Murder at the Mill

Shaw, M. B. Murder at the Mill. New York: Minotaur Books, 2018.

Iris, an artist, arrives to paint a portrait of Dom Weatherby, and finds him dead following a party on Christmas day. At first the local officers presume it to be suicide but when the toxicology report shows chloroform, she knows her hunch it was murder is correct. What follows is a rather convoluted plot. Although the book improves as it goes along, I failed to connect with the amateur sleuth and the official investigators seemed too far removed from the investigation. Another thread follows an older case which was determined to be suicide but provides motive for the current one. Iris also determines a wrong conclusion in that case, finding the guilty party. The similar circumstances make the plot too unrealistic. I received an advance electronic copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.