The Artist’s Alchemy by Amorette Anderson

A little art, a little science, and some murder. What more could you want?

Once again we are back at another one of Marley’s Retreat weekends but this time an innocent mistakes things a little more interesting. In Penny’s attempt to help with advertising she inadvertently marketed the event to scientists instead of artists, as it was intended to be. Little did they know just how much these two groups of people hated each other, but was it enough motive for murder?

A famous scientist ended up being pushed off the roof while trying to perform a sabotaging spell. This lead to a troubling question…could someone close to Marley have been the one to kill him? Or could the guest speaker, who happened to be he Ex, have killed him in order the prevent the weekend and her art from being ruined? I will admit, some of the people Marley thought were suspects just seemed like unlikely candidates, but at lease she tried to do her best when questioning them. She is not a trained PI like her best friend but she has her own ways of solving a murder. And let me just say that this was a close one! The ghost of Robert gave her a deadline to prove that his ex wasn’t the killer and she almost didn’t make it.

Anderson has this way of bringing some light to all of these stories. Her characters are so fun and just feel so real! When the one character was stabbed in the butt I could not help laughing out loud. Not because of the stabbing, but because of the way the characters reacted to it. I have no doubts that if they were real this is exactly how they would act. I am constantly finding myself wishing that I was part of this magical world. That is why I keep coming back to this series, it feels like home…minus the murders of course.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and how Marley solved the murder. I was actually surprised by who the killer was! Also, there is usually a lesson in each of the books which I always enjoy. For example, in this book you kind of learned that changing your perspective can be incredibly helpful. Sometimes you just need to adjust your focus and see something new. Another thing that I loved about the book is how Marley’s magic is growing. Her healing abilities started to manifest more and I am really excited to see where that goes. If you are looking for a cozy mystery with a magical twist try this one!