Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9780425233443
Berkley Prime Crime
288 Pages
$7.59; $7.99 Amazon
February 2, 2010
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Sophie Winston's reclusive neighbor, Professor Mordecai Artemus, has died and left his sprawling home to his Pomeranian. Sophie feels a tad guilty for not having befriended Mordecai. But at least she's not as heartless as her nemesis, Natasha, who's descended upon the house with a crew of interior designers and contractors to renovate the place for the statewide Spring Home and Garden Tour.
Even Sophie's been assigned a room to decorate: the family room, where the Professor did most of his living -- and where he died. In the midst of cleaning, spackling and painting, Sophie uncovers a second body -- but when she looks again it's disappeared! Now Sophie has to hammer away to discover the truth about the missing man, before her best friend gets nailed for murder...
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Professor Mordecai Artemus lived not too far away from Sophie Winston, and when he passes away he leaves everything to his Pomeranian, Emmeline. But Sophie is puzzled why he's also left her instructions to create a dinner for five people, to his specific instructions; then give them each the packages he's left for them. Sophie does her part - and it turns out that all five were once students of Mordecai's and have a strange connection to him from years ago.
Sophie also discovers that Mordecai's home is part of a decorating competition, and designers have been assigned one room in the house to decorate. Surprisingly, Sophie's frenemy Natasha gives Sophie a room to decorate, and her team of workers is quickly assembled to help.
Then her best friend Nina, whose husband is on a business cruise, believes that he might be having an affair and is worried, but sees that one of the designers is her old flame, Kurt. When Kurt attacks her in Mordecai's home one night, she pushes him and he hits his head. She runs to Sophie for help, but when they go back to the house, he's not there. Later on, Sophie opens the loveseat that her friend Bernie designed for the room, and finds Kurt's body. But when she calls the police and a policewoman named Tara answers the call, Kurt isn't there and Tara accuses her of making the story up.
Now everyone is trying to find out Kurt's whereabouts, Sophie's having romantic problems, Nina's frantic believing she killed Kurt, Natasha's going crazy with the home decoration and wondering why Mordecai didn't leave her anything, the former students are wondering what their mysterious packages mean, and no one can find Emmeline, who seems to have disappeared into thin air. Sophie's life has just gotten more complicated than ever...and now she finds there's also a killer on the loose...
This is the third book in the series and I have to say that I enjoyed it much better than the first two. In those books, Sophie was a complete doormat, allowing anyone and everyone to push her around - including her own family. It was grating on me. But in this book she shows a little more backbone and doesn't fold to Natasha's demands, which is refreshing. She also has things to do, and she doesn't allow people to sidetrack her because of what they want. I also found it humorous that Sophie's ex-husband Mars would rather work with her than Natasha.
The mystery was an interesting one, with the late professor having created it. While there was a second mystery, with someone being very definitely murdered and trying to find the culprit, we also had the pleasure of trying to figure out what it was that the professor was hiding for his former students.
When the ending comes and the murderer is revealed, it was a bit of a surprise, with an added one to boot. I did like the fact that it was unexpected, and while there wasn't really a climactic ending, it definitely got the point across. I also felt the resolution to everyone's problems was done nicely. But what was a real surprise was the end of the book, and I will read the next in the series to see what occurs. Recommended.
https://www.amazon.com/Diva-Paints-Town-Domestic-Mystery/dp/0425233448/ref
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3325284958
More on Krista Davis's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/d/krista-davis/
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