Murder Can Confuse Your Chihuahua

Celeste Cabot has a flair for painting—and a touch of paranormal talent too. She’s just arrived to sell her artwork at a big craft fair in North Carolina, complete with rides, games, and deep-fried everything. But the sunny landscape takes on a darker hue when her Chihuahua, Van Gogh, leads her to the riverbank—and to a body that was not part of her design.

With help from a handsome fellow artist, Celeste sets out to draw the brazen killer onto her canvas. She’ll need to balance the victim’s past, a suspected love triangle, and a long-ago accident—and also consult with a medium and a spirit—to try to paint a murderous fiend into a corner

Series: A Haunted Craft Fair Mystery – Book #2
Author: Rose Pressey
Genre: Cozy Mystery/Paranormal
Publisher: Kensington Books
Page Count: 288

Rating:

Murder Can Confuse Your Chihuahua is the second book in the new paranormal series written by Rose Pressey and published by Kensington Books.

I truly enjoyed the first book in this series. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the second. As paranormal books go, it just didn’t have the main ingredients to hold my full attention. The main character seems to have become less intelligent and far too careless. She doesn’t grasp the need to be cautious when dealing with possible murder suspects and runs headlong into danger at every given turn. There is a feel of childishness to all the characters, but Celeste is the worst out of all. Neither the suspects nor the investigators are mature, and this gives the entire book the feel of being written for tweens instead of adults.

The premise of this second book is very similar to the first. Celeste comes across a body while working a craft fair; a ghost shows up out of a painting, and regardless of advice and warnings, she and the ghost go around asking, no demanding, answers to questions they have no right to ask. Ama, the ghost takes center stage in this paranormal story. She is not a good influence on Celeste and gets her into more danger. The suspects are blasé, to say the least, the motive quickly found out and the culprit, almost known from the beginning.

Come on, Ms. Pressey, I know you are a far better writer than this book shows. I’ve read your other material and loved it! There was an excellent start to this series, and I hoped it would grow with the second book, but instead, it reads as if it is the first attempt by someone who has no idea what the story is about. I am a connoisseur of paranormal and witch based cozies. I could happily spend all my waking hours devouring each one, and let there be no doubt that I search high and low for new writers and books that fit into my favorite topic, and when I find one I read it several times to get a good feel for the characters and plots. Most of the time, I am happy with the result and encourage others to read the books as well. However, this series has disappointed me with this new edition, and I fear it will not improve with the third book. I am hoping that I am proven wrong, and the third book will be everything Murder Can Confuse Your Chihuahua was not.

Other paranormal/witch series that readers will want to check out include Bethany Blake’s wonderful series “An Owl and Crescent Mystery” or perhaps Kate Young’s intriguing “Marygene Brown Mysteries”.

About the Author:

Rose Pressey is a USA Today bestselling author. She enjoys writing quirky and fun novels with a paranormal twist. When she’s not writing about ghosts and other supernatural creatures, she loves eating cupcakes with sprinkles, reading, spending time with family, and listening to oldies from the fifties. Rose lives near Louisville, Kentucky, with her husband, son, and three sassy Chihuahuas.