A Crafty Killing by Lorraine BartlettMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is the first book in a new series featuring Katie Bonner. It opens with the murder of Ezra Hilton, owner of Artisans Alley. Thanks to her late husband’s interest in Artisans Alley (he was also an artist), he invested their savings in it to become partners with Ezra. This leaves Katie with controlling interest in Artisan’s Alley upon Ezra’s death.
Sadly, it’s a struggling venture, but it appears that it is also what Katie needs to really begin moving on after her husbands unexpected death. It is not what Katie wanted, as her dream is to run a different type of business, however, this is what she has and in order to sell it, it needs to be turning a profit. So, she jumps in with both feet.
This book offered good characters a plenty in addition to a nice little mystery, with an ending I didn’t see coming, though the clues where there. Katie doesn’t set out to solve Ezra’s murder, but even though she didn’t have a close relationship with him, she feels he deserves to have his killer discovered. But, unlike many other cozy detective stories, she does try to pass on her information to the police. Alas, the detective is a little distant. Turns out he’s dealing with his own problems.
The mystery flowed well and the characters were well defined. This was simply a well done, enjoyable little mystery. I highly recommend it and am looking forward to reading the second book in the series.
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