Miranda Trent has set up a sweet life in a scenic corner of Appalachia—until she stumbles across the trail of a killer . . . After inheriting her uncle’s Red River Gorge homestead in Eastern Kentucky—smack dab in the middle of the Daniel Boone National Forest—Miranda comes up with a perfect business plan for summer tourists: pairing outdoor painting classes with sips of local moonshine, … classes with sips of local moonshine, followed by a mouthwatering sampler of the best in southern cooking.
To Miranda’s delight, Paint & Shine is a total success—until someone kills the cook. As the town’s outsider, suspicion naturally falls on Miranda. Murdering the best biscuit baker of Red River Gorge is a high crime in these parts. Miranda will have to prove her innocence before she’s moved from farmhouse to jail cell faster than she can say “white lightning” . . .
more
Still Knife Painting is an engaging start to a new series by Cheryl Hollon! I particularly loved that it’s set in my ‘stompin’ grounds’ as they say down here – and that it’s based on fun experiences the author had in this part of Kentucky as a child (as discussed in the author note that begins the book). Something about that kind of connection makes the book even cozier right from the outset. The characters are quintessential to this genre – delightfully quirky enough to make you love them but suspiciously quirky enough to keep them on your ‘potential culprit’ list. Miranda took a bit of warming up to, but I’m intrigued to see where Hollon takes this character through the rest of the series. Well-written and entertaining, this read is a fun way to spend a weekend!
(I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book)
The first book in the new art and moonshine based cozy series “A Paint & Shine Mystery,” Still Knife Painting from Kensington Books, written by Cheryl Hollen is out now.
Miranda is a hard character to like. She does not appear to have any empathy for anyone; she is angry at the residents because they object to her providing moonshine to her art students. She is resentful of her inheritance, and most of all, she appears to be more concerned with her income than the murder that took place in her kitchen. Other characters aren’t much better. Even the man who may become Miranda’s love interest has issues.
The setting for this new series is picturesque, yet the descriptions did not go far enough to get the reader invested in the area. Having tourists sign up to take an art class in the forest is a wonderful idea, add in a southern meal, and a moonshine tasting, and you have a recipe made for success. But the cook doesn’t follow the menu and ends up dead in Miranda’s kitchen. Suspects are few, but most are believable. The evidence is a bit flimsy. The killer wasn’t difficult to uncover and was the most enjoyable character in the book.
Unfortunately, I did not find Still Knife Painting to be very enjoyable. I thought the premise of art and moonshine would be interesting, and there were some interesting parts to the story, but overall I couldn’t get past the main character being just a bit too obnoxious. She is portrayed as an introvert, but the truth is more likely that she just doesn’t like people. All of this said I will give book two a try when it comes out.
Still Knife Painting by Cheryl Hollon is a fabulously written mystery filled with history, food, and drinks.
Will Miranda find the killer or lose her inheritance?
Miranda Trent
Miranda is our sleuth, and she is an artist, business owner, and the sole beneficiary of her late Uncle Gene’s family farm. Yet, she is forced to become a sleuth to clear herself. I think that Miranda is a terrific character. She paints beautiful pictures, knows how to make moonshine, and she can fly fish. Miranda does have her issues, though.
The Mystery
Miranda’s cook, Mrs. Childers, is killed at Miranda’s first official cultural event. So, lots of people around, but none with motive. What I enjoyed was the historical aspect of the story, mixed with the mountain culture, which includes the cuisine, drinks, and their manners.
Four Stars
Ms. Hollen has a beautiful way of relating the past and wrapping it into a present-day mystery. I enjoyed Still Knife Painting and can’t wait for the next book in the series to see what Miranda is up too. My rating is four stars, and I highly recommend this book to all of you, cozy mystery readers out there.
Don’t forget to check out the recipes for cocktails and a few foods to pair them with for the best results. You could have your dinner party, just hide the knives.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Still Knife Painting by Cheryl Hollon.
This Guest Review is for Baroness’ Book Trove.
Until the next time,
~Jen
If you would like to see other reviews like this one, check out BaronessBookTrove.com.
Have you ever been to a paint & sip event? Or maybe it was something else crafty like yarn art, but you probably had some sort of adult beverage while you were being creative. If you haven’t been to an event like that, you’ll get a taste of what it’s like in Still Knife Painting,..hopefully without the murder!
