Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Portrait of a Dead Guy (A Cherry Tucker Mystery) by Larissa Reinhart


4 STARS

Portrait of a Dead Guy is funny, creepy, southern mystery. It was also enjoyable clean read that kept you guessing what would happen next.
Cherry Tucker is an artist in a small town having a hard time making a living. She is small. The center of a lot of gossip that she does not help at all with her actions. When she hears that the Branson's family wants a portrait of their son for the funeral service, She heads right over to get the job. They are planning to use a member of their own family do the art. Cherry convinces them to give her a chance. She is not to fond of the murdered guy.

That night she decides in the middle of the night to go to the funeral home and start the portrait. She is by herself having let herself in with a key. While she is getting ideas of how she wants to do the picture of Dustin. She is attacked and knocked on the head. The casket is off balance and her coke is spilled all over. Her paint supplies are ruined.

The Sheriff their family friend Uncle Will threatens to arrest her. More rumors spread around the town about her robbing the corpse. The funeral home is not pressing charges.

Dustin's stepbrother Luke just got out of the service and back home, but not to stay. He used to be her boyfriend and she is still mad at him and finds him still hot.

Cherry got married in Las Vegas to Todd who won the trip to play poker. He tells one version of what happened their and Cherry is not telling all the details about it. Everyone is talking about what they did do. Todd is also the drummer in a band and plays the dumb blond who is really good at poker.

Cherry wants to get the Portrait and have the family buy the painting. She is also trying to figure out who attacked her and is robbing everywhere Dustin might have hid something. Everyone tells her to stop asking questions about what Dustin was up too. Also to stop working on the portrait.

Their are some funny scenes especially the comedy of errors at the funeral. I like Cherry and her family. This is small southern town with lots of interesting characters. I would like to see what Cherry gets into next time.

I was given this ebook to read and asked to give honest review of it by Netgalley.

Publisher: Henery Press; First edition (August 23, 2012) 280 pages ASIN: B0091X7NGQ

Description below taken off of Goodreads.

In Halo, Georgia, folks know Cherry Tucker as big in mouth, small in stature, and able to sketch a portrait faster than buckshot rips from a ten gauge -- but commissions are scarce. So when the well-heeled Branson family wants to memorialize their murdered son in a coffin portrait, Cherry scrambles to win their patronage from her small town rival.

As the clock ticks toward the deadline, Cherry faces more trouble than just a controversial subject. Between ex-boyfriends, her flaky family, an illegal gambling ring, and outwitting a killer on a spree, Cherry finds herself painted into a corner she’ll be lucky to survive.

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