Murder Can Mess Up Your Masterpiece

Written by Rose Pressey

Narrated by Rachel Dulude

Haunted art is in the eye of the beholder . . .

Artist Celeste Cabot welcomes the chance to show her paintings at a craft fair in her hometown of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where she and her Chihuahua, Van Gogh, can park her vintage Shasta trailer and sell her creations, too.

Unfortunately, her sales take a hit when a customer returns a painting, claiming it's haunted. When a fellow vendor discovers images hidden in Celeste's artwork-and a ghost pays her a late-night visit-she's shocked to realize she has psychic abilities. After the grumpy manager of the craft fair is found with a knife in his neck, Celeste's brushes with the paranormal may help fill in the picture-and make sure the wrong person doesn't get framed . . .

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Nov 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781977346629

Rose Pressey

Rose Pressey is a USA Today bestselling author. She enjoys writing quirky and fun novels with a paranormal twist. The paranormal has always captured her interest. The thought of finding answers to the unexplained fascinates her. When she’s not writing about werewolves, vampires, and every other supernatural creature, she loves eating cupcakes with sprinkles, reading, spending time with family, and listening to oldies from the fifties. Rose lives in the beautiful commonwealth of Kentucky with her husband, son, and three sassy Chihuahuas.

Reviews for Murder Can Mess Up Your Masterpiece

[cyderry · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm not sure that I'm really into a paranormal artist but it was interesting to read. In this first Haunted Craft Fair mystery, Celeste Cabot is an artist who seems to be able to paint spirits into her artwork, without knowing it. And in one instance, the spirit starts to haunt her literally stepping out of the portrait and helping her to find out who murdered the fair coordinator.I think that I'll have to try one or two more of this series to see if this type of paranormal suits me.

[kris_anderson-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Murder Can Mess Up Your Masterpiece is a charming new cozy mystery with intriguing paranormal elements. The story contains Rose Pressey’s conversational writing style which makes the story easy to read. There is humor sprinkled throughout that will have you giggling. Celeste Cabot loves the color as we can tell from her adorable trailer. She wants to succeed as an artist and Celeste’s bumbling family has helped her get ready. Celeste has a patient mother, a father who means well (creates more chaos than a two year old) and two blundering big brothers. Thank goodness she has her best friend, Sammie Sutton. After a customer returns a painting claiming the piece is haunted. Celeste figures the client was a loony until a nearby vendor wearing glasses notices images hidden within all of her creations. Then she begins hearing a woman’s voice and that night the ghost appears from the painting in Celeste’s trailer. Celeste wonders if those rumors about her grandmother are true. The mystery was straightforward with a limited suspect list. Celeste begins nosing around the craft fair digging up information on her fellow vendors. She gets help from her friendly spirit. The secondary mystery revolves around the ghost who appeared from the painting. There are travel trailer tips at the beginning of each chapter that are amusing. There are two lines that I enjoyed from Murder Can Mess Up Your Masterpiece. The first is you are “as useful as a pogo stick in quicksand”. The second line I liked was “Chihuahuas might be small, but they always want to protect the people they love”. I thought that was sweet. There are two romantic interests for Celeste. At the end of the book, I had a couple of unanswered questions especially regarding Celeste’s newfound abilities and her ghostly friend. Murder Can Mess Up Your Masterpiece is a witty cozy mystery with peculiar paintings, an animated apparition, a caring Chihuahua, a dead dictator, and an active artist.