Miranda has spent the last few years of her life eking out a living as an artist in New York City. When she hears that she’s inherited her Uncle Gene’s home and land, she happily makes the move to Kentucky. The place is paid for, but she’s got to pay the property taxes. Since art is Miranda’s life, she decides to combine art, food, and moonshine to create her new business: Paint & Shine.
The setting of Still Knife Painting couldn’t be more beautiful. I’ve always wanted to live by the ocean, but living in the mountains would be wonderful too (just no bears or snakes please). This setting is perfect for Miranda’s business too. She aims to take tourists to a beautiful spot to paint while they hear a little about the history of the location. After the art excursion, there will be good old home cooking paired with locally made moonshine.
But the best laid plans often go awry… Miranda’s first tourist group ends up in the middle of a murder investigation when one of the cooks winds up dead in the kitchen. Since this is a cozy mystery, we know Miranda is going to wind up as either a suspect or the one who solves the crime…or both! Miranda’s got an advantage over the average amateur sleuth since she’s an artist. She’s got a keen sense of observation and can sketch out suspects and settings to help her keep things straight.
As with lots of first books in new series, we meet a lot of characters with whom we’ve got no to get acquainted. I feel like I’ve got a pretty good grasp on Miranda and a couple of the other characters, though I’m sure as the series progresses, they and others will gain more depth of personality. I’m always drawn to the quirky characters, and there are a few in here that I hope to get to know better.
I think Still Knife Painting is a cozy mystery you’ll enjoy, and the Paint & Shine Mystery Series is off to a good start.
Great start to a new series! Miranda’s fledgling tourist business takes a hit when a murder occurs. To save her home, livelihood and freedom, she must unveil the real killer. Great writing, a fast pace, great characters and multiple story lines make this a great read. I’m looking forward to future installments. I received this book free and chose to make a voluntary, unbiased review.
A good start to a new series. Miranda Trent has just moved “back home” – kind of, and she has a lot of adjustment to make and a lot to contend with. Her uncle unexpectedly left her his home in his will and she decides to try and make a going business combining her love of painting and her dream of opening a distillery. She has all the problems of opening a new venture to deal with, and the resentment and resistance of some of the locals to her featuring moonshine along with the painting and dining. But those problems pale to nothing when she stumbles on a murder victim right in her own house. If she is going to make a go of her business – and stay on the good side of her neighbors, not to mention staying out of jail, Miranda needs to prove her innocence and discover who the murderer is.
A good book full of bits of history about the Daniel Boone National Forest, moonshine, and painting. What an intriguing business idea! I look forward to following Miranda on her Paint and Shine journey in future books. Thanks to the author for providing an advance copy of the book. No review was required but I am happy to provide my honest opinion.
Still Knife Painting is Book 1 in the Paint & Shine Mystery series by Cheryl Hollon.
The premise of this new series is promising. Miranda moves to a house she inherited and is using her artistic abilities to lead clients on a hike to a location to paint. They then return to her place for a meal of local food paired with moonshine.
Overall, I enjoyed it. The locale is interesting. Austin seems like a good guy. Mrs Hobb, the county sheriff, and county coroner seem like good people.
There were some things in the story that weren’t followed through. Miranda didn’t follow up with the reporter or mention it with Austin. Considering the impact on her business, that didn’t make any sense. Also the way she went for Dan for a comment he made. He’s an important part of her business.
It was kind of uneven, but since it is the first book in the series, and based on the author’s Webb’s Glass Shop series, I expect it to even out in the next book.
Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the I free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review. #StillKnifePainting #NetGalley
Miranda Trent inherits a farm from her Uncle Gene. One of the conditions of the will is that Miranda open a moonshine distillery on the property. Miranda plans to start a business from the farm that will include teaching painting of nature scenes in the area and home cooked meals with moonshine tasting. Her main cook for the evens at the farm is Mrs. Naomi Childers, who strongly disapproves of the moonshine portion of the event. She only agreed to do the cooking when Miranda promised a large donation to Mrs. Childers’ favorite project – the Church Roofing Fund. Naomi’s close friend, Mrs. Viola Hobb, will be assisting with the cooking portion of the project.
Miranda’s initial group has five clients – a newly wed couple, two women from New York and one local person, Shelon Adams. A sixth client, Joe Creech, arrives later when the group is at the scenic trail where the painting exercise will take place. After the painting session, Miranda drives everybody back to her farm for the home-cooked meal and the moonshine tasting. Dan Keystone, owner of a local distillery, shows up with the liquor samples, but before dinner can be served, there is a terrifying scream from the kitchen. Mrs. Hobb comes in to find her friend lying dead on the kitchen floor, stabbed with a kitchen knife. The local Sheriff does not feels he has the experience to handle this type of investigation and requests help from the Lexington, KY Police Department. Unfortunately, the Detective assigned to the case has a long-standing dispute with the local sheriff.
