Title: Still Life, Still Dead
Author: Sydney Abrams
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Book Blurb:
Alex and her colorful cohort of artists at the Creative Workshop are gearing up for their first artist retreat. She’s prepared for every eventuality to make sure the week is a success, except, that is, for finding special guest artist Niko dead at the bottom of the cliff at Flat Rock Falls State Park. Alex sees that her business could go down the drain as quickly as rinsing paint from a paintbrush, so she stumbles her way into the investigation, determined to unveil the killer’s identity before she loses everything, including her own life.
My Review:
Alex has worked hard setting up the Creative Workshop and organizing their first artist retreat. But everything she’s worked for is put in peril when special guest artist Niko is found murdered at the bottom of the falls. Surrounded by artists she doesn’t know and local artists she does, Alex is determined to root out the killer in their mist. Will she succeed or will the killer make Alex a still life forever?
Still Life, Still Dead is a brilliant cozy mystery I couldn’t stop reading. I was taken in by the narration which is both descriptive and emotional. The mystery plot is complex with a full cast of suspects, err characters, to interact with. There are clues and false leads galore which has me reading late into the night. I wracked my brain trying to figure out who killed Niko. When the ending came, I was in shock. A cozy mystery I thoroughly enjoyed, Still Life, Still Dead will have you entertained for days.
I read a lot of cozy mysteries and one thing I crave is originality. In this cozy mystery, the author adds the ins and outs of an artist retreat. Blending art, artists, and murder in one story is sheer brilliance. I loved getting to know the characters through their art and made the mystery come alive.
Sydney Abrams pens a well-written, flawless cozy mystery even Miss Marple would consider reading. I’m astonished this is Sydney Abrams’ debut cozy mystery. It reads like a prolific author’s work. Impressive. I hear it’s a series and I cannot wait for the next cozy mystery to be released.
My Rating: 5+ stars
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Author Biography:
Sydney Abrams’ arts and crafts cozy mystery series is steeped in a life’s experience in the arts coupled with a love for mystery books. She was immersed in both these worlds from childhood, and that influence stayed with her as an adult. Sydney has created artwork for auctions and commissions, and has been part of an art group of professional and amateur artists for twenty years. Literature and the arts go hand in hand, but these worlds collided when Sydney realized that her art group offered up the perfect cast of characters for a cozy mystery.
Sydney currently lives in Stowe, VT with her husband and their big scruffy dog, Charlie.
Still Life, Still Dead, is the first book in her Alex Montgomery Arts and Crafts Mystery series.
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Reviewed by: Nancy