Brenda H. (booksinvt) - , reviewed on 11/22/2019 + 464 more book reviews

Murder Can Mess Up Your Masterpiece is the debut of the A Haunted Craft Fair Mystery series featuring artist Celeste Cabot and set in her hometown of Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Even though the Summer Arts & Crafts Fair is just around the corner from her family home, Celeste decides to tow her delightful pink Shasta trailer to the fairgrounds and showcase her paintings.

Celeste is greeted warmly by fellow vendors and sales are brisk, that is until a woman returns one of her paintings claiming that the piece is haunted. Not quite sure what to make of the woman's accusation, Celeste is shocked when another vendor points out that there are hidden, haunted images in all of Celeste's art pieces. Why is she painting these images without even realizing that she's doing it?

Things quickly go from bad to worse when she is startled awake in the middle of the night by the ghost in one of her paintings. Eager to get away from the ghost and her trailer, Celeste takes a walk through the festival grounds with her chihuahua, Van Gogh only to stumble upon the dead body of grumpy festival manager, Evan.

With fingers pointing her way as the killer, Celeste soon finds herself in the midst of something dangerous. Not only is there a killer on the loose, but someone is stealing money from the vendors and now the once friendly group of artisans are no longer speaking to her. Determined to clear her name, Celeste teams up with the friendly ghost, Elizabeth, who it turns out is actually a relative, and the hunky woodworker, Caleb and his delightful German Shepherd to solve the mystery.

A fun read but the reader is left with more questions than answers - and the dreaded love triangle seems to be on the horizon. Celeste seems to have a quirky family whose antics will have you chuckling aloud, I hope we get to know them better in future installments.

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