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    A Palette for Murder
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    A Palette for Murder
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    A Palette for Murder
    Ebook316 pages5 hours

    A Palette for Murder

    By Sybil Johnson

    4.5/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    A killer heat wave settles over Seagull Lane and summer's sizzling in Vista Beach, the home of computer programmer and tole-painting enthusiast Aurora (Rory) Anderson. The abnormally high temperatures are hard on everyone in the quiet Los Angeles county beach community, especially the city's homeless population.

    Residents are doing everything they can to stay cool, including leaving windows open to catch the faintest breeze. Not the best idea when a string of burglaries is plaguing nearby towns.

    Still, Rory doesn’t expect to find her neighbor’s body just a few doors down. When suspicion falls on a friend and fellow painter, Rory must discover the truth before the police paint the wrong picture and send her friend away permanently.

    - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    A PALETTE FOR MURDER by Sybil Johnson - A Henery Press Mystery. If you love one, you’ll probably love them all.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHenery Press
    Release dateJan 31, 2017
    ISBN9781635111422

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    Reviews for A Palette for Murder

    4.5/5

    5 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This trip to Vista Beach has the residents in the middle of a heatwave. There are two mysteries in this story, one trying to identify a seriously ill homeless man, the second solving a murder. Rory has befriended a homeless man, Kit and is heading down to the waterfront to give him a bag of cans to recycle. When she and Liz can't find him at any of his usual haunts, they are worried. When they hear barking on the beach, they realize it is Kit's dog Buddy. They run to him and ask him where Kit is. He runs off and they follow, finding him under the dock with a large bump on his head suffering severe dehydration from the heat. An ambulance is called and while waiting, Kit says the name Zoe to Rory before dropping into unconsciousness. Rory is determined to find out if he has any family and who is the mysterious Zoe. There are also several burglaries occurring in the area, and Rory stumbles upon one gone bad. Her neighbour, Willow is dead on the floor of her kitchen with a knife in her stomach. The police do not think it was a burglary and Rory's friend Dawn is accused of the murder and she has asked Rory to find out what she can. Dawn is adamant that she was not involved, although she was at Willow's house the night of the murder.

      Naturally, it turns out that Willow had a number of secrets, and those kept the pages turning until we reached the end. There were a lot of twists and revelations along the way and the ending, was quite surprising. I enjoy Rory and her friend Liz, but besides them, most of the characters are in and out of the story so not as well developed. Once again, Sybil Johnson included an issue plaguing many cities, homelessness. This added an air of reality to the story and makes you think about how you treat others, what supports are in place for homeless people and what you might be able to do to help. I really enjoyed how both these storylines were brought together at the end. A good, quick read for any cozy mystery lover.
    • 4/5
      When I first started this series I wasn't really sure about it but now after reading this latest installment I have really grown to love it. This time Rory stumbles across her neighbor's body and is left investigating the murder when the police suspect that one of her friends did it.I was really excited when Detective Green told Rory that he and Mel broke up. I was hoping that would finally start something between the two of them but unfortunately Rory had another love interest in this one. I will keep my fingers crossed for them to finally start something in the next book.I liked that not only did Rory have to investigate Willow's murder but also had to investigate who had hit Kit, the homeless man she had become friends with. At first it doesn't look like the two storylines will connect but they do in a surprising way.I did end up figuring out who the murderer was way before Rory. I felt like even though I didn't know why that person killed Willow that it was pretty easy to figure out that they had.Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the galley.
    • 5/5
      Rory Anderson is a computer programmer and artist who works from home and lives in Vista Beach, California. Before heading out for the day with her friend Liz Dawson, she's gathered a trash bag of recycling for a homeless friend, Kit, so she and Liz head to the pier to find him. They don't immediately find him but do find his dog Buddy who leads them to an injured Kit under a pier. Discovering someone hit him over the head, he is sent to the hospital while Liz finds a temporary home for Buddy and Rory decides to try and find out who injured him.Luckily, her mother agrees to keep Kit's bicycle and belongings at her store, but when Rory arrives she finds another store owner arguing with her mother Arika. Willow Bingen is overbearing, opinionated, and makes some pointed remarks about the homeless before she finally leaves. Rory tells Arika the only information she has as to who injured Kit is the word "Zoe" and a picture she found in his backpack. Later that evening, Rory is at the home of Dawn, another friend who also works part time at Arika's store when she's not teaching painting. Rory and Dawn are testing a new software program for Dawn's online classes. While they're testing, someone arrives at Dawn's home and Rory can hear them arguing. It isn't long before she discovers the intruder is Willow; but after she leaves an upset Dawn refuses to speak of it. Also after leaving Dawn's home she finds out that Kit left the hospital but isn't able to locate him.The next day she finds Willow's cat Sekhmet's collar on her lawn - it turns out the cat has a regular habit of escaping the device - and goes to return it. When she arrives at Willow's home, the door is ajar and even though she senses something is off, she enters the home. What she finds is the body of Willow with a knife in her chest. So Rory has her hands full: trying to find Kit, wondering who killed Willow, and gearing up for a blind date that Liz has set up. If anything is going well for her, it's the date - she's met a doctor named Tripp Keating, and he wants to see her again. Of course, there is also the fact that Dawn is the main suspect in the murder of Willow and has asked for Rory's help in clearing her and finding the real killer.Once Rory starts investigating she finds out that Willow was keeping secrets - and some of them may be tied to more than one friend of hers. With Kit back under observation but not doing well, a possible new relationship on the horizon, a police detective watching out for her, and still trying to figure out who hit Kit and murdered Willow, Rory might just not only be trying to find a murderer - she just might be the next victim...I found this book to be quite a pleasurable read. Ms. Johnson's characters have depth and warmth; the book is peopled throughout with characters that are three-dimensional and believable. You can sense the bond between Rory and her friends, and the fact that you know they truly care for each other just by their interaction together. There are moments of sadness (where I may or may not have shed a tear) that show us that when you have great loss you also have great pain, and it manifests itself in different ways. With plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader interested, and more than enough secrets to go around, we are taken on a journey that connects one event to another in an impressive fashion. When the murderer is finally discovered (as we know they must be) and the motives known, the ending gives us a feeling of satisfaction and a book well read. I look forward to the next in the series. Highly recommended.