A psychological thriller about murder among friends and enemies. Who can you trust?Leila Goodfriend is laying down the bones of a painting. When interrupted by Iris, the noisy, unlikeable artist in the studio upstairs, Leila is distracted and annoyed.When she discovers the racket was actually Iris’ dead body hitting the floor, Leila becomes obsessed: Who murdered Iris?The other Red Barn … the floor, Leila becomes obsessed: Who murdered Iris?
The other Red Barn Cooperative artists — competitive, jealous and hypocritical — are prime suspects. They all hated Iris. “An artist owes his life to his art,” Iris said.
Iris was good for a laugh. But no one is laughing now.
In this gripping mystery, new author Barbara Elle paints a clever and twisted picture of women and sisters, whose lives are entwined by a brutal murder in a charming Cape Cod town.
Alibis fall apart. Plot twists multiply. And Leila comes to a dangerous conclusion.
Readers are saying …
“I can thoroughly recommend this for lovers of crime mysteries and I’ll be looking out for more in this series.”
“A story that is equal parts art and mystery and will keep you fully entertained from start to finish.”
“Gripping, suspenseful, and full of twists, Barbara Elle has hit a home run with her debut novel.”
“… a little humor mixed with an addictive mystery plot twist and an unexpected ending. Can’t wait until the second book comes out!”
“I found some parts of the book delightfully sinister… there is some clever humour too in this twisty murder mystery,
“I finished this mystery in two days, and cannot wait for the sequel.”
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This was a compelling read, that I found I did not want to put down! Great, multi-faceted characters. Very interesting plot. Vivid descriptions. Suspenseful and thrilling. I felt every emotion. Kept me intrigued from the first page to the last. Simply a GREAT read!
*I received a complimentary ARC of this book in order to read and provide a voluntary, unbiased and honest review, should I choose to do so.
I learned a lot about Artists and painting techniques reading Death In Vermillion. Barbara painted a story with intrigue and suspense as her main character Leila is drawn into solving a fellow artist’s death in a small Cape Cod town. Leila discovers that she really doesn’t know her friends as well as she thought as the entire Red Barn Cooperative is under investigation for Iris’s death.
Barbara did a wonderful job fleshing out each character with very distinct personalities and characteristics. How Barbara’s characters each dealt with being under investigation as well as their interactions with each other keep you coming back for more.
I truly enjoyed being a fly on the wall in Barbara’s debut mystery as it unfolded, and watching the love/hate relationship of her characters was a joy. Definitely looking forward to reading more from this author in the future.
I received a complimentary copy of this book via the RABT Book Tour. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
This a good book with interesting characters. There is a group of artist who paint in at the Red Barn recently there had been items missing from all of their individual rooms. Then one of them is murdered and Leila finds the body. There are lots of suspects and motives to go around. There is also an art history lessons thrown which I enjoyed learning. From the point Leila finds the body her life becomes pubic with everyone wondering if she did it.
All that artist Leila Goodfriend wanted was a little peace and quiet so that she could work on her painting. Instead, fellow artist Iris was up in her studio making enough noise to wake the dead. How could one woman make such a racket? Leila did the only thing she could think of, turn up NPR and try to block everything out. What Leila didn’t realize is that while she drowned out all the upstairs ruckus, poor Iris was being murdered.
Now all of the Red Barn Cooperative artists are under suspicion since they all hated Iris. An unexpected call from a lawyer has Leila name curator of the estate, which brings out the amateur sleuth in her to find out what happened to Iris that fateful night and who would want to brutally murder her?
This is not your average cozy mystery where the characters are all likable and you can’t picture any of them as a murderer. Instead, most of the fellow artists are competitive, petty, and a bit jealous of one another. They are also quirky by nature and at points have you wondering how Leila could call them friends. The story has a lot of twists and turns with a much-unexpected ending. What I liked most was that there were a lot of different subplots and red herrings are thrown around to make the book even more interesting.
Oh! My! Stars! Usually, it is a good thing when I start a review this way, but not this time. I am so disappointed. This book is a GREAT story, but the execution is beyond pitiful. I’m not sure when I’ve ever read a book with so many errors on EVERY SINGLE PAGE. For example: Leila guessed she they were about the same age.
Iris was stormed into the Red Barn, sort of like Valkyrie ready to do battle.
It had to be nearly than two feet across.
This book reads like a very rough draft that Ms. Elle forgot to go back and edit or have ANYBODY read before it was published. And it has to tell you how good the story is that I completed it with so many egregious errors. (One of my biggest pet peeves!) The sad thing is that it would not have required a professional editor to catch the majority of these mistakes; my eleven-year-old grandson could have caught them.
After all of this, Ms. Elle decided she would stomp on my second pet peeve – gratuitous profanity. I guess I’m showing my Southern, old-fashioned roots when I say that I expect a lady to speak and write like a lady. Well, Ms. Elle has obviously not ever heard of that. She not only uses profanity; she uses it heavily and uses the most vulgar words possible. (Well…not the most vulgar. At least she never used the vulgar speech for a woman’s body parts.)
If I could give this book two separate ratings I would be so happy. It would receive a 5-star rating for the storyline and plot and then the 2-star rating for execution. If none of my pet peeves happen to bother you, then, by all means, check out this book because you will probably enjoy it.
I received a review copy of this book from BookSirens and want to thank them for the opportunity to read it. This is my honest and voluntary opinion.
3.5 Stars. The plot was good but weighed down with too much unnecessary description that distracted me. I enjoyed the end but overall feel the story could have been written with a lot fewer details and been a much better book.