Maple Ridge, Vermont is a small town where everybody knows everybody's business. Carolyn Emerson is the owner of Fire At Will, a paint-your-own pottery studio. Business is good until the body of Betty Wickline is discovered one night in Carolyn's shop. Hodges, the town sheriff, is not convinced that Carolyn is innocent. Carolyn suspects the other town people might feel the same about her because all of a sudden she couldn't pay anyone to be her customer. She decides to start her own investigation to help clear her name and enlists the help of The Firing Squad, a group of amateur painters and potters that meet routinely at her studio.

I found this story to be quite entertaining. Whether big or small, there was something going on at all times. It never lagged. I did feel the author could have developed the characters a bit more. The book starts right off the morning after the murder. We never get to know the victim, Betty. The author makes it clear that Carolyn did not care for her, but we never really get an explanation of why not, just that one day Betty walked into her shop and generated "instant animosity" in her. I felt the author could have come up with something a bit more substantial than that. There is also the relationship between Carolyn and the sheriff. Every time they had a "conversation" it reminded me of a couple of two-year olds fighting over a favorite toy. It was hard to imagine two grownups acting that way. There is obviously a history between the two, but we are kept in the dark about it. Maybe in future issues we will find out a bit more. There are some delightful characters. Bill, Carolyn's husband, is a gem and I hope her best friend Hannah will play a bigger role in the next book. I also enjoyed Butch, the reformed crook, or is he?

There are plenty of suspects that kept me guessing until the very end, but I did feel the ending was a bit rushed. It lasted a whole page and a half. All in all, it was a decent start to a new series with some room for improvement. I will definitely check out the next in the series.

This book is written in first person. ( )

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