Who killed Mrs. Childers? Why was she killed? Can the two lawmen overcome their personal differences and work together to solve the crime? Will Miranda be able to figure out what happened and be able to save her farm and business? What will happen to the farm if Miranda is unable to fulfill the terms of the will?
Cheryl Hollon has written a fantastic start to this new series. The characters and situations are very realistic. There are plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing clear to the end and looking forward to Miranda’s next adventure.
Totally enjoyed this story and the characters I got to hang with. Some of them may have you shaking your head. I bet you know someone like some of these folks. Don’t you love when you can relate so well to the characters? I would love to go painting with Miranda and then enjoy the great food and drink. I love getting in on the beginning of a new series. I can’t wait to read the next book. I received this book from NetGalley, but my opinion is my own.
I really enjoyed Still Knife Painting! I’m always happy to start a new cozy series, and this is a great first book. Miranda recently moved to Kentucky and started a Paint and Shine business, which is quickly derailed by a murder at her first event.
The characters were great! Miranda is an interesting person, with lots of good traits, but also room to grow. At least she is aware of her shortcomings, and seeking to improve. I also liked the local sheriff, and thought it was interesting to see part of the story through his eyes. Sandy the puppy was adorable. There were plenty of characters and suspects, but I never had trouble keeping everyone straight. (There is a handy character list at the end for reference if needed, though.)
The mystery made sense, and there were plenty of clues and red herrings along the way. When the killer and motive were revealed, it was logical and made sense.
I look forward to seeing where Miranda’s business goes from here, and what happens with her next mystery.
Thank you to the Cozy Mystery Review Crew on Facebook for arranging for me to receive a free paper copy.
A very good beginning to a new series. The characters were great! Of course, what do you expect when the setting is very rural Kentucky smack dab in the middle of moonshine country? The mystery was good and very involved. It kept you guessing and involved lots of history of the area and of the time. A very promising beginning.
I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher and voluntarily chose to review it.
Still Life Painting by Cheryl Hollon is the first in a new series and is full of promise, if the first one left a little to be desired. To be fair, a lot has to happen in a new series: lots of new characters to set up; a new setting; new job, new interests, new relationships… Miranda is at Hemlock Lodge, an auspicious name to be sure, on the opening day of her new venture: “Paint and Shine.” The fee includes a lesson in painting a landscape here at the lodge and then to her farmhouse for an authentic meal accompanied by moonshine, well, several different kinds of moonshine. Some of the people in the community were teetotalers and totally against the moonshine portion of the program but Miranda was adamant. When she inherited the farm from her great-uncle Gene, it was part of the deal. She had to have a still up and running within a certain length of time or she lost her farm. Whether some of the locals liked it or not, the shine was here to stay. Miranda had arranged for a couple of local women to be her cooks, in exchange for a donation to the church roofing fund, not for pay. It was looking like a good day…until one of her cooks ended up with a knife in her chest and the other one passed out cold from the shock.
The story was a little “busy.” Lots going on, some of it important, some of it not, but a little hard to keep track of-first in a series. Miranda looks like she will be a good character. Anxious to get out of New York City, she has this plan. Lots of tourists are looking for experiences, hence, paint and shine. Her moonshine guy is another small business, like her, so when something happens he has to ditch her to deal with it. That’s real life. She’s out in the middle of nowhere with no phone (cell reception is non-existent) or internet, so someone had to run to the neighbor’s to cal 9-1-1. When she needs to talk or get on line, Miranda has to drive down the road and park in a certain spot. This is life in rural America. It is this kind of rich detail that gives me hope for the future of this series. That, and well, Cheryl Hollon is a proven cozy author. I have high hopes. It is always fun to be in on the beginning of a series. I recommend you give it a try. I, for one, am looking forward to the next book.
I received an invitations to read an ARC of Still Knife Painting from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions and interpretations contained herein are solely my own. #netgalley #stillknifepainting
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley and voluntarily reviewed it.
I’ve enjoyed this author’s other series and was excited to hear about this new series. I think this was a solid introduction to this new series, but it did feel very much like an introduction book as well and I hope the series gets even better from now onward now that we’re introduced to the main character, location and some of the side characters. I liked the set-up for this one with the painting theme and rural location.
