Murderous Tryst  (Beatrice Hyde-Care Mystery #11) by Lynn Messina    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Oh my! Bea certainly has a lot to contend with. Bea’s rattled! The Duke has been missing from their bed for a night. When a distraught Bea come downstairs the next morning she finds her beloved husband Damien clasped in the arms of a glamorous female. A female who turns out to be Kesgrave’s first mistress, Mrs. Penelope Taylor! What?! Of course Bea’s heart sinks and she falls back on her painful memories of Aunt Vera’s responses to such a situation. Bea is both shaken and traumatised, but determined not to show it.  It seems Penny has been accused of murder. Actually  Penny’s desperately trying to avoid Newgate.    As a former mistress Penny does the unthinkable thing in society’s eyes. She asks for help from Bea. Bea’s response is just as shocking. She says yes. Kesgrave is as usual inscrutable. Of course this is the beginning of a harebrained chase, complications between...
Read more

Women in war—Internment by the Japanese 1942-45.

-
Image
Sisters Under the Rising Sun  by Heather Morris    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A fitting tribute to the women interred by the Japanese in Indonesia and Malaya during 1942 until liberation in 1945. Amongst the internees are a group of Australian Army nurses who were not given recognition by the Japanese as members of the armed forces and therefore not prisoners of war according to the Conventions of war.  Sister Vivian Bullwinkle is the only survivor of the massacre of a group of soldiers and nurses on Radji Beach, Bangka Island near Sumatra  in 1942, after the sinking of  HMS Vyner Brooke. There are a number of civilian prisoners in the camps like Norah Chambers and her sister Ena.  Combined, the story of these women interred under terrible conditions, their struggles and achievements are monumental.  Their gifts to their fellows beyond speech. Music plays an important part in uplifting the prisoners’ spirits. It’s truly a privilege to read about their plight, the...
Read more

A wonderful cat and mouse game!

-
Image
Lady Eleanor's Seventh Suitor (The Sutherlands #1)   by Anna Bradley If ever a woman was caught in the cross hairs of a deadly game, even as the reason for its very being is a deep mystery,  that is  Eleanor Sutherland. If ever a man stalked his prey so efficiently then that hunter is  Camden West. From the very beginning I was caught up in the manoeuvre that Cam had instigated against  Eleanor using her sister Charlotte. The lengths he is prepared to go to punish her are puzzling. What he punishing her for is even more so. Is it just because she appears cold and unfeeling? Lady Frost is the name Eleanor has been given. Bets are placed on her at White's. She has her own page! As the story develops we and Cam discover that he has badly underestimated and misjudged Ellie. As she turns the tables on him things look hopeful but always Ellie is taken by surprise by yet another layer that is added to the equation. It isn't until the end that we start to s...
Read more