Paint the Town Dead by Nancy Haddock is the second book in the “Silver Six Crafting” mystery series. Publisher: Penguin Random House, September 2016

Leslee Stanton Nix—aka “Nixy”—thought moving to small-town Lilyvale, Arkansas, would be about as thrilling as watching paint dry. But keeping up with her retired Aunt Sherry and her troublemaking housemates—collectively known as the Silver Six—has proven to be as exciting as it is exasperating.

To kick off the grand opening of their craft shop, the Handcraft Emporium, Nixy and the Silver Six invite Doralee Gordon to teach a gourd painting class. Doralee’s spirit gets squashed when her ex-husband crashes the class with his new fiancée, but things really get messy when the bride-to-be later turns up dead. Now it’s up to Nixy and the Silver Six to use their melons to find the killer—before someone else gets painted out of the picture…

I really like this book and I especially like the comfortable tone, the pacing and the easy way the story flows from scene to scene. The mystery was done nicely and I like how it was set-up to keep me reading with suspects so easily defined, it was the trail that would eventually lead to the killer and I enjoyed how the author played it perfectly in giving Nixy and the Silver Six roles that worked on their abilities to ferret out the answers. The camaraderie between the Sixers is a joy to watch and I love how Nixy is establishing her own friendship with them as well as the residents of Lilyvale, Arkansas. I especially like the blossoming relationship between Nixy and Eric. T.C. and Amber are a great bonus to an already wonderful cast of characters. This was a wonderfully enjoyable read and I can’t wait for the next book in this delightfully charming series.