Paint & Shine is entering its first fall and the end of the tourist season. Miranda, worried that times could be tight, decides to add corporate events to her offerings. Team building, art lessons, great food, and some shine cocktails sounds like a great combination, right? Upper management has other plans and team building becomes team demolition as the participating teams are set against each other in order to secure their jobs. On the bright side, Miranda is able to reunite with an old friend, on the dark side, that same friend is high on the suspect list for murder. Essentially everyone has a motive thanks to the crazy competition but who had the opportunity? Miranda teams up with Austin the forest ranger aka her romantic interest, to whittle down the suspect list. I am not sure how she finds the time to sleuth, what with the extremely busy days hosting a wide/wild variety of events for the two teams complete with good glass of shine and some excellent home-style cooking each day. Speaking of which, recipes for both shine-tails and great eats like the Homemade Herb Crackers which are found after the extremely cute ending of the story.

Another retreat is ramping up, but the fun is being sucked out of it by a dead body, a tyrant and a saboteur! I absolutely love the characters and the plots in this series, but I am absolutely entranced by the idea of a food, painting, hiking, moonshine retreat! I would definitely sign right up if only this were a real thing! Once again this series welcomes us back with group of characters that feel like old friends rather than just characters on a page and I absolutely can't wait to visit again in the next book! Things are really starting to cook in some of these characters lives now!

I read the first two books in the Paint & Shine series by Cheryl Hollon and really looked forward to where this series was going to go. The first two books were middle-of-the-road reads for me. I went into Death a Sketch with high hopes and was pleasantly surprised.

Tourist season is over, and Miranda needs to find a way to keep her business afloat and get her moonshine distillery up and running. She agrees to a team bonding retreat that ends up deadly, and Miranda can’t help but try to solve the mystery.

I like Miranda and the whole cast of characters around her. They’re diverse and totally support Miranda. Her relationship with Austin is budding and adds a nice touch of romance to fill out the story. Really the main cast of characters is the strong point of the series.

I liked the idea of the corporate team-building event turned competition. The murder and the reasoning behind it weren’t quite as developed and could have used a little more tweaking. The answer seemed to come out of left field, figured out during some research done off page. But the victim wasn’t well liked, and there were definitely plenty of suspects and motives.

Death a Sketch has been my favorite book in this series. The book does stand alone quite well. With solid characters and a good mystery, Cheryl Hollon succeeded in writing an enjoyable cozy mystery.

Death a Sketch by Cheryl Hollon takes us to back to Kentucky where Miranda Trent runs Paint & Shine. Her latest group is from Big Sky for a four-day team building experience. Unfortunately, the man in charge, Mr. Burns decides to make a last-minute change. Mr. Burns turns the team building retreat into a competition with serious consequences for the losers. On the first day, Miranda takes the group along with Mr. Burns and his assistant, Rowena (who happens to be an old high school classmate of Miranda’s) on their first hike and competition. After listening to a talk from Park Ranger Austin Morgan, Miranda leads the group down the trail. The group encounters Mr. Burns dead on the ground with Rowena at his side holding a large rock. Miranda wishes to cancel the retreat, but Mr. Burns replacement insists they continue. Rowena is at the top of the sheriff’s suspect list. Miranda knows her old friend could not have harmed her boss. She sets out to prove Rowena’s innocence while continuing the competitive retreat. Miranda finds it challenging because someone is intent on sabotage. Death a Sketch is the third A Paint & Shine Mystery. It can easily be read as a standalone. Death a Sketch is well-written with realistic, developed characters. The story does start off slowly as we are introduced to the retreat members. I enjoyed the author’s vivid descriptions of that area of Kentucky. The Daniel Boone National Forest is a picturesque region. The depictions of the food will have your mouth watering. It was interesting learning more about the making of moonshine. The mystery was plotted out nicely. There are good suspects along with misdirection. There are clues to help readers solve the whodunit before the reveal (if you pay close attention). Miranda asked questions, but she did little investigating. There were various incidents along the way that kept things lively. I did feel the reveal was a wee bit rushed along with the explanation. Sandy, Miranda’s puppy, is adorable. He helped reduce the stress of the participants. Miranda’s mother only had a cameo in this book. She had to go out of town to complete the sale of her home. I like Miranda’s mother and I hope she will join her daughter in sleuthing in future books. Miranda is slowly getting the distillery off the ground. I hope she makes the deadline. Miranda is finding her place in the community and her romance with Austin is progressing nicely. Death a Sketch is a lively cozy with workshop woes, moonshine mixing, an eliminated executive, a cuddly canine, contestant sabotage, a romantic park ranger, and a caught killer.

