Light, frivolous mystery centered around a potter, her studio, and her potter friends. ( )

Carolyn runs a pottery shop where customers can buy finished pottery, paint pottery to fit their mood or learn to create from scratch. Her one and only employee is a young man named David who is also the son of her best friend, Hannah. David is very excited because a potter whom he admires very much is coming to town to lecture.

The fun starts as decades old secrets start to come to light. Who is Charles Potter and who disliked him enough to kill him? Carolyn is determined to find out and keep her friends and family safe.

There is a lot of fun pottery facts sprinkled throughout the story and lots of character development especially in the young David who is maturing and going through growing pains.

A light, fun read. I didn't guess who did it but did have an idea of why. ( )

This book features one of the most annoying protagonists I've encountered. Carolyn Emerson owns a pottery shop in a Vermont tourist town. When a dead body turns up in her backyard, the prime suspect is Carolyn's associate, who also happens to be her best friend's son. Convinced that the police are incompetent, Carolyn undertakes the task of solving the mystery.

The problem with all of this is that Carolyn is annoying. REALLY annoying. Her favorite activity is complaining. Carolyn complains about her husband, her customers, the local sheriff, among others. She's downright rude to the sheriff because she thinks he's incompetent (though there's no evidence of that in the book).

Then there's Carolyn's troupe of followers, "the firing squad," a group so devoted to pottery that they're willing to go all out to solve a dangerous mystery. They still take pottery breaks, though. Each of the members of the firing squad is a sort of stereotype, especially the ex-con with the heart of porcelain, and the tough, no-nonsense lady judge.

Honestly, life is too short for books like this. There are more entertaining ways to spend one's time. ( )

My wife was barely able to make it through this book. The heroine was obnoxious, a self-righteous prig. The story was not helped by use of the first-person pronoun. ( )

This is definitely one of my favorite cozy series! Somehow Carolyn has found herself in the middle of another murder investigation. This time it's someone that she knows, but that no one is happy to see. Carolyn is very lucky to have such a great group of friend in the "Firing Squad". Friends that have no trouble snooping to help her solve the murder. And poor Bill continues to worry about Carolyn and the trouble she seems to find. Ms. Glazer makes her characters friends you'd like to have as your own. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series - A Fatal Slip. ( )