Murder on Painted Place by Emily Hepditch

These two words go together perfectly to describe Murder on Painted Place – mystery thriller! Author Emily Hepditch creates an unforgettable and suspenseful nail-biter. To begin the story, each character receives the same letter, inviting them to a grand mansion on a secluded island, Painted Place. This is an effective introduction into the story as well as into each of the characters. From the beginning, the reader meets the players, the snare is set, and one is immediately engaged in the tale.

We learn early that famed reclusive artist Arthur Cherrywood, the sender of the letter, has died and invited a small group of six to make the trip to Painted Place, to celebrate his death. Assembled are a scathing art critic, a lawyer, an artist and his wife, a younger Cherrywood, and an older woman. It is this cast of strangers that must gather, and by specially arranged boat, travel to the mansion, located on a rocky, isolated island, surrounded by a cold sea off Newfoundland.

“The house stood like a wide pearl behemoth, a new man-made Mount Everest, all Gothic windows and kooky towers peeking up from the island rock and wind-mauled trees. The house departed from the salt boxes and jelly beans of Newfoundland, swapping the main island’s bright colours and perfect symmetry for a scribble of darkness and disorder.”
(Page 17)

The group gets briefly acquainted on the boat ride from the mainland and once on the island, they meet the house staff who will strive to make their visit memorable and hospitable. Add a wild, raging storm into the mix and a suspicious murder, and you’ve got a rocking good story, told by Hepditch, with unflinchingly diabolical timing and intrigue. Due to the violent storm, no one can arrive on nor leave the island, so the killer may well be among them. But who? Agatha Christie meets Lucy Foley: Classic mystery with modern overtones, a whodunit served up just right.

Murder on Painted Place unfolds with excellence in story-telling and be forewarned- once this cover is flipped, the reader gives up any sense of time and place, other than that offered by this skilled author. I loved this ride! Along with the characters, the mansion itself is a personified player and anthropomorphism is used effectively throughout, whether when speaking of the elements or of the paintings themselves.

“It was the subject’s eyes which had kept her there for ages that day, staring at the painting, entirely raptured. The eyes that had, from their fixed position on the library wall, reached into her soul and stolen it. Its eyes held emotion in its purest form…“
(page 12)

Pick up a copy of Murder on Painted Place by Emily Hepditch and find out how the wealthy artist Arthur Cherrywood amassed the group who will stop at nothing to be considered first in line for a piece of his opulence. Hepditch masterfully delivers a gripping literary thriller, with plenty of secrets and lies, marked by twists and turns, right to the very last heart-pounding page. Don’t miss this one!

Emily Hepditch is an award-winning author from Mount Pearl, Newfoundland.

In 2020, her debut novel, The Woman in the Attic, was published by Flanker Press and quickly became the #1 bestselling book in Newfoundland and Labrador. The book has remained on the Atlantic Books Today top five bestsellers list since its release. Emily’s second thriller, Alone on the Trail, is also an ABT top-five bestseller. Sweater is her first children’s illustrated book.

Emily is a graduate of Memorial University of Newfoundland, where she studied linguistics, psychology, and criminology. When she is not writing novels, she is studying law, working on an illustration, or hiking the East Coast Trails.

Publisher: Flanker Press (October 18, 2024)
Paperback: 8″ x 6″ | 272 pages
ISBN: 9781774572207

Carrie Stanton

Managing Editor

TMR’s Managing Editor Carrie Stanton has a BA in Political Science from the University of Calgary. She is the author of The Jewel and Beast Bot, and picture books, Emmie and the Fierce Dragon and The Gardener. Carrie loves to write stories that grow wings and transport readers everywhere. She reads and enjoys stories from every genre.