I like this series that always made me wish I could travel the Appalacchians and I was glad to catch up with the characters.
Another entertaining and well plotted story, a solid mystery that kept me guessing.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Rounding up to a three on the assumption that the inaccuracies in the last quarter of the book were fixed before publishing. The moonshine part of the book was fun and I loved the inclusion of the recipes in the back for the cocktails.

Exciting 3rd book in the Paint and Shine Mystery series. I love the idea of an outdoor team building event. Hiking and painting and learning how to make moonshine all sound so fun! Of course, I could do without the cut-throat opportunists and murder.

Loved this book! The setting, the characters, the mystery...they all kept me highly entertained. Once I started reading, I didn't want to put the book down (who needs sleep, amirite?). I can't wait for the next book in the series.

Many thanks to Kensington Publishing and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. My thoughts and opinions are my own and without bias or favor or expectation.

Poor Miranda. She is trying to get her paint and shine business up and running successfully but people keep getting murdered. This is the third book in the series which is set in Kentucky.

What is supposed to be a corporate team building workshop turns into a nasty competition. I felt like the criminal unveiling was really rushed towards the end.

This is currently one of my favorite series. It combines the outdoors, art and moonshine. I thought I couldn't wait for the next one but the ending was super cheesy so a break will be good.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington books for access to a copy of the book so I could give an honest review.

Death a Sketch by Cheryl Hollon is a very entertaining short cozy featuring Miranda and her Paint and Shine Kentucky arts and tourism company. She has had a pretty good year and now the season is over. She has contracted for one list event: a team building workshop for ten management candidates for a sportswear company. It culminates by cooking Thanksgiving dinner. She is excited and nervous. On their first drawing outing, the management representative hits his head on a rock, but Rowena, the scorekeeper, is standing over him holding the rock. Oh, yeah, forgot to mention: the team-building had been turned into a competition with an administrative assistant appointed to keep score and notes. It turned out she was a friend of Miranda’s from high school so she stayed in the farmhouse with Miranda. She wouldn’t remember what had happened, but Miranda never believed she hit him over the head. A day or so later, they got the news he had died. He was replaced by another corporate bigwig: a real jerk. Quite a good character.

Miranda and Austin tried to help the sheriff investigate the murder but they were coming up empty. Meanwhile, the workshop must go on. All kinds of things happen, including food-poisoning. The rumor was that the losing team would all be fired. Was one team this desperate to win? While Miranda and Austin were observing, the sheriff was doing background checks. Miranda is a good character: a small town girl who has returned from her stint in New York City to take over her uncle’s small farm and still. In order to keep it she must have her own still up and running in three months and be producing moonshine within a year. Only Miranda would combing her love for the visual arts and making moonshine into a business. The mystery was a decent one and the investigation comprehensive. The characters are well written and interesting. The whole thing is a joy to read.

I was invited to read a free e-ARC of Death a Sketch by Kensington, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #netgalley #kensington #cherylhollon #deathasketch

Death A Sketch is the third book in the Paint And Shine Mystery series by Cheryl Hollon.

The Big Sky Company has hired Miranda to handle a 4-day team-building workshop consisting of competitions, games, and challenges. There will be two 4-person teams competing, and the teams will consist of those that are being considered for upper management. Miranda is looking forward to seeing Rowena Gardner, her friend from high school and currently an administrative assistant at Big Sky, and will be keeping track of the teams' performances.

On the first day on the trail, Rowena tells Miranda that Mr. Burns, VP of Operations, has some challenges in mind. He is going back down the path to see if he’s nearby. After Park Ranger Austin Morgan finishes his talk on the Daniel Boone Forest, the group heads back down the trail. Soon they come upon Rowena kneeling and holding a rock with blood on it, next to the dead body of Burns.

Surprisingly the company wants to continue with the team-building event, much to Miranda’s surprise. Miranda senses that the company is far from a compassionate company, and the competition is a way for Big Sky to eliminate some unwanted employees. When Rowena becomes a prime suspect in the murder of Burns, Miranda and Austin will help the local sheriff with his investigation to clear Rowena’s name.

