Review: Paint by Murders

Edit: I repeatedly refer to the Prologue as Chapter 1, Chapter 1 as Chapter 2… adjust accordingly.

My review starts under the stars below; but first, an existential crisis:

Are my standards for what constitutes a 5-star read too low? Are the stars I dish out worth less than those given by more discerning readers? Do I need to provide you with some kind of currency exchange formula so you can decide if you really want to trust me and read what I recommend?

I was worried about that, not gonna lie. I’ve read so much more this year than in previous years, and for a while I was loving all of it. Five-stars, give me more, I don’t want it I need it. I’ve already discovered three independent writers without whose stories I now cannot live, totaling five 5-star books so far. One of them isn’t even in my preferred genre, and it was so good I’m now loving the shit out of the sequel.

Then I picked up a new book (not the one I’m reviewing below) and started reading. This was one of those books you’ve heard about for a while and are primed to love.

I tried. I slogged through the first few chapters and tried to focus only on the aspects I enjoyed. The book has a great MC with tons of potential, and the subject matter is inherently cool to me; but, at the point where I put it down, I’d give it two, two-and-a-half stars. I’m not going to rate it until I finish it, and it could very well average out to five stars. A banger ending or killer twist can make up for a multitude of slow starting and typographical errors.

If I don’t feel at least four stars by the time I finish, I’m not going to review it at all, but I am absolutely going to finish it. Every writer who puts his or her work out there deserves that much. So, I’m sorry, Kurt Vonnegut, for not finishing Player Piano. You can’t do that to a cat and expect me to keep reading.

Now that I’ve defended the value of my stars, let me tell you about five more of them.

Read it: Paint by Murders (Emily Ellis Thrillers Book 1) by Amanda Jaeger

Spoilers: Some. I’ll highlight them in red so you can gloss over them if you want.

Girls are dying in the town of Volga, and no one seems to be talking about who or what is behind their deaths. Emily Ellis, aka Mills, knows her talent as an artist has a purpose: to tell the stories of girls who are no longer able to tell their stories themselves.

In her hands, Mills’ brushes do the talking. They take over her hands and mind, and what they produce seem to have a connection to the girls and what happened to them. There’s only one person who knows how dark that connection is, and he’ll stop at nothing to use that connection for his own ends. With Mills in his crosshairs, she has to do whatever it takes to survive (Author’s Synopsis).

Initial Impressions

Here’s the thing… I got sucked into this book so quickly, I didn’t even think about pausing to record my first thoughts. I only took a break around Chapter 15 because nature was past calling and was screaming in my ear by then.

After the fact, I’ll say Paint by Murders has a very scary, somewhat disturbing first chapter. I was a little worried that the book would be disturbing throughout, which I can handle but wasn’t super looking forward to.

Nothing that followed Chapter 1 was as disturbing, so if you get to Chapter 2 and are afraid to continue, don’t be.

One of the main locations in the book goes by a name so hilarious that I really did scream-laugh and scare my cat off my lap. I won’t spoil it here. Get to that point in the book, and finishing it is like downhill skiing when you know how to French Fry but can’t remember how to Pizza.

First Star: Art! ART!

I will devour anything to do with art, even more so when it’s written by someone who really knows what she’s talking about. Put Jaeger in the company of writers like Elizabeth George and Michael Crichton, who can make you believe they’ve spent their entire life learning how to do or be something. Maybe Jaeger really is an artist, or maybe she’s great at research; but either way, every discussion around art, from the buying the supplies to the sensation of painting a masterpiece, is genuine and deeply felt. They’re beautiful passages that balance out the terror of a serial killer’s mind and the pragmatic struggles of a young college student.

Jaeger just gets art. You’ll never look at Vermeer, Munch, and Van Gogh the same way again.

Second Star: Suspects

Look, I’m not a genius or some kind of crack detective (though I was a background investigator and a PI for several years, true story), but I can usually figure out whodunnit by the third or fourth chapter of a mystery. That does take some of the fun out of it.

Not so here! I picked out a suspect near the beginning, only to jump from one suspect to another for dozens of chapters. You can’t write a successful mystery without some believable red herrings, and Paint by Murders provides.

Third Star: Timeline

Jaeger plays around with the timeline, telling the story in a not entirely linear fashion.

If you’re not paying attention, you’ll miss some very important clues.

Since I pay attention like my blood is made of methylphenidate (it’s a blessing and curse), it was gratifying to see the breadcrumbs Jaeger left for those truly determined to solve the mystery.

If you can’t achieve superhuman focus when you’re reading, never fear! You don’t need to feel “in on it” to enjoy this story. The prose, the characters, the pace, the dialog, it’s all fun to read even if you have no idea who the killer is until the moment they show themselves (grammatical errors included for your non-spoiling consideration).

Fourth Star: Twists

This whole star is a spoiler, but red text is irritating, so this is your only warning. Skip past the picture of Stallone if you don’t want the ending ruined.

For about a chapter and a half, I thought the sorority chick was the killer. I considered going back to the first chapter to see if Jaeger had tricked me into believing the killer was a man.

This wasn’t a cheap, below-the-belt red herring that turns out to be such a stretch that you roll your eyes. She was a believable killer, and I’m not just saying that because I was so painfully gawky in my college years. I mean, the paintbrushes are made of hair, and she had a bag of hair. She seemed like a nasty little dictator-in-training who couldn’t handle challenges to her authority.

When she turned out to be not only innocent but a little bit good and extremely relatable, I was knocked back on my heels. She was one of many false leads. I even briefly believed the MC was the killer.

I love getting mind-fucked by a well thought-out plot.

Fifth Star: Cliffhanger

I know some people hate cliffhangers. I learned that after being mildly roasted over my own cliffhanger. If you’ve read Enemy Closer and know what I’m talking about, I can promise the cliffhanger at the end of Paint by Murders is nowhere near as steep. It makes you want to get your hands the next book as soon as possible, but it still satisfies.

There’s something more going on in Volga than one serial killer perpetrating his murdery nonsense. I assume our hero is going to figure it out, and I hope it takes several books, because I want to keep enjoying this series for as long as possible!

-AK