The mystery didn’t fully grip me and I wasn’t as invested as i would’ve liked. There seemed to be plenty of suspects, but for some reason I managed to guess the murderer correctly from the start. The mystery felt pretty straightforward. There is some investigating, but there weren’t as many twist and turns. There were some reveals I hadn’t expected and I couldn’t figure out the motive. The motive is something you only find out later in the book. I thought the mystery was a bit slow to progress as it was intermingled with the other aspects of this book and this is a first book in the series so it had a lot of introducing to do as well. I did like how Miranda, the main character, got involved in the mystery in a way that makes sense. Although the book did suffer from incompetent police agents a bit, which is a trope that i feel is a bit overdone. The county sheriff seemed competent enough, but the team from Lexington that got involved was pretty incompetent, so I am hoping we see more of the local sheriff and less from the Lexington people in future books.
I liked getting to know Miranda. She seemed to care about the farmhouse and wanted to stay there and make her new business a success. I would like to get to know her a bit better, but so far I liked her. She was determined to clear her name and made the best of her business. She has an interesting mix of outsider and insider due to which she doesn’t fully fit in yet, but does have some unique perspective on things. I hope to see more of her painting and her interest in moonshine in the future books as there wasn’t as much of that in this book. I liked the idea of her culture tours and how she incorporated painting, eating and drinking in them.
There are some side character we get introduced to in this book, some of them are clients and tourist from other parts. Some others are local characters and there are some that I expect to see more of in future books. I liked her budding friendship with Austin and even see the potential for a romance there. This book also had a nice rustic country feel and that small town feel.
To summarize: This is a solid start to a new series. I liked the set-up for this series and the focus on painting and Miranda’s new business. It did feel like a series starter or introduction read at times with how the stage is set for the rest of the series and I think/ hope future books are even better now that part is over. The pace and the mystery felt a bit slow at times. I also managed to guess the murderer correctly from the start and wasn’t as invested in the mystery as I would’ve liked. I was curious about the motive as that’s the one thing I couldn’t pinpoint and that was a reveal I hadn’t guessed. I did like how Miranda got involved in the mystery, but wasn’t a fan of the incompetent police officers from Lexington. I liked what we saw of Miranda, the town and the side characters we met so far and I hope to see more of those in future books. I look forward to future books in the series!
STILL KNIFE PAINTING is the first book in a new series and my first book by Cheryl Hollon. I enjoyed it so much and look forward to the next one!
As Miranda Trent is settling into life at the Kentucky farmhouse she inherited from her Uncle Gene, a death occurs in her kitchen on the first day of her new business, Paint & Shine. As the mystery is being solved and her clients are being eliminated as suspects one by one, Miranda is desperate to hold onto the farm but isn’t sure who she can trust as she’s trying to prove her innocence.
I loved the colorful cast of characters; especially Miranda’s rescue pup, Sandy. I hope to get to know the regulars better in the next book. If you’re looking for a cozy read, I recommend STILL KNIFE PAINTING!
Thank you to Book Club Girls, NetGalley and Cheryl Hollon for the opportunity to read this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.
An interesting mystery with a good dose of “local” aspects.
The challenge with a debut book is to get all the necessary details in. You don’t have past books in the series to cover extra material.
The author succeeds. But I wonder why: 1-There is the provision that she needs to have a working distillery within a certain time limit (especially given the local climate with several adamant anti-moonshine people) and 2- What’s up with the moonshine authority she has working with her.
I am a fan of the Webb Glass Shop Mystery series by this author so it was natural for me to take a chance on this first book in her new Paint and Shine Mystery series. I wasn’t a bad start to this new series. I liked Miranda and the secondary cast of characters. Although, at times throughout the story they felt a little flat or one dimensional, so I would love to see more character development. The pace of the story was a bit slow and there were a few times where I felt the story dragged a bit. However, it’s a balancing act when writing the first book in a new series to provide the reader with the background of the characters but not too much. I think the setting was unique as well as the part of the story dealing with moonshine and Miranda’s attempt to set up her own small-batch operations.
The mystery was decent. I guessed the identity of the killer early but it took me a while to figure out the character’s motive. That said, it didn’t ruin the reading experience because 1) it’s rare that I guess right and 2) usually when I’m confident it turns out I’m wrong.
All in all, it was a solid start to a new series. I would like to see more character development and a quicker pace for the next book in the series.
I voluntarily read a digital advanced review copy provided to me by the publisher Kensington through Netgalley. The opinions are my own.