Review by Booklist Review
Hoping to forge a better relationship with her mother, Marit, Chloe Ellefson travels to Decorah, Iowa, with her boyfriend, Roelke, and her mother to the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum to attend classes in rosemaling (Norwegian decorative painting) beginning level for Chloe, advanced for Marit. Chloe soon regrets the trip, mortified by Marit's continual talk of Norwegian marriage customs in front of Roelke and concerned about her own lack of rosemaling ability. Just after the trio arrives in Decorah, Chloe finds the body of the teacher of the advanced class, the unpopular Petra Lekstrom, stuffed into an antique trunk. Roelke, a police officer, is asked to keep an eye out by the local police chief, and Chloe is also drawn into the case as other unsettling events occur. The solution to the murder rests in the past as Chloe finally puts the pieces together after a couple of scary attacks. The novel is framed with details of Norwegian history, customs, folklore, and artifacts, as well as information on rosemaling, all skillfully woven throughout the story.--O'Brien, Sue Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
All is not serene in rural Iowa when a craft instructor's corpse turns up in an antique trunk. Historian Chloe's sleuthing instincts kick in; this is her fourth cozy outing (after The Light Keeper's Legacy). (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Murder is the latest exhibit in a Norwegian folk-art museum. Together with her boyfriend, police officer Roelke McKenna, and her mother, Marit, Old World Wisconsin curator Chloe Ellefson is visiting Decorah, Iowa. She and Marit are staying with an old friend while Marit renews old friendships and teaches a class in Rosemaling, the Norwegian art of decorative painting. Chloe signs up for the beginner class to try to forge a closer bond with her mother, who's a gold medalist in Rosemaling. Roelke has tagged along to spend more time with Chloe. Their Christmas vacation plans go awry when Chloe discovers the nearly lifeless body of Petra Lekstrom in a hand-painted trunk in the Vesterheim Museum. When Petra dies, Roelke is roped into helping the local police by providing behind-the-scenes information when he's not busy with his chip-carving class. The ever-curious Chloe, who has the ability to read vibes from inanimate objects, picks up some bad ones in the museum. Since Petra was a sly, competitive and manipulative person always trying to get an advantage over her fellow painters, it's no surprise that she had more enemies than friends. Several of her original group of artists have had bad luck over the years, but a series of attacks on them now makes Chloe eager to dig into the past many of them shared at Luther College long ago. Chloe's fourth (The Light Keeper's Legacy, 2012, etc.) provides a little mystery, a little romance and a little more information about Norwegian folk art and tales.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