I’m enjoying the series. The book is well-written and plotted. The author depicts the Daniel Boone Forest very descriptively. The characters are well-developed and believable. The story reads at a good pace. There were enough twists and turns that I was guessing until the end as to who the killer was.

The book also includes delicious-sounding recipes.

I will be watching for the next book in the series.

This book, Death a Sketch is the follow-up to Draw and Order which continues Cheryl Hollon's intriguing cosy mystery series featuring Miranda Trent. Her Uncle Gene left her a remote farmhouse on Pine Ridge, sited in the eastern Kentucky hills. One of the conditions that her uncle stipulated in his will was that Miranda must set up and make a success of a business including a distillery within a specified timescale, otherwise, she would lose the right to her inheritance. So Miranda set up a painting and distillery enterprise called Paint & Shine, pairing outdoor painting classes with sips of local moonshine, followed by a scrumptious home-cooked meal. Miranda's branching into employee teambuilding workshops but the executive in charge of the group from BigSky Corporation likes to harbour a competitive edge which causes a few ructions as one team will remain employed but not the other and then someone ends up dead...

I adored the premise of Death a Sketch and Cheryl Hollon's character development is excellent. Narrator and artist Miranda has grown on me though at the beginning of the first book I found her rather brusque and impatient. The comfortable pacing helped to make this a very pleasant cosy mystery. There were a number of suspects to choose from even though I didn't get very far in identifying the culprit. I enjoyed the inclusion of Rowena Gardner, an old friend of Miranda's in this tale as well as the little dog, Sandy that belongs to Miranda.

For readers who are looking for a marvellous cosy mystery, I think Death a Sketch will fit the bill, though I have to say that, having been on a few team-building weekends and events myself, I'm grateful they weren't like the one featured here! I'm definitely curious to see how things develop for Miranda in the next book!

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my own request from Kensington Books via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

This is my favorite in the series so far. There were so many management practices detailed in this book that I can implement into my own workplace that I really appreciated. The mystery was intriguing in this one and kept me guessing until the end. I loved the idea of a retreat and how it was handled. I also enjoyed the development of Miranda's relationship with Austin and look forward to seeing how that grows.

There seems to be two main types of cozy mystery writers; those that continually go over the suspects and their motives and those that write a good story with lots going on besides continually going over the suspects… and I’m happy that Cheryl Hollon is the second type of author!

Death a Sketch is the third book in the Paint & Shine Mysteries and Hollon continues to have well developed characters, great settings, and wonderful food and drink (mainly moonshine) scenes.

In Death a Sketch we are introduced to 13 new characters (there’s a list at the beginning to help you keep track and it reminded me of classic mysteries of yore!) and with Hollon’s talents of fully developed characters I never had trouble keeping everyone straight while reading. Two of the characters are very unlikable people, but Hollon still had ways for Miranda, the main character, to stand her ground.

The good story with lots going on part involved a company team building that Hollon had going to new locations around the town in eastern Kentucky and participating in various art, cooking, and physical activities. This adds a wonderful layer to the story because we got to read about the beauty of Kentucky and enjoy all the food and cocktails that the characters made.

As for the mystery, this one was more where the reveal comes out of nowhere. While there were lots of suspects, I didn’t really see any clues that would have led the reader to the killer. I’m fine with that, especially since I enjoyed the rest of the book, but I do know some readers like to be able to have the clues peppered in throughout that allows them to solve the whodunnit before the main character.

Another great cozy mystery by Hollon, and I’m looking forward to the next one in the series.

Miranda Trent runs a unique tour company Paint and Shine combining Appalachian adventure tours with art and a bit of moonshine. The perfect place for an outdoors sporting goods company to hold an employee retreat. Miranda has lots of activities planned from sketching classes to Southern cooking but the executive running things prefers a more competitive spirit. The workers are split into teams and told only the winners will keep their jobs. Even after a participant is found dead the contest continues the contest continues. Miranda and the sheriff are left to come up with who may have killed the contestant. This was a fun story with great characters and a lot of action throughout. I would highly recommend it to everyone.

It was good visiting with Miranda and her friends in her first corporate workshop and the last event before closing down for winter. I'm glad she and Austin were getting closer--the end was so cute!

