A review by verityw
Fatal Brushstroke by Sybil Johnson

3.0

Computer programmer Rory Anderson is caught up in a murder investigation when her tole painting teacher is found dead in her flowerbed. As the evidence adds up and seems to point to Rory, she starts to investigate what happened while helping her mother run the family crafting and painting store.

This is the first in a series - and in writing this I realised that I'd read the first one last year and not connected the dots between the two. Oops. But this is interesting and quite well done, although there is a lot of backstory to Rory which isn't always set out as clearly as it could be

Spoiler

I was confused between her birth mother and her adopted mother for a while

and most of which seems to have been wrapped up to a point where I don't remember it being in the next book (although I should probably go away and check that). Looking at my review of book 2, the complicated backstory was an issue for me there because I hadn't read book one. I will keep an eye out for book 3 though.