Review: Emeralds and Envy by Angela McRae

Genre:
Cozy Mystery

Format:
E-Book

Publisher:
Red Adept Publishing, LLC

Release Date:
April 16, 2019






Synopsis from Goodreads:


Emma Madison loves junkin’ for old baubles to turn into dazzling new creations, and launching her new career as a jewelry designer in the small town of Roseland, Georgia, is a dream come true. After making out like a bandit at a garage sale one morning, Emma goes to the Silver Squirrel antiques shop to share her fabulous finds with a fellow jewelry lover. She’s shocked to learn that a salesclerk friend, Tina, has just been found murdered.

When the police can’t get any firm leads, Emma decides to use her newspaper reporting experience to assist them. According to the local gossip mill, not everyone in town liked Tina, including her two siblings. Soon, the list of suspects is longer than a strand of opera pearls.

Someone is trying to stop Emma from helping, even going so far as to threaten her new business. While eager to get back to making jewelry, Emma is determined to find the person responsible for Tina’s death, even if that means coming face-to-face with the killer.

My Review

Former newspaper reporter, Emma Madison, is busy making a name for herself as a jewelry designer in a small town in Georgia. She spends most of her time shopping garage sales to find old jewelry, which she recreates into beautiful new pieces. The local shop owners love to feature her items in their stores.

One day Emma makes her rounds to the shops and checks out a close friend’s, Carleen, antique store. To their shock, they find Tina, one of Carleen's salesclerks, has been murdered.  She begs Emma to help find the killer. They can’t imagine who would kill Tina as she was one of the nicest people. It doesn’t take long for them to discover that even nice people have enemies.

Emma doesn’t trust the police to find the murderer on their own, so she lends a helping hand. Not that the police want her helping hand, but she jumps into the middle of this case anyway.  When she starts receiving threats, she knows she's onto something.  She vows to find out what it is.

What a good start to a new cozy mystery series. I love getting in on the ground floor of a new series. I wasn’t sure of who the culprit was, but I had my suspicions.  However, I was still guessing until the very end.  The characters are lively and well developed. They aren’t stiff, which can happen in the first book of a new series. Not in this one. The characters jump right off the page and there is even a sweet cat involved.  There's also quite a bit of information on jewelry making intertwined into the story.

This book is responsible for me losing many hours of sleep. I just could not put it down until I read the last page. I suddenly have an interest in jewelry designing :) Another new-to-me author to watch for.

For reading challenges:
Craving for Cozies Reading Challenge 2019

FTC Disclosure: I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book that I received from the author. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.