(39) Shades of Murder
Publisher: CreateSpace (imprint Acorn Book Services)
232 Pages
Genre: Mystery
I received this book as an electronic ARC from netgalley.com - this book was released on May 15.
Synopsis: Question: What do you get the man with everything?
Answer: When that man is the heir of the late mystery writer Robin Spencer, retired homicide detective Mac Faraday, you get him cold case to solve.
In Shades of Murder, Mac Faraday is once again the heir to an unbelievable fortune. This time the benefactor is a stolen art collector. But this isn’t just any stolen work-of-art—it’s a masterpiece with a murder attached to it. Ilysa Ramsay was in the midst of taking the art world by storm with her artistic genius. Hours after unveiling her latest masterpiece—she is found dead in her Deep Creek Lake studio—and her painting is nowhere to be found. Almost a decade later, the long lost Ilysa Ramsay masterpiece has found its way into Mac Faraday’s hands and he can’t resist the urge to delve into the case.
A world away, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; former JAG lawyer Joshua Thornton agrees to do a favor for the last person he would ever expect to do a favor—a convicted serial killer. The Favor: Solve the one murder wrongly attributed to him. Joshua finds an unexpected ally in Cameron Gates, a spunky detective who has reason to believe the young woman known to the media only as Jane Doe, Victim Number Four, was the victim of a copycat. Together, Joshua and Cameron set out to light a flame under the cold case only to find that someone behind the scenes wants the case to remain cold, and is willing to kill to keep it that way.
Little do these detectives know that the paths of their respective cases are on a collision course when they follow the clues to bring them together in a showdown with a killer who’s got a talent for murder!
Review: First I want to say - what is with the cover art? This doesn't even resemble what the painting is supposed to look like and it just looks creepy.
Okay I'm not going to go on my cover art rant again, moving on. This book is a quick read with fun quirky characters. Mac Faraday's dog Gnarly is by far one of the most entertaining as the kleptomaniac dog whose personality is as large as he is. The runner up was Irving the skunk look-a-like cat who scares most people and is the constant companion of Detective Cameron Gates.
The mystery takes some great twists and turns and really keeps the story moving. I did guess correctly at who was the actual murderer but it didn't take away from the story. There are so many characters and they all seem to have a motive but pieces of the story really did shock me. I wish I had read the other books in this series, of which there are two...I think I may have to go back and find them.
Thank you, Heidi, for the wonderful review. I'm glad you had so much fun with Shades of Murder. I'm sure you will equally enjoy the first two books in the Mac Faraday Mysteries. It's okay that you didn't get the cover and found it creepy! Sure got your attention, didn't it? :)
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