That corporate group was run by someone who'd give JR Ewing a run for his nastiness, lol. I'm not sure which one of the execs was worse, but after a while, it was only one that mattered anyway. Most of the company's employees seemed like okay people but I particularly liked how Carol and her team came together for those challenges. I liked Miranda's friend Rowena, the admin assistant and kinda hoped she'd decide to ditch the crazies in this company and get a job somewhere close so she and Miranda could be besties again. If only Miranda's business wasn't so new and probably not able to afford her, Rowena would've made a great assistant!

I enjoyed that the showdown wasn't dangerous to Miranda herself, but someone else was pretty traumatized by it. Although the sheriff had things under control biding his time. I'd love to see a Christmas book in this setting, but since Miranda can't run her tours in winter, I'm sure that won't be happening. It'd be all kinds of festive up in those snowy mountains though!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book provided by Kensington Cozies via NetGalley, and my opinions are my own.

I loved the fall setting and the plan of the Thanksgiving training. The characters were all well done. They were very suspicious and petty and frustrating. Some of them grew into better people as the training went on. Some of the secrets were easy to figure out, but The Who behind the secrets was a surprise right up until the end. I also liked the but at the end where Miranda thinks of how she vet people better next time.
This was a great book full of characters that drove me nuts. Thank you to NetGalley.

Miranda is trying to expand her Paint & Shine business into corporate team building. Her first group starts to go bad from the beginning because of the management that is involved.
Death a Sketch is the third Paint & Shine mystery. The main characters are becoming familiar. The author provides a cast of characters at the beginning which helps to define the 13 new characters that are part of BigSky sports wear.
Miranda and Austin are getting cozy and they are a cute couple.
The manner of death was an interesting twist. The manager who dies and the manager who replaced him are both awful, so I had little sympathy for the trouble they each faced. Not that either deserved to die, but they were not very nice human beings.
I never did narrow down the suspect list, but Miranda narrowed it down and depended on Sheriff Larson to connect the dots and get evidence.
I like how the books ends with Miranda and Austin going to dinner.
This was a good mystery. I didn’t care for the BigSky group and that detracted some from enjoyment.
I think you could pick up this third book in the series and do okay following along. Some cozy series build heavily on the precious books. This one is well enough set up and different from the other two in a way that I think you could read it as a stand-alone.
I recommend Death a Sketch.

Death a Sketch is book 3 in the Paint & Shine Mystery series by Cheryl Hollon.

Miranda is expanding her business to include corporate retreats. Management of the company gets involved and changes it from team building to a team competition with high stakes for the winners and losers.

I like Miranda and Austin and Iris and Lily. It is fun to see the relationship progress. I enjoyed the mystery but as a reader, I like the opportunity to solve the mystery and in this one, there wasn’t enough information provided until it was time for the arrest. There were a lot of cooking/baking activities for team building event for an athletic wear company. I did like that Miranda realized some mistakes she made and will avoid them for future events.

Thank you to the author, Kensington, and NetGalley for the free copy of this book and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

This is the third in the Paint and shine cozy mystery series. Set in the lovely Daniel Boone National Forest it's a well plotted mystery featuring Miranda Trent. She is working hard to build her business that combines art and moonshine so when the Big Sky sporting goods company hires her to put on a four day corporate bounding event she says yes. This could be a big help to growing her business. When murder is added to the event she wishes she had said no thank you. What should have been a team building program, the CEO turns it into a battle between two 5 member teams and the prize at the end? One team will stay employed and the other team will get their pink slip. What could possibly go wrong. Pitting people against each other is certain to lead to danger...but murder?
The pace from the start is a bit slow but it works well. There is enough background laid out to make Death a Sketch work well as a stand alone. Miranda and her friends are well developed characters working to solve a well crafted mystery. Then there is an adorable terrier pup named Sandy. When I finished death a Sketch I thought wouldn't it be nice to travel to the Daniel Boone National Forest to spend time with Miranda and her friends and family, sitting on the porch enjoying good food and cuddling Sandy. I'll pass on the shine and i can't draw a stick figure but that wouldn't matter one bit. If a murder occurs I'll add my two cents from the porch.
My thanks to the publisher Kensington and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

My first in the series, but definitely not my last; so much fun! Everything about this was such fun; the characters were all different, the "villian" victim was someone you were definitely rooting against, and the mystery had plenty of zip. Super loved the recipes included for both food and moonshine!